stjorthotic Chapter 124 Head-to-Head
Chapter 124 Head-to-Head
Chapter 124 Head-to-Head
The "High-End Recruitment Expansion Team" of Tongcheng Life Network has been officially established.
The team leader's name is Xie Xiaodong, who is in his early thirties. He used to be a human resources manager in a joint venture, but later felt that the processes in large companies were rigid, so he jumped ship to do something more practical.
The team consists of fifteen people, including veterans who have worked in the job market for five or six years, young consultants poached from several local headhunting firms, and several recent graduates who are quick-witted and willing to go the extra mile.
Lin Feng called Xie Xiaodong to his office and gave him three instructions.
First, cultivate a good relationship with the company's HR department and establish a long-term partnership.
Second, accurately identify the recruitment needs of employers, understand their talent profiles, and target your recruitment efforts accordingly.
Third, let the results speak for themselves. Allow for trial and error, but be sure to know where you went wrong.
Xie Xiaodong pondered for a whole night, and the next day he divided the fifteen people into three teams.
He personally led a team that specialized in targeting business owners who had previously recruited through "Tongcheng Life Network" and whose businesses had grown significantly, now needing more high-end talent. These individuals had a basic level of trust in Tongcheng Life Network, making them a ready-made entry point.
The second team, led by a former headhunter, was targeting technology companies and design studios in the science park and software industry base.
Team three is a mobile team, consisting of two college graduates and a few eloquent individuals, specializing in attending various industry salons.
Go to startup cafes, small exhibitions, and university job fairs to get acquainted, collect business cards, and cast a wide net.
Once the strategy was set, the action was swift.
Xie Xiaodong brought his team, but instead of just showing up with a notebook like before, he had someone design a simple questionnaire titled "Survey on Enterprise Talent Needs and Pain Points," and included a small gift.
A box of custom-made tea printed with "Tongcheng Life Network - Making Recruitment Easier". First, make an appointment by phone, saying it's "a follow-up with old customers, and at the same time, a free market survey to help you sort out your recruitment needs".
Many business owners are willing to talk to him because of their past successful collaborations.
Xie Xiaodong skillfully engaged the other party in a lively conversation: "What do you think is the most difficult aspect of recruiting right now?"
What kind of people are you most afraid of attracting?
"If there were a service that could help you verify the authenticity of a candidate's claimed project experience beforehand, would you be willing to give it a try?"
"Would you be willing to let interviewees anonymously leave a couple of honest reviews for your company to attract more suitable candidates?"
The question touched a nerve with many business owners.
Mr. Li, who owns a garment factory, previously recruited many sewing workers through local online recruitment platforms. Now that his factory has grown, he needs to hire more high-end positions. He spent a month or so looking for jobs at the job market, interviewing four or five people, but they either asked for too much money or didn't even understand the basic business. He was extremely worried.
When Xie Xiaodong offered to help screen the samples and do some background research, he immediately became interested.
"You can do this too?" Boss Li asked in surprise.
"Compared to headhunting firms, we understand local Shenzhen businesses better, offer more comprehensive services, and charge lower fees," Xie Xiaodong said frankly.
"We know the companies we've worked with very well, and our recommenders will be more responsible. You can give me the job requirements, and we'll look through our talent pool to recommend two or three suitable candidates based on your needs."
"If it works, you pay a service fee; if not, consider it making friends, no charge, and we'll use the old method again."
Mr. Li was skeptical, but he still told him his requirements.
Xie Xiaodong took notes in detail, and before leaving, he casually mentioned it again.
"By the way, Mr. Li, we recently added a new 'Company Reputation' feature to our website, allowing current employees or those who have interviewed to leave anonymous and honest feedback. Why don't you give it a try? It might resonate with truly reliable and trustworthy individuals..."
People who want to work in the long term are more interested.
Three days later, Xie Xiaodong faxed three resumes to Boss Li, each with a brief explanation pointing out the match between the person and the job requirements, as well as the job motivation they learned during their phone conversation.
One of the offers came from a woman who had worked as an accountant at a company outside the city for ten years. She wanted to move to the city and hoped that her salary would meet Boss Li's budget. Xie Xiaodong chatted with her on the phone and felt that she was a very honest person.
Mr. Li scheduled an interview and thought it went well. After a week-long trial period, Xie Xiaodong quickly got the hang of things. Mr. Li was very satisfied and proactively introduced Xie Xiaodong to Mr. Wang, the owner of a foreign trade company next door who was also struggling to find staff.
