Let’s talk about recruitment in a way athletic techsperts could grasp

Triathlons...you just rock up on the day and enjoy the race???

Depending on your fitness level, you may have to train for months or years to get your fitness level up to scratch. Or, for some people who always maintain a relatively high fitness level through their general life, they just rock up on the day and have a fun race… but whether it was training or for fun, they would likely have been doing a decent amount of cycling, swimming, and running during their life.?

Here's my attempt in connecting my love for triathlons and passion for recruitment.?

Triathlon and recruitment??

Triathlons are made up of three disciplines - swimming (finding the right candidate for the role), cycling (the client interview process), and running (the offer).?

Before the race: You prepare – your training, the preparation of your gear and building of your knowledge for the day.?

How does this relate to recruitment???

You properly qualify exactly what the organisation and manager are looking for. You research the organisation and check up on any news articles on them so you’re prepped and know exactly what to look for.?

The first step: Swimming?

This takes a lot of effort and involves good training. However, this for most, is the least time-consuming part. It’s your body's warmup and a great opportunity to mentally wake up as you avoid being kicked and punched by your fellow athletes swimming around you.?

Ahh recruitment???

The wetsuit is the candidate's feeling of safety (your Batman Utility Belt) – they’ve put some feelers out there for a change but have taken no major action yet. This is your opportunity to spit on their goggles to help them clear up their vision (trust me it works).??

You’ve already put in the hard training time, building up a pool of candidates who are looking, you know exactly what they’re looking for, so you can get in touch and see if they’re interested.??

You’ll hopefully be able to take a dip into your talent pool (no pun I promise it’s the legitimate term for it…) and find the right candidates with the right goggles and swim cap for the job so things start swimmingly.??

If that’s the case, then this is the easiest part after your long training hours. However, it’s not always this easy and can take a lot of hard searching where you just feel like you're drowning in CVs, LinkedIn profiles, and database profiles, until the buoyancy of the right person takes them to the surface.?

Let that sink in.?

The next step: Cycling??

Right, now you’ve stretched your legs, taken off your wetsuit and goggles, and chucked on your cleats. Time to hop on the saddle, head down, and forearms on your aerobar for the next 40k (trust me it’s more fun than it sounds).?

Umm… recruitment???

Flat tire? A spanner in the works, yup things will go wrong during the interview process. The manager may be going on holiday, they may have way too many interviews, they may just have really bad banter.??

As a recruiter, you must consult the organisation to ensure they’re doing the best for their business and the candidate.??

You want someone to join your organisation? A candidate's experience with your organisation starts from the moment the recruiter calls them up to talk about the role.??

What can you do to optimise the process as a hiring manager??

Ensure the recruiter knows exactly what you want and ensure you streamline the interview process.??

It doesn't take a cycle-path to know that no one wants to take 5 interviews over 4 weeks (I’ve seen worse). There should be a 24-hour turnaround from a recruiter getting in touch with a candidate that’s keen on your role to setting up an interview (if they look like a good fit). Ideally, there should be a 5-day turnaround for an offer.?

Each lap of 10 or 20k is another interview, don’t keep them cycling for too long (or they’ll run out of electrolytes and Clif bars).?

What’s that, you’ve fallen off your bike at 40km an hour just before the dismount line because you didn’t even know that’s a thing? Nope, just me??

Sounds like a candidate deciding not to interview further part way through because the process is taking too long or it’s not the right fit.??

Time to re-tire.?

Finally: You RUN?

The make or break (just don't break a leg ;))– you’ve trained by running off the bike, your legs are like jelly, palms are sweaty, knees weak arms are heavy… (Machine Run Kelly won't be happy with that reference)?

This is the time to finish off all your hard work – you might be leading the pack after your swim and cycle, but if you can’t finish your run then you’ll get the racer's worst nightmare, a DNF.?

A DNF can happen.??

My first triathlon 4 years ago, I wasn’t fit enough, and my support crew had to watch in shock as I struggled through the run to finish. Sometimes you just can’t predict things and some things are just out of your control.?

But there is a lot you can control – you can train running off the bike, get your K’s done on the bike, train with similar nutrition habits to on the day and much more.?

Umm recruitment???

You can’t control if someone doesn’t accept an offer.? However, there's a lot you can do. You can fully cover all the motivations for candidates and their true reasons for changing roles.?

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me “I’m looking for a new challenge” then I’d finally be able to build by gold coin fort in my lounge.?

Bringing it back to the run, the DNF isn’t always that bad. It’s a learning experience and a growth opportunity. You learn from your mistakes, and if you come out with a glass-half-full mindset then you can do better next time.?

In the same way, as a recruiter, with an offer not accepted for whatever reason, you’ll likely take some learnings from this. And if you’ve done all you can do and wished the candidate all the best for their other offer, then you’ll maintain a good relationship with the candidate and when they look for a change in the future or a friend of theirs does, then you’ll be there first port of call.??

It’s also just a good thing to do. As a recruiter, if you were dealing with a recruiter for a role change, how would you want them to interact with you if you took another role??

So, recruitment, just like triathlons, is more complicated than meets the eye. You don’t just compete in a triathlon (David Goggin’s may say differently) in the same way, you don’t just magically get a candidate from A (your first conversation with them) to B (them on their first day in their new role).?