What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
When a company is hiring a new employee, they do a number of things to evaluate the candidates’ suitability. They review resumes, they interview, they test. Almost all of these are designed to evaluate hard skills. The person’s technical ability to do the job. As a candidate for a new job, that’s almost always what gets you in the door: how well you can do the work you do.
Those technical skills, however, aren’t usually the skills that allow you to advance and progress in your career. The skills that will do that are soft skills - the less technical attributes that lead employees to be valued highly by their employers, and rewarded accordingly with opportunities to move ahead.
One clarification off the top: advancement doesn’t necessarily mean ‘ladder climbing’. Not all forms of progression are measured by more senior titles and greater numbers of direct reports. It can mean management, of course. But it can also mean more complex and interesting projects, and opportunities to take on new kinds of work.
Whatever advancement means to you, there are three types of soft skills that can be the most important in determining how far an individual will progress in their career. They’re words that are almost ubiquitous on resumes, but let’s take a closer look to see what each of them really means, and why they’re factors in one’s career progression.
● Teamwork
Leadership is a highly-touted intangible skill, but leadership can take many forms, and many of them aren’t positional in nature. On a truly effective team, everyone has an important role to play. And in many instances, the most important tasks aren’t performed by the person holding the most senior title. If ‘teamwork’ is - arguably - a more universally applicable and valuable skill set that can help you advance in your career, here’s why.
What it looks like
There are two fundamental aspects to being a good teammate. The first hearkens back to childhood: plays well with others. A good teammate is an individual who has good working relationships with the people around them, who is collegial and friendly, and whom people trust and enjoy being around. The other aspect of being a good teammate is taking an equal share of the work. Being willing to pitch in when you’re needed.
Why it matters
Quite simply, people enjoy working with good teammates, so they look for opportunities to do more of that. People who show themselves to be good team players are remembered. They get selected for projects and initiatives. They’re also the ones more likely to be promoted, since the same attributes that make for a good teammate also make for a good team leader.
● Creativity and Innovation
Not everyone is cut out to be the next Steve Jobs or Thomas Edison, true. But everyone has the potential for creative thought if they choose to foster it. Innovations don’t have to be the next ‘big thing’, either - it’s often the cumulative effect of small improvements that makes the biggest difference.
What it looks like
Creativity and innovation are really more of a mindset than a capability. They flow from thinking beyond how things are today, and asking what could be better. Looking for opportunities to improve the world - in the largest sense, or just the world immediately around you. Improvements can be found anywhere: products and services, and the processes a company has in place to make and deliver them.
Why it matters
Good ideas get noticed, and they (often) get implemented. The people who had those ideas are remembered as contributors, as people who went above and beyond, people who did more than just what was required. Those are the people who come to mind when company leaders are thinking about people to put on exciting new projects … and to promote into more senior or challenging roles.
● Communication
Most people don’t relish the thought of public speaking (in fact, some people are terrified of doing it). And that’s fine; you don’t need to be a master orator to succeed. But to move ahead in your career, the ability to communicate your ideas is critical.
What it looks like
First, let’s get one thing clear: good communication skills are not about being the ‘loudest voice in the room’. On the contrary, some of the most respected voices are those that are only heard when they have a truly valuable contribution to make. Good communication in business is having clarity of thought, and the ability to help others understand those thoughts with reasoning and rationale. When done well, communication is the ability to influence the ideas and thoughts of other people with your own.
Why it matters
There are two reasons. First, a person might have the best ideas in the world, but unless they’re able to articulate them, they’re just stuck there in their head with no way to get out. To realise your creativity and your ideas, you must first be able to communicate in such a way that others understand them. Secondly, communication is a fundamental prerequisite to building relationships, and relationships are the way things get done in business. The people selected to be at the forefront - whether that means leading teams or leading projects - are the ones who can articulate clear ideas, build strong working relationships with others, and influence those around them in a constructive way.
Getting Ahead …
You’ve likely spent a great deal of time and effort honing and refining your technical skills. Whatever work you do, you’ve invested in raising your skill level. And it’s paid off; it’s gotten you where you are. Teamwork, creativity, and communication are three critical soft skills that - with similar investment - will help take you where you want to go.
Quietly Quitting
Over the past few weeks, a new term is making the rounds in various business news publications, and on social media: ‘Quiet Quitting’. At the risk of adding to the noise, the trend appears to be going global, and at the heart of it, it’s an issue worth addressing.
What is Quiet Quitting?