Meanwhile, the second team was expanding their business with a game company called "Spark Interactive." The company's lead programmer had been poached by a major company with a high salary, and the project was facing delays.
The boss was extremely anxious and posted job openings on Zhaopin and 51job, receiving a huge number of resumes. However, the resumes were either freshly trained newbies or "experts" with outrageous salary demands, and there were very few suitable candidates.
The second team first studied the company's games, and then, through friends in the industry, learned about their general technology stack and project challenges.
Then, the team leader asked a young person in the group who knew a bit about technology to attend a small offline technical sharing session hosted by Spark Interactive.
At the meeting, the young people not only listened but also raised two very insightful questions.
After the meeting, he chatted with the technical head of Spark Interactive, saying that he was also looking for opportunities and had heard that the company was hiring, but it was really difficult to hire people now, as there was too much unqualified people coming from the platform.
The technical lead deeply sympathized and poured out his grievances.
The young man then mentioned, "I have a friend who changed jobs through a new channel called Tongcheng Life Network. They said that it can help companies and candidates have a preliminary chat and screen out unreliable ones. It's quite efficient."
I don't know if you guys have tried it?
The next day, Xie Xiaodong called the owner of Spark Interactive. He politely said, "Hello, Mr. Zhang! This is Xie from Tongcheng.com. I heard you're urgently hiring a lead game server programmer, requiring proficiency in Go..."
Languages and distributed systems.
We just happened to meet a potentially suitable candidate who previously worked for three years at a mid-sized game company in Taiwan, where he led a team. Recently, due to family reasons, he wants to return to Shenzhen to develop his career.
I spoke with him on the phone; his fundamentals and technical approach are both excellent. If you're interested, I can arrange for him to meet with your technical lead as soon as possible. See if this can be of any help.
The owner of Spark Interactive was skeptical, but still agreed, since there was no harm in meeting him.
The interview went surprisingly smoothly, and both parties hit it off. The person started work a week later, solving their immediate problem. The boss proactively inquired about the local life website's service model and pricing.
The three teams weren't idle either. They started a sharing session at a coffee shop next to Shenzhen University. Instead of grand theories, they invited an ordinary engineer who had worked at a software company for five years and changed jobs once to talk about his practical interview experience and his real work experience at different companies.
The small café was filled with students who came to listen.
At the end, Wang Rui and Chen Jing took the opportunity to introduce the "Enterprise Edition" of Tongcheng.com, specifically mentioning the internship positions offered by some companies and the "Company Radar" that allows users to view anonymous reviews.
Several interested students surrounded the group and asked questions for a long time.
The news quickly spread within specific circles in Shenzhen.
On the "Company Recruitment" channel of the local life website, under the companies that have enabled the "Company Radar" function, various anonymous comments have gradually appeared. Although there are not many, they seem real.
Companies and job seekers who have arranged interviews through the "speed dating" feature have also begun to communicate privately in small groups.
Li Mo, the general manager of 51job's Shenzhen branch, heard the name "Tongcheng Life Network" by chance during a dinner with the HR director of a local technology company.
The director half-jokingly said, "These local platforms are quite resourceful these days. We recently hired a tester, but couldn't find one on Zhaopin.com. Instead, we found a match on a local dating website and got it done."
Li Mo's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately ordered his men to investigate when he got back.
The data quickly came up: the traffic to the "Company Recruitment" channel on the local life website had quietly tripled in the past month.
Although its total volume is still incomparable to 51job, its growth curve is very fast!
More importantly, user dwell time and delivery conversion rate are significantly higher than the industry average.
"What exactly are their company's 'radar' and 'speed dating'?" Li Mo asked, staring at the screen.
His subordinate pulled up the page for him to see. Li Mo frowned as he looked at the anonymous comments.
"Nonsense! This is turning into a BBS! What about the company's image?" But when he saw the job postings under the "Quick Match" feature that already showed "successful interview", he fell silent.
He was particularly impressed by the case of Spark Interactive Games, a company he had previously considered signing, but they complained that their process was too slow.
"Did they poach our people? This tactic—" Li Mo felt something was off.
This doesn't seem like something those factory workers would come up with.
"I heard they've formed a new team and hired some people with HR and headhunting backgrounds," the subordinate reported to his superior.
Li Mo leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head.
He originally thought that Tongcheng Life Network was just doing ground promotions in the blue-collar market and winning by sheer numbers, but he didn't expect them to extend their reach into the white-collar field.
