There are a couple of “philosophies” I come up against with regularity in my profession – most of which I work hard to discredit.
The one that is on the top of my mind today is “I have hired people through a recruiter and they didn’t work out.” I get the point – you have paid to find what at the time looked like a great person only to have them leave your establishment for another.
There are a couple of things at play when this happens and I want to try and give a fair and detailed account of what some of the variables could be.
- Often times when a position is described to me I am not given full disclosure and everything is made to sound positive and rosy. I preach honesty to applicants (you will know that if you are a regular reader) and leading someone down the garden path only to pull the rug out from them does NOT increase retention. I believe that there is someone out there for every position and being honest from the start is the ONLY way to find them. I am not a sales person. I give the Good, Bad and Ugly about every position I work on and let the candidates make the decision whether or not they want to pursue the position.
- Hiring Managers change the plan without telling me. I spend 30 – 45 minutes with a candidates and drive home the important or key factors of a position as told to me by the client only to send a candidate (whom I believe to be totally prepared) in to an interview that takes a hard left turn leaving them and me confused and a little frustrated. Going back to the full disclosure and honesty point – this is the wrong way to recruit new candidates. I am sorry to tell you this but when I debrief with that candidate I will be honest and tell them “I don’t know what happened” and “I am as surprised as them.” Then I will tell any further candidates that I am not sure of your approach either – I have a reputation to maintain too! I just received a phone message from a candidate who was told by the client that they have not yet decided if they are promoting from within or hiring from the outside after I was engaged to “find them a manager” as they were having no luck on their own. I want to be clear here – you ARE allowed to change your mind. All I ask is that I be informed for the sake of everyone’s time and reputation.
- Just because you use a recruiter does not mean that the people will stay for the rest of their life. We recruit or FIND people. Keeping them happy and productive is 100% your responsibility. If your people are leaving that has more to do with your culture and climate than the recruiter who found them. I never “recommend” you hire any single candidate over another. I just provide you as many options as I can and let you make the decision – after all I do not have to work with them, you do! So if your people are leaving and you want to use the recruiter as a “scapegoat” go ahead, or you can look at the real problems and fix them.
- Using a recruiter as a last resort is a mistake. After you have invested $1000’s posting interviewing and getting frustrated a recruiter becomes the “last hope.” Often including a recruiter at the beginning will save you a lot of $’s. I will incur all of the advertising, post your position on my website, send through my network and save you a lot of time and money. The truth is that is what we do and our network, resources and reach is generally far longer and deeper than your might be.
- Recruiters are expensive. Well I got tired of hearing that too so I have created a very reasonable and effective option for you and even guarantee your money!
At then end of the day – keeping your people happy and productive is not the fault of the recruiter. It is your responsibility as an employer to create an environment where you staff are happy and productive. If you want to blame me – go ahead, but that won’t help your business.
how very true.