No. 9 - éric Larouche presents: Is the bad reputation of recruiters deserved?

"Ah! the Generals! They are numerous, but not good for much": Aristophanes

This famous phrase from the Greek poet Aristophanes is absolutely relevant when we talk about the recruitment market in Montreal.

It's no secret that in the recruitment industry, as an employment agency and as a company, we have a bad reputation with job seekers. But why exactly? Is it a question of skills or context?

6- Agency recruiters VS corporate recruiters

What do the two positions have in common? The salary!

You must understand one thing, dear managers, remember that you are candidates, not clients. The agency recruiter answers to his boss and to the companies that give him mandates and the corporate recruiter answers to his direct superior.

Having an HR recruiter is an "expense" that must be made profitable. The agency must make its operations profitable and the corporate recruiter must hire internally as much as possible to avoid additional costs to his company.

This creates a context where the hiring process takes forever and ends up losing its objectivity and quality.

Are you in this kind of process and have no idea what is actually going on? The other two levels have no idea either...

5- Corporate HR departments "Father Christmas

Some companies happily hand out mandates. Business? Maybe not.

I personally know of corporate HR personnel who for ONE (1) hiring mandate will have a dozen placement agencies as "partners".?

One of the key negative aspects of this is that the agency recruiters eventually figure it out... and they simply don't work on the file anymore. Think this is rare? Think again! I recently had this trick played on me, and I cut myself off.?

The relationship of trust is important. Imagine all the commotion you create, dear HR partners, when you give the same mandate to a dozen firms! Candidates are passed around and no one takes you seriously anymore. You lose the support of partners with whom you could have developed a long-term relationship. Resounding and almost certain failures.

4- Recruiters of the multitude

There are many employment agencies in Montreal, because there is a lot of business. But how many mandates can a recruiter have to fill at the same time and still be effective? 5, 10 or 15? In the industry, we say that a "high-performer" in recruitment fills 40% of the mandates obtained in a year. But most agencies don't have a clear idea of this figure, let alone follow up on it. The reality is that many recruiters have between 15 and 30 different job mandates to fill... which is impossible to manage in a professional and efficient manner. Let's face it, 15 is entirely doable for a professional, but don't ever tell me that a newbie with no work experience can handle 30 mandates...

3- Human resources (HR) and recruitment: really?

The theory is this: recruitment is a deadline and pressure industry, and it doesn't matter what you think. Deadlines are not in the nature of an HR professional, let alone the idea of 'running' to find the right person.

Recruitment is a cycle industry like sales. There are a host of factors that can slow down and poison what should be an efficient hiring process. The recruitment industry is anything but efficient right now.

A human resources department is structured to do many things, but staffing (recruiting) is certainly not headhunting. For there is a big difference between a recruiter and a headhunter...

2- The profile of agency recruiters: the taboo

There is an idea that someone with a Bachelor's degree in Human Resources is the right person to take on a headhunting role in an agency. This is the most untrue of things.?

An HR graduate is going to go into an agency to gain experience. Not to die. Employee retention rates are incredibly low and even when some of them do make it, they end up starting their own agencies (sic) or becoming hiring managers in large companies.

As a corporate HR staff, you should never give your assignments to newbies. The problem is that the available workforce has less than 2 years experience and most have no actual work experience.

1- Recruitment in Montreal: an uncompetitive and highly diluted market

In Montreal and its surroundings, there are over 500 employment agencies, government agencies (NPOs) and independents... THAT'S A LOT!

In terms of absolute numbers, that's more than in Toronto!

For those of you who like National Hockey League hockey, consider that if you go from a 32 team league to 64 the following year, your product will be greatly diluted. The same principle applies to agencies in Montreal. With a product that is already highly diluted... it's hard to find real talent when you don't know anything about it!

Conclusion :

In conclusion, dear candidates, be indulgent with recruiters or headhunters, as the context in which they live is often more of a hindrance to their success, and therefore to yours, than to themselves.

I look forward to hearing from you,

éric Larouche Adm.A.

Founding President

Larouche Raymond Firme-Conseil TI Inc.