Are you familiar with the term “ 4.0 Leaders”? If you are, then you understand the value of hiring such leaders in whichever niche you serve, especially in this age of the industrial revolution through artificial intelligence.
I am excited to share this episode as we have a returning guest, the Rogue Recruiter, David Perry. We recorded this episode on his birthday. And you know that it will be an episode packed with exceptional expertise and behind-the-scenes stories from 35 years in executive recruitment.
David and I touched upon relevant topics such as building strategic, long-term client relationships and the art of placing the right candidates within a company’s culture. We also covered how their project, workinsight.io, can change the current hiring landscape. Lastly, David shared his insight on what recruitment will look like and why hiring 4.0 leaders is a critical role of recruiters.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [02:09] Pool Table Analogy – David reveals the strategy in his 35-year career in executive recruitment.
- [08:02] Pointers on pre-closing deals and establishing long-term client relationships.
- [19:22] “Executive Recruiting for Dummies” – Why David writes the questions and runs the candidate interview with their clients.
- [26:06] Educating your clients on the cost of a bad hire while quantifying your added value to their organization.
- [29:00] Be inspired and don’t give up: David shares his story about his early struggles in his recruitment career.
- [32:24] What is Workinsight.io and how can it be a game changer as a matching platform for candidates and employers?
- [52:18] Teaser on David’s new book – “Revolutions Need Leaders”
- [1:00:05] David shares why they send a 27-page proposal to their clients.
- [1:07:00] Book recommendations from David and why he never stops learning from others.
Strategize Your Recruitment Like a Pool Master
Before we recorded this episode, he had recently closed around 750K in fees. I wanted to get his insights on how he can consistently deliver in the industry for 35 years.
If you are familiar with the game of pool or billiards, you will relate to David’s analogy about his strategies that keep him at the top of his game. He describes his approach, “You play pool, right? Most people and most recruiters are usually good for sinking a shot. Maybe a second one, okay, rarely a third one, yep. Rarely can someone clean the table. So this is how we think about search. We get a lot of inquiries to do work for companies… That’s like playing pool. Before we do a deal we want to look down the table and go, okay, what’s the next ball, what’s the next ball, what’s the next ball? And oftentimes we won’t take a search because we can’t see the next one.“
David elaborated on the following techniques:
- Focusing on client relationships, investing time to understand their culture and what fits in their organization. Doing so can make placing three people with one company easier than three people with three different companies.
- How to pre-close a deal through an intake call with the client via Zoom call that will lead to a face-to-face discussion.
- Running the interview questions to the candidates, with the clients on the side.
Like me, you will admire David’s tenure and expertise and how he delivers his service to his clients.
Democratizing the Job Search Process
David and I discussed their exciting website project: workinsight.io. Work Insight is a recruiting platform designed to be candidate-centric by allowing them to have a level of anonymity. The approach is inspired by dating sites, like Bumble or Tinder. The goal of the platform is to democratize recruitment – “This is designed to help people get the right role. That’s why it’s free. It’s free for recruiters to use and post. It’s free for job hunters to come and find jobs and post credentials. So we’re trying to democratize the hiring that way. This way, smaller companies who’ve got a great idea can find people and do it themselves At the same time.”
There are at least two job search frustrations that the platform can solve:
Shortening the job search process: In the US, Davide mentioned that the average job search time is 38 weeks. Workinsight.io can enable a continuous opportunity flow, which will force employers to “be smarter and fairer with the candidates that they have, because now, all of a sudden, the whole market is fluid.”
Solving the “hired for skill, fired for fit” dilemma: As David mentioned, “We’ve known for four decades hired for skill, fired for fit. If we know this doesn’t work and we know that the turnover rate stays at a steady 24%, why don’t we fix that?” The platform has an upcoming feature that matches candidates to companies based on cultural fit, aiming to address the high turnover rates caused by mismatches in company culture. This service is available for English-speaking individuals across various roles, industries, and locations.
Having a Glimpse to the Future of Recruiting
I was also fortunate to get a teaser of David’s new book “Revolutions Need Leaders” which addresses these revolutionary changes in recruitment and provides insight into the High Definition of Recruiting (HDR) methodology. David touched upon the impact of leaders like Sam Altman, whose leadership inspired loyalty and action from employees at OpenAI, exemplifying the power of what we term “4.0 leaders.” These leaders focus on team success rather than individual achievements and are not easily found through traditional recruitment methods. We discuss strategies for identifying and engaging these elusive candidates, including using LinkedIn effectively for signaling and vetting prospects.