Put simply, ‘quiet quitting’ is when employees decide to put the minimum required effort into their jobs, no longer taking on additional work, or putting in more time and work in, if it’s not part of their job. Sort of like a non-unionised parallel to ‘work-to-rule’. The term appears to have been coined in a video on TikTok that went viral. According to people who comment on such things, it’s happening as a response to feelings of burnout, and to ‘hustle culture’. People, they say, are feeling as though their employers have expected too much of them for too long. They’ve put greater levels of responsibility for projects, timelines and dependencies than is warranted or fair. And employees are taking a stand (albeit a quiet one). They’re not leaving, nor are they vocally complaining, they’re simply not playing along anymore.
Why is it Happening?
If the assertion at the heart of the movement is burnout, let’s unpack that claim a bit.
Looking at the employer side of the equation first, there may in fact be some well-founded frustration. The recent pace of business - particularly in technology sectors - has been brisk, to say the least. And as any employer knows, talent has been difficult to come by. Projects don’t always stop, or even slow down, to accommodate. Employees, especially those who truly care about their work, keep giving their all. When people change jobs, the workload is often just divided among those left behind. All this considered, some companies have expected a great deal, in some cases perhaps too much, from their people.
There are two environmental factors at play, however, that have contributed to this sense of burnout. Factors that are entirely out of the control of employers.
The first is generational. It’s well-recognised that work-life balance means something different to younger generations than it did to Baby Boomers and Generation X. Younger employees, generally speaking, place their work at a different level of priority in the context of their lives overall. It’s not that they don’t care about their work, or that they’re not willing to work hard. They do, and they are. But if they don’t feel that this effort is in balance with their personal lives in the long term, they will make changes. And given the supply/demand state of the market for labour, they know they’re able to make that change.
The second factor is the reality of all our lives since the spring of 2020. We all know that life has been different, and therefore more difficult. The stress of life overall has weighed more heavily on everyone, making everything feel more difficult. Including our work. That burnout that people are feeling? It likely has just as much to do with everything outside work as within it.
What Should Employers Do?
The term ‘quiet quitting’ is getting a great deal of attention at the moment (in the same way as ‘Great Resignation’ did last year), which makes it seem like a bigger issue - or at least a more widespread one - than it really is. So for most employers, there’s no need to panic.
However, as a proactive measure, it’s worth taking a beat and considering whether your expectations of employees are realistic. As we noted in the blog on attrition and retention factors, unsustainable and unrealistic expectations are one of the attrition factors that cause employees to consider making a change. Are project milestones and deliverables dependent on people routinely working longer hours, or just generally harder, than the average employee should be expected to? If that’s the case, some changes might be in order to mitigate flight risk for employees.
More than workload alone, however, ‘quiet quitting’ is a failure of communication. By definition, it’s a result of not being willing (or feeling able) to communicate dissatisfaction in any other way. It’s an outcome of not feeling heard, feeling like no one’s listening. So make sure someone’s listening. Coach managers to check in with their staff. Make it okay for people to acknowledge feeling overloaded. Can a business always change that reality immediately, or even at all? Of course not. But when the lines of communication are open, you have the opportunity to explain why.
What Should Employees Do?
If you’re an employee thinking about ‘quiet quitting’, our advice - at the risk of being glib - is … don’t. Fashionable as it may be, this move isn’t one that will help you advance in your career. To the contrary, you may end up doing long-term damage to your growth and progression.
You don’t want to become known as an employee who only puts in the minimum required effort. Colleagues of those employees typically end up shouldering the additional weight that they drop, which doesn’t endear them to anyone. Supervisors and managers will notice, as well. At the very least, you could be putting a future positive reference in jeopardy. And at worst, you could be risking termination for cause. In future interviews, it would be very difficult to defend your decision to scale back your effort (as trendy as it may appear to be at the moment).
To be clear: this is not to say that you should be willing to put in unreasonable time or effort indefinitely. That’s not fair, nor is it sustainable. It’s just that there are better ways to deal with it. If you’re feeling this way, there are three things we recommend doing instead.
First, assume positive intent. Your manager can only help if they understand what’s going on, if they have good information on which to base their decisions. Cutting off communication is counterproductive.
Second, build your case. However possible, quantify what’s happening on the ground for you, and for your colleagues. Few managers will make course corrections based on feeling and intuition; a decision requires data. Perhaps most importantly, if things have changed markedly, compare and contrast the current reality against how things were before.
Third, communicate. Speak to your manager, sharing the case you’ve built. Ask for their help and support in solving the problem, and offer to be part of the solution.
