I returned yesterday from the irsa Fall Conference in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The event was held at the Inns of Geneva National, adjacent to the 54 hole Geneva National Golf Course. This was a spectacular venue where 15 of irsa's 24 members gathered to share information about retained recruiting's best practices, industry trends, business trends, etc.. Members came from every corner of this continent, and from as far away as Beijing!
The thing that makes these meeting so incredibly valuable is the willingness of all of the members to share every piece of their business strategy, workflow and documentation with other members. Some of these guys have been doing this for more than 25 years. You can imagine the value I get, as someone who's been recruiting for eight years. Each of these recruiters is at the top of their profession, with many having been executives in the industries for which they now recruit. They are experts in their area of specialization and the art of recruiting. I can ask absolutely any question, and there will be several of these pros willing to help.
The format of the meetings is to start early, and spend five hours on the topics of discussion. In this case the topics ranged from "What's the single best idea I've implemented since the last meeting, and what else didn't work", to hearing Eddie Lou, a partner in OCA Ventures (a venture capital firm) talk about how recruiters can work with VC firms to help build executive leadership. The discussions are interactive and insightful. These are conversations with peers that are difficult to have in the industry.
We spend the rest of the day on the golf course, talking more recruiting and of course golf, and all the other things guys talk about when they play golf and have fun together! We rotate playing partners over the course of the weekend (generally playing at least three rounds), so that we get to know each other better.
The only alternative to an organization like irsa, is to attend the industry trade shows presented by recruiting and staffing associations like the Natinoal Association for Personnel Services (NAPS), or our local Missouri Association for Personnel and Staffing Services (MAPSS). While those events have value, and at the very least facilitate the comraderie of a profession, they take too broad a view, and are too similar to each other to have high level value. Irsa is special, I consider myself very fortunate to have been invited to join.
One of the other topics of conversation was how best to educate clients on the difference between retained and contingency recruiters, and the the additional value clients receive from the retained recruiters. I've previously written about how "Retained Recruiters add Value", and will no doubt do it again.
I'll be writing more about the discussions of the weekend in the next days. I now have to start implementing some of the ideas presented, before the real work of the day starts. I encourage you to visit the irsa website, and check out the "Insights and Resources" tab, for information on the job search, how to work with a recruiter, etc..
