An Open Letter to Hiring Managers...

“All recruiters are cowboys…”

That is the view held by many hiring managers, and maybe you’re one of them. I’m an ex-recruiter turned hiring manager so I have experienced both sides of the relationship and I can see why both parties get frustrated with the other.

Firstly, let’s be clear, recruiters WANT to fill your job, they are incentivised to fill your job and in most cases, they intend to give you a great service in the process to keep you coming back to them.

You probably get hundreds of recruiters approaching you regularly, so there’ll be a part of you that feels like you’re doing a recruiter a favour by giving them a job to work. You know how hard they work to acquire new job requisitions so theoretically they should be overjoyed with your gift. And they are. 

However, on reviewing the job, your recruiter - either consciously or subconsciously - will score the job based on 2 things; your commitment and the “fillability” of the role. They will then prioritise it against the other jobs they’re working on accordingly.  

So the question is: Do you want to be high on their priority list or low?

Here are 7 tips for you to make sure your job is at the top of your recruiter's priority list.

1. Give your recruiter exclusivity or pay them a retainer 

This will give your recruiter confidence that you’re serious about hiring and give them the freedom to take their time to find the right candidate for you. The benefit to you is that you won’t get an unmanageable, high volume of CV’s. You won’t get the ‘maybe’ candidates that a recruiter has sent simply due to the fear that their competitor will send them and get ownership.  You will only receive the CVs of the best candidates in the market.

2. Respect your recruiter's time 

You may not want or be able to give exclusivity, and that’s fine. But, if exclusivity is not an option, then this is even more important. Contingent recruiters work on your job FOR FREE until they fill it, so I feel it’s only fair to expect mutual respect and for you to respond to them within a timely manner. If you want to avoid your recruiter constantly chasing you throughout the day, my advice is to agree on regular touchpoints to give and receive updates and feedback. I’d advise a 15-30 minute call every 2–3 days.

3. Give clear and extensive role requirements

Your recruiter will spend a huge amount of time searching for candidates so giving them clear direction on what skills and experience you need in the candidate is key.

Don’t expect them to know the technical elements of the job. They may be specialists but they’re recruiters, not experts and they actually may be nervous to admit that they don’t understand something. 

To avoid any doubt, explain the technical element of the role in layman's terms so they fully understand what they’re searching for.

Finally, be realistic. If you don’t have a budget big enough for the market then you have to reduce your expectations. You may have to upskill the candidates on some parts of the role.

4. Information is key

The more time you spend with your recruiter on the front end, the better service you’ll receive. Recruiters are storytellers, they are tasked with bringing your role to life, often delivered to passive candidates that they’re trying to headhunt. The more information they have, the better they can curate an exciting story that will resonate with the top talent.

Where possible, meet your recruiter, ideally at the office so they can get a feel for the office culture. Again, for your recruiter to portray your opportunity in the best way, bringing it to life they need to understand it.

To enable them to create sound bite hooks, give your recruiter information on the following:

o   The team – what is the structure of the team

o   Your leadership style

o   Projects they’ll work on

o   Progression opportunities

o   Company Culture

o   Why did you join/what do you love about the company?

o   Any other quirky things; team events, training, perks, remote working options

5. Good Feedback is essential

You should always look to provide detailed feedback on why you’ve selected candidates for interviews as well as why you’ve not selected others. Likewise with interview feedback, don’t hold back, give them the unvarnished truth; your recruiter will present your feedback constructively to the candidate, but again, it’s important to articulate what you like and what you don’t like.

6. Create an effective interview process

Make sure the process is appropriate for the level. I remember a leading bank proudly telling me that they had a 26-stage interview process for some of their roles - please don’t do that!

Plan the process; who needs to be part of the interview panel? How do you evaluate technical ability, cultural fit, aptitude etc. to identify the right candidate for you? Alongside this, don’t forget to sell to all candidates. You’ll naturally want to apply some pressure to establish their suitability, but you’re competing for top talent, so you need to work hard to acquire them. A great way of doing this is to sell the opportunity in the first interview to get their buy-in.

And finally, don’t offer too early. The candidate may not be ready to accept an offer even if you are ready to give one. Again, listen to your recruiter.

7. Plan properly

Work backwards from the start date back to today and plan the process. Think about the following:

o   When do you need the candidate to start?

o   What would the candidate's typical notice period be?

o   How long will the interview process be?

o   When can the recruiter commit to providing a shortlist?

o   Are there any planned holidays during the process?

o   Book interview slots out in all the interviewer’s diaries based on the above

In summary, you get out what you put in. Yes, there are bad recruiters out there but if you understand what makes a recruiter tick, then you can get what you want by incentivising them in the right way.  

If you look at any recruitment agency website you’ll see the phrase “we partner with our clients”. But a partnership is a 2-way road, so if you respect them, their time and their pressures then you can build a process and a relationship that works in harmony.

Try it, it might just work.