Final Thoughts
‘Quiet quitting’ is a term that will be replaced in a few months by the next buzzword. In any trend, though, there’s a kernel of value to be found. That kernel, in this case, bears repeating: where ‘quiet quitting’ happens, it is more than anything else a failure of communication. Employers, and the employees they value, should take this cue to examine their expectations, quantify the gap between reasonable and unreasonable if and where it exists, and - above all else - communicate with each other.
Why They Leave, and Why They Stay
The flip side of the recruitment coin is retention. In addition to the obvious connection (the fewer people that leave, the fewer people that must be recruited and hired to replace them), a company with high employee retention also has greater success in recruiting. In our highly-connected world, word gets out about companies that are great places to work, and those companies have more success attracting the top talent they want.
That being the case, it’s helpful to understand the reasons why people choose to stay with some employers, and why people choose to leave others. Enter McKinsey & Company, with some fresh data. They recently surveyed over 13,000 people to understand the factors currently driving employee attrition and retention. Of those respondents, 7,500 people were employed and planning to stay with their company. Almost 5,000 were employed but were planning to leave. And another 1,100 or so were ‘active quitters’ - people who had left their most recent previous employer at some point between April 2021 and April 2022.
Their findings are a valuable, data-rich source of insight into what it takes to hang onto your best employees, and to attract others like them.
Survey Says …
On the surface, some of the results bear out what most employers think of as retention factors. The top overall reason given for leaving a job was the lack of career development and advancement, with 41% of respondents naming that as the main reason they quit their last job. This won’t come as a surprise, particularly for companies in technology fields. Most employees in the knowledge sector look for opportunities to grow their skills, develop new ones, and to take on greater levels of responsibility. The second most common reason also likely tracks for most employers: inadequate total compensation was named by 36% of respondents as the reason they left. In the overheated candidates’ market of recent years, it’s sometimes seemed as though all it takes to dislodge an employee is a call from a recruiter with a higher offer elsewhere.
Going a bit deeper into the survey results, however, some of the results become a bit more surprising.
Digging Deeper
A significant number of employers are focused on creating a flexible workplace. Particularly through and in the wake of the pandemic, companies are offering hybrid or fully remote positions in some cases, and more flexible work schedules in others, in an effort to attract and retain talent. But only one out of four survey respondents cited a ‘lack of workplace flexibility’ as their primary reason for leaving their last job. This isn’t to suggest that creating a more flexible workplace isn’t worth pursuing; far from it. It suggests, however, that there are other factors that play a more significant part in the actual decision to leave.
Intriguing things happen, too, when you begin to look at the overlap that exists between some of the reasons given.
Nearly one third of respondents said that a ‘lack of meaningful work’ was the main reason they left their last job. However, for some people, that lack of meaning may stem from a lack of development and advancement opportunities. In other words, if you believe that you’ve plateaued and your career isn’t going anywhere, that can feel very much like a lack of meaning.
In a similar vein, 34% of people named ‘uncaring and uninspiring leaders’ as the reason they left their last job. A significant part of a leader’s job is to foster a sense of purpose and meaning in work. So, some of those 34% might also belong in the group looking for more meaning in their work.
There may be significant crossover between the 26% who said a lack of flexibility caused them to quit, and the 29% who feel that their employer’s expectations were unsustainable. Likewise, the 26% who felt a lack of support for health and well-being might also have been experiencing the effects of unsustainable expectations, unsupportive people, and uncaring leaders in their last jobs.
Push and Pull
The other thought-provoking breakdown in the survey results is the split between retention factors - those that cause employees to stay with their company - versus the attrition factors that make employees think about leaving. Each of the primary reasons mentioned above tend to fall on the side of ‘retention’ factors, while the related factors tend to increase the risk of attrition.
Meaningful work, for example, is a factor of retention. In other words, it is more often a reason why employees choose to stay with a company, rather than a lack thereof being the reason they would leave. However, the lack of development and advancement opportunities, and uncaring and uninspiring leaders, are factors more related to attrition.
Flexible work environments are a retention factor, whereas unsustainable expectations - one possible ‘dark side’ of the lack of flexibility - is an attrition risk. Support for health and wellbeing is a factor that supports retention, while unreasonable performance expectations, unsupportive colleagues, and uncaring and uninspiring leaders are all factors that can cause employees to look for the nearest exit.
Key Takeaways
Retention - a non-negotiable building block for successful recruitment - means putting focus on both the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors: minimising those that can cause attrition, and promoting those that keep your best employees happy and engaged in their work. To prioritise, it can be useful to consider the insights drawn from Kinsey’s large dataset.
Here are the three most important elements we see in the data.