They even resorted to this—somewhat unorthodox—method.
"Find a few of our partner companies with whom we have good relationships and put in a good word for them," Li Mo thought with a wicked motive.
"Remind them that the risks of anonymous reviews are uncontrollable and could damage the company's reputation. Also, the quality of people recruited through 'speed dating' that skips the normal screening process cannot be guaranteed. Furthermore—"
His eyes darted around: "Let's see if there's anyone we can get in touch with in their new team. Let's find out what they're really up to."
Li Mo vaguely felt that he had underestimated this opponent who had climbed up from the bottom. Lin Feng's team was no longer satisfied with blue-collar business; they started putting on shirts and trying to use a new approach to take a slice of the pie.
After 51job made its move, Xie Xiaodong quickly realized something was wrong.
First, two long-term clients who had already activated the "Company Radar" function, Mr. Li, the owner of a garment factory, and Spark Interactive Games Company, called one after the other, saying with difficulty, "Manager Xie, I think... we should turn off that feature that allows interviewees to write evaluations for us?" Mr. Li spoke vaguely on the phone, "Recently, some friends have said that this is a sensitive topic, and if someone writes something wrong, it will have a bad impact."
Xie Xiaodong was mentally prepared, but he still maintained a smile on his face.
"Mr. Li, have you heard something? The original intention of this feature is to increase transparency and attract truly talented people. We also monitor the backend, and we will handle any abusive or false information. Look at those previous comments; weren't they all quite honest?"
"It's really true—" Boss Li said dismissively, "I'm just worried about problems—oh well, we'll see."
Shortly after, Mr. Zhang from Spark Interactive also sent a message saying that they were in talks for the next round of financing, and the investors suggested that they should be more cautious about the company's employer image.
We won't be using the "Company Radar" feature for now, but the "Speed Dating" function is great, so we'll continue using it and will continue to cooperate on recruitment in the future.
Xie Xiaodong put down the phone. This was no coincidence; he vaguely guessed who was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
He didn't rush to find Lin Feng, but instead called several team leaders to a small conference room and closed the door.
"Someone's getting restless and is trying to trip us up," Xie Xiaodong said bluntly, explaining the situation.
"The attack is aimed at the company's radar," they say, suggesting this thing is risky and could damage the company's image as an employer. "Speed Dating" hasn't been a primary target yet, but it still needs to be guarded against.
The second team leader, a young man named Qin Lang who used to be a headhunter, sneered.
"Who else could it be? It must be 51job or Zhaopin.com, seeing that we've taken a bite out of their business. Big platforms love to use such big labels as 'risk' to intimidate people."
"They themselves have slow and inefficient processes, and they won't allow others to find ways to be faster and more transparent?"
The deputy captain of the team, Lao Sun, who had worked in the job market for many years, was quite calm and composed.
"Their tactic is quite ruthless. The owners of rapidly growing companies, aiming for an IPO, are most afraid of getting into trouble and care most about what others think. If they're intimidated, they'd rather not use the company than take the risk."
Everyone sighed, unable to think of a good solution.
Old Sun continued, "We need to think of a way to make this matter public and to make the bosses feel that using our products is not only risk-free but also beneficial."
Xie Xiaodong thought for a long time and said, "Old Sun is right. A straightforward explanation won't work. We need to find a different way to put it."
He thought for a moment and said, "Qin Lang, isn't your team well-connected with some HR personnel from tech companies? Have a private chat with them, sound them out, and see what they've heard."
Old Sun, you take some people and pick a few representative cases of recent successful onboarding through the "Speed Dating" and "Company Radar" features, and turn them into simple customer testimonials.
You don't need many, just three or five. Simply write down the company name, the job title, and feedback from the job seeker after they joined. The key is how much time you save and how reliable the people you hire are.
"Is the company's radar still going to be promoted?" someone asked.
"Of course we should promote it." Xie Xiaodong's eyes hardened. "Not mandatory, but by invitation only." It will only be open to clients with whom we have a deep and trusting relationship.
Furthermore, we can provide clearer guidance on the evaluation content, such as focusing only on relatively objective aspects like "interview experience," "communication feelings," and "company environment," while avoiding risky evaluations.
"In addition, we can proactively strengthen guidance. For example, we can invite some interviewees to anonymously write down their feelings about the interview process and the professionalism of the HR, which will also benefit companies in improving their recruitment," Xie Xiaodong said with a smile.