Hello 2017 and hello to the January recruitment rush to ‘fill a role’ urgently.
Please don’t get me wrong, I love being busy. However, as I took the decision to work on an exclusive or retained basis (to protect my sanity but most importantly my soul) I’ve had to turn down opportunities to ‘bill’ based on my principles.
Yes, a recruiter with principals, you read that correctly.
We’ve had conversations with clients who we’ve met over the past year who love our different approach and the time we take to locate the perfect Fit (and not the closet match of who happens to be looking at job boards), however the exclusive or retained part is new to them. The result is, it’s been difficult to get sign off, as there’s always the urgency to get the role filled.
Part of this could be down to me, my company, our point of difference of course, but from what I can gather it’s mainly down to the way in which recruitment has ‘always been done’ and until clients instigate a change then the usual practises will stay the norm.
The 2 biggest complaints about our industry from the wider spectrum are cost and calibre of candidate.
Now these types of complaints usually go hand in hand with one another and as no client is ever going to take full responsibility for the hire (it is their final decision) then, of course, it’s the agencies fault.
Now as an aside, if clients insist on handing the role out to multiple agencies to ‘widen the net’ they’re not getting a bespoke approach and as such the holes in the net are bigger and quality candidates will slip through. This means the hiring decision is made on the best of who they’ve seen and not the best Fit out there.
Here lies the problem.
If you’re in a hurry to ‘fill a role’ then chances are you’ve set a flat fee with all your recruiters and it’s a case of first one to find someone wins. Unsurprisingly, this is going to bite you on the bottom in about 3-6 months’ time when the candidate finds out the role wasn’t what they were sold by their recruiter and you realise that your new colleague isn’t all that was promised as you made a decision based on a copy and pasted CV alongside 1 or 2 hour long interviews and your gut feeling.
If, however you’re serious about finding someone who will stay within your business and add value for the long term, then take the time to meet with a professional, let them take a proper good old fashioned brief and just like you would expect to be paid for the work you do, pay them a bit upfront to ensure you have a % of their time focussed directly on your role and you’re not a line on a white board slowly moving downwards as your role becomes ‘hard to fill’ or in real terms, another one comes in with a higher fee.
Here comes the shameless plug.
We work differently and ensure you have everything you need in advance of interviewing our candidates so you can make informed decisions based on relevant information.
Have a look here and compare this to what you currently receive.
So, my January sale comes with a money back guarantee.
If a client assigns us to a retained role and we cannot get to offer letter within 6 weeks we will return the retention fee.
We also stand by our 100% 3-month rebate after placement.
Also, as I’m still a bit groggy from all the eggnog, we’ll even split the fee and invoice you after completion of probation, how does that sound?
