Your recruiter's shortlist is not what you wanted - it's their fault isn't it?
How good was the brief to your Consultant?
As an experienced Recruitment Specialist I have seen and heard of this happening a lot.
An employer (someone just as smart or as capable as you) runs a recruiting campaign, receive loads of applicants, but failed to get the person they really wanted. So they get a Recruitment Specialist in - and they also don't get the right person.
They need to first ask themself "was the job brief given to the Consultant the right brief?"
"Did I provide a fully qualified job brief to my Specialist Recruiter?"
A great Recruiter will be looking for clear direction in a number of areas:
1. A clear start date or clearly defined boundaries or strategies for parameter changes
Remember that your best Candidates will often be working now and will probably need to work through a notice period (most often 4 weeks). So by the time you run a campaign, interview Candidates, and make a formal job offer you will often be looking at 10-12 weeks.
If you are under pressure right now - consider a temporary employee to help bridge the gap. But be prepared to communicate reasonable contingencies so you can demostrate a well planned strategy - this helps maximise your results.
2. Has the position been formally signed off including the approval for using a third party Recruiter?
There's a big difference between Owners / Senior Management / HR signing off on a vacancy – and them signing off on a recruitment agency fee.
Don't get caught in the middle and try to negotiate a professional recruiters fee after they have delivered amazing people for you - it can limit your options in future. Recruiters love working with managers who they can trust to have their "ducks in a row".
There are two major risks in missing this critical step - you may end up not seeing the best people from the best recruiter in your market:
- If they are discounting for you after the fact are you sure you will continue to get the best service / Candidates or are the best Candidates coming to future opportunities
- They may end up working exclusively with your competitors instead of you
3. Why are there more than one agency working on this role or why are you competing with your Recruiter?
- Why should any professional gamble with their time? I'm sure you don't deliver your professional services if there is only a 20% chance of being paid!
- How can you expect to get full reporting on all activity throughout your recruitment campaign if you have diluted the recruitment management abilty across a number of providers?
Working with one knowledgeable recruitment specialist allows that recruiter to discreetly engage with employees who are not reading job advertising at all. They have the luxury of time and certainty to share your opprtunity with the best employees in that role in your market. This may also be known as the passive market.
4. Are you ready to sign a Recruiter's Terms of Trade?
Great Recruiters have transparent Terms of Trade and will confirm exactly what they will do for you and assist you to set a fair recruitment budget before they even start recruiting!
Just as you want your Recuiter sure they will get fairly paid - you also don't want to get stung with unexpected disbursements or non-disclosed expenses leading to a budget blow-out!
It's fair for both the employer and the recruiter to expect transparency.
5. Is your documentation ready?
An Expert Recruiter wants to know that you have:
- A formal position description ready for qualified applicants to review
- Written contracts templated
- Draft letters of offer
Top quality job seekers expect to review an informative job description if they are even going to consider a career move. When the Recruiter can't provide one, in the applicants mind, they feel they are just being used as a measuring stick to compare an internal job applicant seeking promotion, or even worse, that they are applying for a job that doesn't exist!
When you have met an awesome applicant be ready to move quickly. You are in a competitive employment market - failing to prepare can lead to losing motivated applicants to employers who are ready to make timely job offers!
6. Is the expected salary package within market rates?
Be prepared to have a range that allows you to manage your budget and also see the best talent you can. If you do not have clarity you run the risk of seeing:
- Under-qualified Candidates with insufficient experience
- Candidates commanding 'mega dollars'
- Great Candidates thinking your business undervalues staff
If you have a salary in mind that is below market rate, a great Consultant will speak up and share their concerns. Remember they are the Recruitment Expert and are in touch with what great employees are getting paid right now!
It's not always about the $$! Be prepared to share the full benefits to future employees that make you a great employer - examples may be:
- Health insurance
- Staff discounts
- Training and development opportunities
- Company vehicles, phones
- Tool allowances
- Social / Christmas clubs
- Extra leave benefits
- Culture
- etc etc
Right now in Manawatu there are employee's who work for fair salaries (rather than top end salaries) if the overall benefit package works.
7. Are you ready to work on interviewing and provide your Consultant timely feedback?
It's extremely frustrating for job-seekers when they apply to a role or have an interview, and days pass before you respond to your Recruiters' numerous voicemails / 5 emails before you call back with any feedback.
You will lose great applicants by doing this!
An efficient Consultant will get feedback to their applicants within the same business day - if you can't meet this timeline, communicate why not, and the timeline you can meet. Do not make it multiple days later!
If your Recruitment Specialist can't provide your best applicant with timely / regular updates, the applicant will immediately fear the worst and assume they've been unsuccessful and will focus their search elsewhere.
You, your Recruiter and your role will go straight to the bottom of their wish list and even if you eventually do come back to them, they won't be nearly as motivated / interested.
Congratulations you made a great decision to use a Specialist Recruiter!
A Specialist Recruiter will save you time as they professionally represent you and your business, as they align job applicants with the right skills, behaviours, and goals for your vacancy.
The first step is enabling them with a great job brief. From this base they can give you more options and work with you to achieve the result you deserve.
