HIRING MANAGER! Ask That Recruiter These 5 Questions Before Proceeding

A few months back I wrote a blog article about the questions candidates should ask recruiters every time they are approached about a new career opportunity. As I was driving back from my local farmers market this morning, it dawned on me that hiring managers have an equal responsibility to properly screen their recruitment partners and to go beyond the surface questions like, “what is your fee and what is your candidate guarantee period?” These are important, but I’d encourage you to dig deeper to unearth the quality and motivation of that recruiter. The reason why ghosting exists is because the proper steps towards due diligence are not being considered. Both sides are unfortunately engaging in transactional, “show me what you got now” type of behaviour, and they’ve forgotten that the best relationships are based on communication and trust. That first intake call between a recruiter and the hiring manager/human resources should set the tone for the future relationship and establish credibility from both sides.

These are some of the questions that I believe every HR representative or hiring authority within an organization should ask during that next call:

1. Do you have client & candidate references who can vouch for what you’ve just described to me?

• It’s typical for recruiters to ask candidates for character & employment references, but why aren’t recruiters held to the same standard by hiring authorities? Probe into that recruiters background and make sure they are as advertised. Ask for at least one client and candidate reference if possible.

2. Tell me about your value-add beyond just supplying resumes?

• Make sure they are detailed in describing how they work. You are looking for a transparent process that is collaborative and positions them as a trusted mediator throughout the entire process.

3. We have a valued partner at the moment that we’ve had reasonable success with, and they haven’t given us a reason to look elsewhere. Why should we work with you?

• Most recruiters will boast about their large databases, their experience in that particular market/industry, their team of trained recruiters, etc. Listen for an actual value proposition that benefits your business. What are they prepared to do that the other recruiters are not (other than lowering their fees)?

4. What has been your longest search to date? (If the answer is more than 6 months, the next question should be, what compelled you to stick with one search for that length of time?)

• You’re trying to uncover the resilience & character of this recruiter. Are they in it for the long-haul or will they drop you once a more fillable role comes along from another company?

5. Your fee works for us, but it’s incredibly low. Why is that the case?

• Beware of a recruiter with a fee that is under market or who is willing to lower their fee significantly just to win your business. That old saying, “you get what you pay for”, rings true in this case, so be careful not to sign that contract to what appears to be a deal too good to be true. They are not only undercutting the market, but they are devaluing the service and are likely desperate to close the deal. This is a red flag!

The key is to be informed and to ask the right questions. I’ve heard countless remarks about the poor quality of recruiters and how bad we are to deal with, but what are you as an organization doing to make sure that you partner with the right recruiter. You are willing to vet every other 3rd party organization that you work with, why not do the same with your recruitment partner?

Hiring Managers – reach out to me if you’d like to set up a 30-minute consultation around this topic.