Why Cutting Corners and Being Cheap Ruins Your Brand And Reputation

A little preface here - We are lucky enough to have some great Clients and we are always happy to talk to potential new Clients to see if we are a good fit to help them too, but regardless of whether we work together in the future or not, hopefully this will give you some food for thought and help you with your hiring process and company growth.

There’s an old saying about service being Good, Quick and Cheap – and you can only pick two.

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Cheap and quick – it will not be good

Cheap and good - ?it won’t be quick

Quick and good, it won’t be cheap

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There are three things you can do as a Hiring Organisation that will damage your brand and reputation in the eyes of the wider Candidate world quicker than anything, and they ring very true with the above.?

1.?????? Trying to save money by continually reposting the same job repeatedly on LinkedIn. Put yourself in the shoes of a Candidate who is seeing the same job being posted again and again. What questions will they be asking themselves?

??????????????????? i.????? Why can’t they fill the role?

????????????????? ii.????? What’s wrong with the role?

???????????????? iii.????? Why is it being turned down by Candidates?

?When you do finally call a Specialist Recruiter for help, the damage has already been done – it’s the equivalent of trying to fix your boiler and then calling in a Plumber to resolve the original issue – they have to fix the original problem, and the issues that have been created since then.

No-one is saying you shouldn't try direct if the role isn't business critical - but if it doesn't work, then change the plan.??

2.?????? Try to negotiate significantly cheaper fees or try to use your own terms that are considerably more favourable to you than your Competitors in the market have agreed to, especially in a niche market. What questions will the Recruiter be asking themselves?

????????????????????? i.????? If they are cutting corners on fees already, what will their offers be like when I’ve put all the work in to find a strong Candidate, done my due diligence, manage them through the entire interview process and kept them engaged despite interest from other companies in the niche – what is their offer going to be like, and how likely am I to have wasted mine and the Candidate’s time?

???????????????????????ii.????? My job is to get the Company the right person who can solve their business challenges – it’s not just finding a CV, it’s the due diligence, the qualification and engagement, the process and offer / counter offer management, it’s allowing access to my network that I have spent hours every day building and managing for many years. If I need to give them some advice on their process to help them get the right result, how likely are they to listen to me if they seem to see me as a Provider rather than Partner?

????????????????????????iii.????? In light of the above, where should I focus my time- on this Client or others who see value in what I do, not just through their words but also their actions?

Everyone likes a bargain, but the Candidates we find will allow you to grow revenues by ￡millions, to deliver more projects for your Clients and prevent them from using your Competitors, to manage your teams so you can spend time on growing your business rather than working in it - would you really want to give that up for a couple of %??

3.?????? Trying to get away with low ball offers when the minimum expectations of the candidate have been communicated consistently through the process. You get three outcomes – neither are good!

???????????????????????????i.????? Candidate accepts as they have no other options – they feel undervalued, don’t strive for the good of the company, and think you’re cheap. They have a short tenure with you as they’ll go somewhere that will pay them – and you end up with an underperforming employee during their tenure with you. All that time spent onboarding and training them, wasted. Turbulence in the team. Back to square one with hiring, costing time and money.

????????????????????????? ii.????? Candidate declines, you come back with what they wanted in the first place, and they accept. Great right? No! Candidate is asking themselves, if they could have paid me this in the first place, why not just offer it to me anyway? Why have they tried to get me on the cheap? What else will they be cheap over in the future?

?????????????????????????iii.????? Candidate declines, you come back with a better offer, they still decline as they feel that they’ve had their time wasted, the company will be cheap and cut corners, and it’s not somewhere they want to be.

If you want to save the company money, instead think about what the Candidate will bring in terms of helping the company revenue grow by tens of thousands- growing the top line rather than shrinking the cost base by a thousand or two!

Summary

With all three of the above points, the cost to you as an Employer is significant in all of these areas:

·???????? Money – the cost of onboarding and fees, underperforming member of staff that leaves

·???????? Time – spent interviewing Candidates that won’t join, onboarding and training Employees that won’t stay

·???????? Reputation – do you want to be known in the market amongst Candidates and Suppliers as a company that does things on the cheap?

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Recruiters grade their Clients and Vacancies, and will prioritise those Clients that pay reasonable fees – not because they will get a bit more money for their work, but because those Clients make them feel valued, like a partner where there is a mutual interest in helping each other grow, and there’s a mutual respect between each other. In addition, the Recruiter will not feel that their reputation will be damaged amongst Candidates in their network that they have worked so hard to build, and that their time and effort will be valued and they will see a return on that investment.

There are of course Recruiters who aren’t the best and it does work both ways – but if you have a Recruiter who is a genuine expert in your market, listen to them – they can make all the difference to what you’re trying to achieve in your business.