There have been more than a few outstanding ideas I regularly use, which I have collected from other "recruiting masters" over the decades.

One of the best yearly ritual suggestions which I continue to use since first reading about it around 2000 in Steve Finkel's book "Breakthrough" deals with yearly candidate audits.

Steve suggests to set aside a week or so each year … and contact all the previous year's Most Placeable Candidates … just in case they inadvertently wound up actually working for your client long after you were led to believe there was no interest. If you want to learn more you will have to buy Steve's book and read it for yourself.

While I have never caught a client in a candidate theft situation using this procedure, I have caught clients in attempted candidate poaching. I've learned about clandestine interviews scheduled long after "IRES" was led to believe there was no interest.

In such cases I have collected copies of the emails … and decided to save them for future "ammunition" if legal proceedings ever took place for any other reason.

If you failed to conduct year-end candidate audits last December 2008, then this April 2009, can be your "Spring Cleaning" opportunity.

Here are a few pointers to help you get started in uncovering unclaimed search projects or candidate referrals:

1. Call all of the preceding year's most placeable candidates.
   1. Find out if they ever got hired
   2. Are they now in a new management position?
   3. Does the new management position involve their own staff building & hiring (such often does)?
   4. Did they leave behind vacant jobs during their search that may still be wanting for candidates?
   5. Did they learn about new hiring you are not aware of in your industry?
2. Call each of the preceding year's client contacts.
   1. Make sure you speak to the individual hiring executive … regardless if the H.R. contract that states you should not (just make sure no one in H.R. gets wind of your conversations).
   2. Call H.R. as well - - - sometimes, although rarely … H.R. will not see you as a threat and could be a conduit to other opportunities beyond the management realm you've been dealing with.
   3. Make sure everyone that participated in a previous interview has your brochure, business card, and company presentation folder.
3. Call your "B" rated prospective clients.
   1. The ones you decided to not provide services to. Find out if their needs have increased
   2. If so, explore possibility of revising the fee agreement/working relationship...or whatever it was that made you pass on this client the first go around.
4. Track down all clients and candidates that have moved onward.
   1. If Client Manager "X" at Company "X" liked you and enjoyed working with you - - - the extra effort in tracking this person down will reward you with business opportunity at company "Y" if he or she continues to have hiring authority there.
   2. Candidates that move often move for positions of higher authority. This translates to increasing hiring authority whereby little to none may have existed in your placed candidate's previous job.
   3. Track such candidates down at least once each year.

If you have not conducted such a "Year-End" audit last December or January … April is a great time to engage in the above exercises.

You may find your business becoming more fiscally fit from the work out.