I was talking with a Resourcing Manager from on of our key clients last week, and she said that something that made frustration become the order of the day. Again. I was trying to point out that she wasn’t getting the best from us because the Job Descriptions that she had sent over were generic to the point of vagueness (‘Must have strong IT Security experience with large projects’ type thing – and that was the most specific) which meant that our potential Candidate pool was so large that it was impossible to source the right Candidate, and so we weren’t really able to work them effectively.
I pointed out that in other areas of the business we are beating 4 major national recruitment companies in terms of our Ratios: CV to 1st Interview (1.4:1), 1st Interview to Offer (1.5:1) and Offer to Placement (1.1:1), and Volume of Placements (25 in Q1 versus 7 from the next best agency) and that this was solely down to our understanding of our Search Criteria, and how to sell the role to a prospective Candidate. This caused some confusion in said Resource Manager.
“But none of our other agencies do this. Why can’t you just work from the spec??” Now, I could have said several things.
I could have said: “Who the hell are you dealing with??” Or “How much time are you wasting looking at the wrong Candidates?”
Or “The spec is so vague that I could send you anyone and according to this you would interview them.” Or “Don’t you have a clue about what it is that you should be doing to help you hire for these positions??”
What I actually did was try to explain that by allowing us access to this information it would mean a more targeted approach, with better Candidates, and a swifter turn around for her. All we needed was one conversation with somebody who knew the technical aspects of the role to allow us to narrow down our Search. Apparently, this was just not something that could be entertained, as everyone is ‘too busy’.
Too busy interviewing the wrong Candidates? I thought, or too busy wading through the mess of useless CVs? Why, oh why, can Clients not be better educated about how to work with Recruitment companies? Some do it very well, and I appreciate that different agencies will require different things, but with more knowledge comes a smoother Recruitment Process, which means that Clients can get their hiring done more efficiently.
So often we see this in any number of Clients: a stressed Resourcing Manager who is doing the best they can, but who ultimately does not know enough about what they are actually hiring for to facilitate a swift and painless placement. And because of this they try to retain control of the process grabbing it with both hands and preventing anyone from getting the answers needed, which means that the people who can help (i.e. me!!) cannot.
And so the cycle goes on. I always try to let our Clients know how they can get the best out of us, and it always comes down to one thing.
We need information. Lots of it. On all sorts of things. And it might take some time (who knows? A full half hour or more – the Horror!!!!) But it will mean that we get the job done right for you.
In closing, a Recruiters job is doing 3 things: Identifying what the Client wants, identifying what the Candidate wants, and then acting to introduce them when there is a match.
If we can’t find out what the Client really wants we may as well not work the roles, as it is a strong bet that we won’t make the placement. And even if we do fill the role, for me that is just as bad as we won’t actually know why we managed it, it was just that Lady Luck was smiling that day…
