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My second interview in the Toronto Tech Week series is with Founder and President of ROSS, Robert Berger.

What is ROSS?
ROSS specializes in developing scalable, flexible and affordable Recruitment Process Outsourcing solutions for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) or small to medium sized units within larger organizations. For companies who hire six or more permanent and/or contract individuals in a year, our solution will help them gain access to the best talent and provide them with a significant cost savings and cash flow benefits.

How did you get into the recruiting industry?
In the late 90’s I sold my previous business and traveled to South America to learn Spanish in a school for foreigners. I then traveled around the Middle East and Eurasia. Upon returning to Toronto I was looking for new opportunities. This was 1998 when the dot-com boom was beginning, Y2K was hot, and so was IT recruiting! My best friend’s girlfriend worked at one of the large IT recruiting companies and thought that my passion for technology and entrepreneurial experience could make me a great fit for this industry. She was right! I interviewed with a few firms and ended up becoming a technology recruiter and account manager for one of the large recruiting firms. After two and a half years, having become their top producer, it was time for me to open my own firm. In 2000 I founded Pinnacle IT Force as a contingent recruitment firm. After a few years I started to develop a better recruitment process which led to the our outsourced model. After successfully testing the model with a couple of well known companies, we formally launched ROSS (Recruitment Outsourcing Solutions) just over two years ago.

I’ve often joked that you are a pimp “selling bodies”, but are all recruiters the same? What is different about ROSS?
We don’t just “sell bodies” we “rent bodies” too! Although you joke, unfortunately a lot of people do think negatively about recruitment firms. We’re aiming to raise the bar in recruitment and don’t consider ourselves a recruitment “agency” but a professional services firm. Recruiting is getting more difficult and should be more proactive than ad-hoc, reactive and transactional. It should be a well-documented, systematic process that is executed well and customized to each company’s unique needs in order to build a pipeline of talent over the long-term. Employers need to follow through on this process to prove themselves as “employers-of-choice” by treating each individual applicant with respect and honesty and providing them with timely and accurate feedback. Their interviewing process needs to be professional and in accordance with the human rights code in order to attract individuals who not only possess the right technical skill but also the right cultural fit for their environment. This is key to decrease attrition and increase retention. Our solution combines an “on-customer-site” Recruitment Solutions Manager, Competency-Based Interviews which are scored and documented for the hiring manager, a back-end research team and the integration of leading-edge technology to provide Recruitment Best Practices. These are some of the differences, but there are many others.

With so many social networking tools such as Facebook, Linkedin, aren’t they hurting the need to recruiting services, I mean isn’t everyone already connected online?
Great question. This is similar to when companies say that they have a database of resumes, access to job boards such as Workopolis and Monster, yet they still use contingency recruitment agencies and pay 20%-25% in addition to the costs of these sites. So many companies have access to this data yet rarely utilize it fully. There is often a lack of deep recruiter training within many employers and contingency firms so that these tools are not always used as well as they could be; they may just skim the surface of this information. Or, there was no mandate for detailed notes to put into the database for previously interviewed people so there’s a lot of time wasted. The social networking sites must be used, but it requires a highly skilled recruitment professional who has the time and knowledge to use these sites to maximize their effectiveness. The social networking sites are just one small part of the resourcing portion of the entire recruitment process. Furthermore, there are many talented individuals who are very busy with work and family obligations and are not as connected online. In addition to the social networking sites we have identified over fifty associations and niche sites and may use one or more of these depending on our client. Our Recruitment Solutions Manager will go to these events to network personally; there’s still not substitute for personal human contact!

In the six years in business for ROSS, what have been some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen impact Toronto’s technology industry?
The biggest change I have seen in Toronto is the tech industry going from boom to bust to boom lite. Years ago there was no end to the money given to tech companies, the extravagant parties, great organizations and events such as Spadina Bus, Gigathon and many others. Then it all came tumbling down in late 2000 and throughout 2001. For example, Spadina Bus once robust and exciting is no more. However, the last couple of years there has been a bit of a mini-boom. Toronto has many excellent technology companies and there seems to be more events with better turnouts and a more vibrant robust community. I especially see this from a recruitment perspective. Three years ago an excellent technical person could spend months without a job and few interviews. These days, I’m seeing the excellent talent with multiple opportunities and offers. I’m not seeing the ridiculously high sign-on bonuses that were common during the boom, but I have seen upward pressures of salaries and competition from employers when they find an excellent individual.

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