Lessons learned from losing a client fight after placement

Recently we lost a client right after we placed a candidate for them. I have learned some lessons from this experience.

Missing piece

The first problem that we encounter is that developers are not researching about the company they are about to interview for.

You would think “If you’re looking for a job, it's a must to research the company”. Well, that doesn’t happen as often as you think. I’m pretty sure unless I have told potential candidates they won't research the company if they’re taking an interview. Companies want to know if the candidates interviewed have some kind of passion or interest in them. When the candidate doesn’t take that step to interview it leads to a disconnect between the two.

Second thoughts

The second problem is complacency once the candidate gets hired. For instance, on one specific occasion right after we placed the developer, Monday came around and the developer said he/she was too nervous. He/she signed the offer letter, followed all of our process until officially hired, when at the last second he/she said “I don’t want to switch jobs”. This really got me thinking, did we misread any signals?

I don’t believe the developer did something wrong. It might have been that we needed to work on understanding these queues or maybe it is more about showing/transferring confidence to that person. Conversely, some companies will do that to people, they will wait until the last second to tell you that you’re not hired.

Now that I think about it, a similar situation happened to me. It was my first job at college, a Marketing job. They told me before I graduated that I had the job and that as soon as I would graduate I would start. So, I contacted them a day or two before and they didn't say anything. The position was no longer open.?

Collateral

Going back to the original scenario, the company lost a lot of contact with the developer. I don’t know exactly what they did but they didn’t make the developer comfortable. If you’re ready to hire and the start date is more than a week away, consider some type of outreach to get them excited and ready to get started with you.

Something I recall very vividly we did last year, is that we invited four of our new team members that were going to start in January to our Christmas party to make them feel welcome and already part of Awana. We like getting people involved and communicating with them before they actually start, it shows that we care.

Lessons learned

We realize that we need to do more to make our clients and candidates feel comfortable and connected. And while we regret losing the client and candidate, we are taking it as a learning experience. We use this experience to grow and innovate upon. We are committed to improving our processes to ensure that we deliver the best possible experience to all parties involved.

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Reference

Ibadzade, V. (2019). Scopio. [Image]. Retrieved from https://artist.scop.io/image/black-and-white-t-2