- Provide Meaningful Work (to the extent possible). Empower leaders - by title or otherwise - with the capacity to foster a sense of meaning in the work. However, don’t overlook the fact that to some people, meaning is defined in terms of continuous development and learning, and greater levels of accountability. Finally, if you’re not compensating your people accordingly for the work, you’re at greater risk of attrition (and you’ll find it very difficult to attract others).
- Offer Adequate Flexibility (to a reasonable degree). If you’re able to offer hybrid or remote options to your employees, it’s certainly worth considering. But hybrid and remote aren't the be-all-end-all. Just as importantly, ensure that the workload for your employees is manageable, and allows them to set appropriate boundaries between work and the rest of their lives.
- Support Employees’ Health and Well-being (as much as is reasonable). Healthcare support and other formal wellness programs may be part of this. As may be the balance mentioned above. Less formal but equally important is creating a culture in which leaders and staff alike feel free to talk openly about self care and managing well-being.
With dozens of new articles and news items every day promoting creative new ways to attract and retain employees, it can be overwhelming and dizzying to narrow focus on the things that will actually produce the results you want. We hope this summary of McKinsey’s data helps you do that.
Feedback: Closing the Loop … and why being a ‘ghost’ is scary for your employer brand.
If you speak to job seekers in today’s market, one of the biggest complaints about companies is a lack of feedback, or even closure, when they’ve been unsuccessful in competing for a role. Understandably, much of this frustration stems from the feelings of rejection people feel when they’ve been passed over for an opportunity. But it’s not just emotional frustration; it’s very legitimate, to an extent. Receiving feedback allows a job seeker to understand what they might do better next time in interviews - articulating skills and strengths that didn’t come across well, for example - and can be helpful to them in targeting more appropriate roles in the future. Even if detailed feedback isn’t available, knowing that they’re not moving forward in a hiring process gives the candidate closure, allowing them to fully move on to the next opportunity. In addition to the candidate’s reasons, however, there are several reasons why paying attention to this step in the hiring process is important to the employer, too.
Why to Give Feedback
Let’s start with a reason that’s mostly altruistic. The interview process is a significant commitment of time. And yes, both employer and job seeker.make that commitment, but one could argue that it’s more significant for the candidate. Good candidates invest time and effort in researching prospective employers, and preparing for their interview. Employed candidates face the additional logistical complications of managing time away from their current job. That investment is incurred each time an interview takes place. All this considered, giving a bit of feedback - or at least closure - is simply the right thing to do. It’s a professional courtesy.
If that reason isn’t enough, though, there are more.
For companies who don’t ‘close the loop’ with candidates, there are potential considerations for their employer brand. There are a plethora of places online for employees and job seekers to share their opinions about employers. There are rating and review sites, of course, but social media generally can be a place to vent about negative experiences (or experiences that are only perceived as negative). If comments gather, the reputation of a company can suffer, which can affect that company’s ability to attract talent. The most reviled companies, in this case, are companies who simply ‘ghost’ a candidate - ceasing communication entirely after one or more interviews, never actually letting the candidate know they’re no longer under consideration.
There’s a more positive opportunity on the flip side of that coin, however. When they’re handled well, the rejection of a candidate can often lead to different outcomes in the future. Sometimes, a candidate isn’t the right fit at a certain time, but becomes the right fit at a different time, or for a different position. Even if that’s not the case, rejected candidates can be a surprisingly good source of referrals and recommendations to other candidates they know. All of this, however, depends on a rejection being handled well by the company. Letting them down gently, in other words, and in doing so leaving a good impression.
There’s another surprising benefit that clear communication with rejected candidates can produce. The reasons for passing on a candidate are (almost) always valid, but we don’t always think them through deeply. If we know that we’ll be letting a candidate know that they’re no longer under consideration, it becomes important to think critically about the decision to close the door on them as a potential hire. If we prepare to give at least some feedback to that candidate, it can be a prompt to think critically about the reasons for the decision to reject that candidate. While this may sound obvious, this clarity of thinking isn’t always present when it comes to these decisions, and that clarity can help refine what you’re looking for in successful candidates.
Hopefully, you’re convinced that putting some attention into this stage in the hiring process is a good idea for your organisation. If so, let’s turn our attention to how to do that properly.
How to Give Feedback
At the risk of being repetitive, close the loop. Do not ‘ghost’ a candidate. If someone is truly out of the running, say so. If you want to leave a great impression, do this in a personalised way, with a phone call or an email. If you use an ATS, there’s almost certainly a way to automate this. This one small step can help protect your employer brand, and create goodwill even among candidates who weren’t successful with your company. Give those candidates closure to move on.
