Recruitment is rotten

“Recruitment has a bad image. How do I know this? I am one of the hundred’s of thousands of recruiters who used to be the typical gun for hire: business developing and slinging candidates to make quick money. I was pretty good at my job (by the standards of my employers and peers) and thought I knew all the answers. The numbers I produced, the fact that all my KPI’s were adhered to and that my quarterly bonus was big reflected this. Right?”

“In spite of all this I was becoming more hollow because the level of service I was giving was dictated to me, not by my clients, but by my company. In the push to provide bums on seats, the need to be at the Chairman’s club for top producers or to be at the top table on the latest incentive lunch drove me. In reality I should have let my dedication to my clients drive me. So what changed my outlook?”

“I changed when I saw the dis-satisfaction in hiring accuracy and my attitude towards it. I qualified my candidates well, but there were times when I just never understood the argument against my candidate’s when they weren’t hired. I felt there had to be a better way; a way to ensure greater accuracy beyond the norm of sending a written profile and a CV. This was more for my clients benefit. Making a gut decision could potentially have a devastating cost implication and I wanted them to avoid this”

“So what is my point? Did you realise that 25% of new hires leave within 6 months of starting a job. The cost to the business is huge: recruitment costs, lost productivity, training and re-hire mean that losing an individual will cost your organisation up to 8 times basic salary (some consultancies place the figure higher at 12 times basic salary).”

“Can you overcome this? Most managers believe that the typical recruitment proposal is effective and saves on time and money. Why persist with this belief when the reality of the scenario is that a process which engages a candidate and manager for a maximum of 2, one hour face to face interviews and a 15 minute presentation hours prior to hire is ultimately flawed. Where is the understanding of the candidate’s core values, assessment of their intellect or understanding of their motivations other than the candidates say so?”

“Have you ever had a recruiter say “I will share the risk?” Ultimately the process we have designed enables us to confidently back this up and put our money where our mouth is!”