Who is Really to Blame for Bad Recruitment? Recruiters or Employers?

As strange as it might sound, many hiring managers have NO idea how to hire.?

That’s not an insult. It’s simply the case that directors of businesses (including managers), for the most part, are typically not trained in recruitment.?

They know what their business needs and they can calculate what the business can afford to invest in recruitment, but typically they don’t know how to articulate what they’re looking for in a candidate, how to source them, how to approach them, how to interview them, how to assess them, how to benchmark them, how to negotiate a contract with them, how to on-board them and how to retain them.

When it comes down to it, the recruitment process forms only a small part of their job. It’s only to be expected that their skills and experience in these areas is going to be patchy.

So, what do employers do when they need to recruit?

They call up five recruiters, give them a 15-minute brief, send them a vague job description and ask them to send through some CVs. They tell the recruiters that they will only get paid IF they take on one of their candidates.

What does the recruiter do?

They get all excited, copy and paste the job description onto their website, and search internet job boards and their database for candidates with matching keywords in their description. They do this as quickly as possible because they know that, with four other recruiters on the hunt, they have only a 20% chance of making any money.

Finally, after some frantic, haphazard searching, the recruiter sends the employer some CVs with the side note…

“These are the best candidates in the world because errrm, they’re exactly what you’re looking for”

How does the client feel?

Unhappy. They now have 80 CVs on their desk that they don’t have time to properly review. And, once they start skimming through them, they quickly realise that 95% of the CVs are irrelevant because “the stupid recruiter hasn’t understood me.”

Nevertheless, there is a vacancy to be filled. Through some rushed, far from scientific, process, five CVs from three different recruiters are selected and the candidates are called to interview.

What do the recruiters do?

They call the candidates and convince them to go for an interview because this is the “best job in the world, paying well above average and offering endless opportunities for growth.” They tell the candidates very little about the actual background and requirements of the company and the role, because they don’t really know anything about the company or the role.

What happens next?

The candidates turn up, totally unprepared for a job interview that they don’t really know too much about. The interviewer is equally unprepared because they don’t really know much about the candidate other than what’s on their exaggerated CV. After all, they’ve never been trained on how to conduct a thorough, structured interview.?

So, the interviewer makes their evaluation, initially, based on whether they like the person (do they support the same football team; do they have the same brand of smartphone; do they find them attractive or presentable) and then, latterly, on whether they think they have the right skills and experience (knowledge of markets; knowledge of products; track record of closing sales).

Ultimately, the “YES or NO” decision is based on gut feel.

Then one of two things happens…

Scenario 1: No candidates are selected.?

The client has to tell the recruiters that what they delivered just wasn’t good enough but struggles to articulate why. They reluctantly ask them to carry out the same process again, but this time,?“you’ll need to find candidates that are a closer match to what I’m looking for."?

The recruiters argue their case but ultimately accept defeat. They then have to tell their boss that the efforts they put in didn’t make any money. The boss is not happy and doesn’t want them to carry on with what is looking, increasingly, like a lot cause.?

The recruiters then have to put on a brave face and tell the candidates that they have not been successful because… well… they just haven’t. The candidates are already annoyed because the job wasn’t really as exciting as it was portrayed and, with no genuine feedback, feel that it’s all been a big waste of time.?

And they’re probably right.

Scenario 2: A candidate is selected for the job!

All the recruiters and candidates, except for one, still find themselves in?Scenario 1, but one recruiter and candidate get to enjoy a few moments of elation.

The interviewer/hiring manager tells the recruiter that they will pay them 12% of the candidate’s salary. The recruiter tells them they charge 20%.?

All hell breaks loose.?

The recruitment boss picks up the phone and tells the recruiter he’s going to have the “fear of loss” conversation with the employer. The client sticks to his guns. After three days of battling and keeping the candidate on hold they agree on 16%, but have pretty much fallen out with?each other.

And then the lottery begins…

Will the candidate stay and be a success in their new role or will things turn sour?

Around two-thirds will leave within the first 6-12 months*, and the employer will be forced to endure the recruitment process, all over again, like they’re in some horrifying time-loop movie.

Returning to square one costs the clients, by some estimates, around three times the employee’s salary, not to mention the wasted commercial downtime.

So, reverting back to the title of this post, my view is that both parties are to blame!?

For every problem – there’s a solution…

Ortus PSR provides a different kind of recruitment service.

You knew I was going to say that, of course, but I’m willing to bet you don’t know exactly WHY Ortus PSR are different.

Because it has nothing to do with being faster, cheaper, better-connected, more niche, or any of the other recruiter clichés you’re probably sick to the back teeth of hearing.

Ortus PSR are different because we…

• Start the process with a detailed job brief that includes interviewing the key stakeholders and completing behavioural testing questionnaires. This enables us to understand what you’re looking for in a candidate, not just in terms of skills and experience, but also in terms of personality, temperament and working style.
• Work on an exclusive, retained basis, giving us the time to do a thorough search of the market. This includes, potentially, headhunting candidates who are already in employment elsewhere and aren’t accessible to recruiters that rely on databases and job boards.
• Pre-assess the candidates using behavioural assessments, competency questionnaires and video interviewing. The results are provided to you via an online platform that is accessible from anywhere in the world, 24/7.
• Provide you with an interview guide, personalised to each candidate, that provides you with suggestions, questions and subjects to explore.
• Agree precise payment terms upfront so that, once you’ve selected the candidate, there are no arguments or misunderstandings that might delay the job offer.
• Offer an industry-leading, free replacement policy of up to 24 months**. We’re able to provide such a generous guarantee because approximately 96% of the candidates we place are still in the same role, 12 months later.

If you’re ready to escape the terrifying recruitment time loop…

If you’re ready to say “goodbye” to tedious arguments with pushy recruiters…

If you’re ready to ditch the scattershot, throw a bunch of recruiters at the problem and hope something sticks, approach…

If you’re ready to work with a professional recruitment firm with an award-winning system and a proven track record, then…

Please click?here?to find out more about us, or contact us at [email protected]