Managing the Search Firm | workforce.com

Managing the Search Firm | workforce.com: "Managing the Search Firm

Hiring is back, and so is the uneasy relationship between workforce management executives and the search firms they use to fill open positions. High-performance partnerships are possible if the search firm is flexible and expectations are clear.
By Fay Hansen earch firms crippled by the 2001 recession are nearing full recovery as client companies resume hiring and labor markets tighten for specific occupational groups. With more employers ready to spend part of their staffing budget on outside recruiters, vendor management issues are back on the table.

'There is no rule book for clients or recruiters,' says Jeff Kaye, CEO of Kaye Bassman International Corp., a Dallas-based search firm with 80 recruiters.

To complicate matters, the search industry itself is in the middle of a substantial transformation, with the lines between retained, contingent, container and contract recruiting increasingly blurred."