5 Ways Recruitment is Broken

Instinctively we know that recruitment is broken. The long-time practices & rituals of the recruitment industry in general increasingly feel outdated and ineffective. Practices including, a dozen recruiters working on the same role, candidates who get treated poorly in the midst of the current process, burnt out recruiters working on 40 roles at a time just going through the motions hoping something sticks. It may have worked in the past. But we think there’s a better way.

However, we didn’t want to just rest on our instincts or gut feelings about this process. We decided to jump in and analyze the broken parts of the recruitment process so we would have an opportunity to look at it honestly and make lasting improvements. Only through understanding and analyzing the current system could we create an innovative solution we can take into the industry’s future.

We highlight two of the five major ways recruitment is broken here. 

1) The Contingency Based Recruiting Model Rewards Bad Behaviours

The contingency-based recruitment model is the most widely used recruitment business model. This business model is something we do today because it’s what we’ve always done, but when you take a long and hard look at it, you’ll see it’s outdated and broken and drives all the wrong behaviours.

Why DO we charge a percentage of a candidate’s salary? It has nothing to do with actual hours worked on a role. Does it take more time to find someone who is 85K versus 80K? Effort has less to do with salary and more to do with the uniqueness of skill set required, employer brand, salary range being offered, etc.

Not to mention how the contingency approach focuses more on just filling the role and less on finding the right fit which leads to all the bad behaviours that everyone complains about: 

• Agencies just hurl resumes.
• Recruiters take a fat commission for a bit of admin work. 
• Recruiters don’t know anything about the job they’re recruiting for; they lie, they don’t get back to anyone.
• Recruiters are secretive about the client and the role, with candidates made to feel like a widget in a factory.

This process reinforces a very untrue but common thought, “I don’t really believe that people are my most important asset or that this part of my business is key to my success, any recruitment partner will do, I don’t really care how they are representing us in the market.” 

Business models tell us a story. The story we are telling when we work in this way is that any person will do, just fill the seat, just send the resumes. Which leads to the next problem.

2) It Focuses on Speed and Not Accuracy

It’s because of that need for speed in the contingency-based recruiting model that most companies start a search without a plan in hand. And most recruitment agencies are fine with that because they want to start sending over resumes as soon as the race begins.

You wouldn’t think of having someone build your dream home without a professional architectural drawing in hand. You should look at your open role the same way and create a blueprint before you begin hiring. 

It’s this flawed beginning in the name of speed that leads to a series of missteps along the process that ultimately lead to hiring mistakes or the inability to hire the very best people every time. Eighty percent of mistakes in the recruitment process can be avoided by becoming crystal clear on the right skills and attitudes needed for job success. Don’t skip this step.

Your plan, like our Outcome-Driven Job Description (ODJD), helps you focus on accuracy, which we’ve seen save companies more time in the long run. The ODJD describes the mission for the role and the outcomes that need to be accomplished. You can then determine the competencies that fit with both the role and your company culture.  

Don’t think it’s worth the time and effort to be more accurate in your search? Just calculate the cost of a bad hire.  

We’ve Set Out to Fix the Recruitment Process

To learn the three additional ways the traditional recruitment process is broken, and more importantly, how we’ve fixed it for small- to medium-sized businesses, just reach out to me or visit us here.