You don’t always need to provide specific feedback to rejected candidates. In fact, the vast majority of companies don’t. According to a 2018 Talent Board survey of North American companies, almost 70% of respondents reported receiving no feedback at all, after being rejected during the screening and interviewing stages of their candidacy. While supply is evidently limited, the demand is strong. According to a LinkedIn study, 94% of candidates want feedback after interviews.
If you choose to offer feedback to rejected candidates, there are some considerations to help protect the company - both reputationally as well as legally.
● Make It Specific and Actionable
This is where the clarity of thought is helpful. Feedback that a candidate ‘wasn’t a good fit’ is neither specific nor actionable. More importantly, non-specific feedback like this can raise the risk of legal liability from the perception - deserved or not - of discriminatory hiring practices.
When preparing to give feedback, stick as closely to the original job description as possible, looking for the specific ways in which a candidates’ experience didn’t align. Then, in each case, suggest a possible path for improvement. If there was a technical skill in which the candidate fell short, for example, you would name that as the concern, and suggest that they look for ways to exercise that skill in a more advanced capacity in their current job. If the candidate’s management skills were the question, you might suggest that a year or two managing a larger cross functional team would help round out their skills.
Finally, don’t compare. If you’re moving ahead with other candidates, the people being rejected understand that you preferred other candidates over them. Hearing that the others were stronger in this skill or that experience is neither specific nor actionable.
● Make It Kind
When you’re giving someone more information about why they weren’t successful or chosen, be aware that they’re experiencing feelings of rejection and disappointment. While feedback should be factual (and specific and actionable), it can also be compassionate. Where it’s possible, consider a ‘feedback sandwich’, sharing a few things that made them a strong candidate on either side of the thing where they fell short. This isn’t ‘coddling’; it’s just as helpful for candidates to know the strengths and positive attributes a potential employer saw in them, as it is to know where they can improve.
● Make It Personal
Nobody (well, almost nobody) enjoys being the bearer of bad news. It’s difficult to have a conversation in which you know the other person may feel hurt or disappointed by what they hear. That’s why email is often the most appealing way to deliver this kind of feedback. Appealing as it may be, it’s not the best method.
A phone call is best, for several reasons. A voice conversation, person to person, is simply more human. Text in an email can’t convey compassion and encouragement in the same way your voice can. Pragmatically speaking, a phone call also leaves less chance that something in writing could be used against you, if the rejected candidate feels they’ve been discriminated against.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out: this is one of the ways in which a recruiter can really help support your employer brand. For better or worse, we have a lot of experience communicating this kind of feedback to candidates. We can help craft the message in such a way as to help the candidate see that the fit wasn’t a good one, protecting the positive impression you want to leave behind. (Naturally, it’s also important to get feedback about candidates to us in a timely manner, so we can support you in this way.)
In Closing …
It’s possible to deliver feedback to candidates in a way that is helpful to them, and protects your reputation and brand as an employer of choice. Whether through a recruiter or directly, though, always close the loop with candidates who have taken the time to interview with you. Offer feedback when you can. Just don’t be a ghost.
The R Word
Throughout most of our collective recent memory, talent shortages have been the watchword. With the exception of a relatively mild – and perhaps surprisingly short-lived – slump in the early days of the pandemic, most companies have felt a pinch when it comes to finding and hiring the people they need.
While nobody (at least nobody we know) has a functional crystal ball, there are an increasing number of signs of a slowdown on the horizon. People are using the ‘R’ word – recession – more often.
Since the last major recession is now over ten years behind us, there are many people – job seekers, and those in recruitment – who haven’t lived and worked through a recession. For those of us who remember the last one, our memories have faded with time. That being the case, it’s worth a look at some of the things that might be expected if there are economic headwinds ahead, and what to do to mitigate their effect.
Layoffs May Happen
We’ll start with the hardest truth: if there is a recession, more employees might find themselves unexpectedly on the market as companies make the difficult decision to downsize staff.
For anyone on the employer’s side of the table, this can be the most difficult business decision to make, and even more so to communicate to the affected employee. If you’re involved in the decision, this is a good time to get creative. There is some research suggesting that companies who find other ways to deal with downturns do better in the long run. If layoffs are necessary, however, it’s important to be as compassionate as possible. If there is a recession at all, it won’t last forever, and in time, companies will once again be fighting to hire the best. When the rebound comes, the companies who will win that fight will be those that did everything they could to avoid letting employees go, and where they couldn’t, treated those affected employees with respect and compassion. If this happens in your company, remember that in addition to more formal outplacement services, recruitment partners can be one resource to offer employees for support and assistance in a job search.
For employees, possibly the most important thing to remember is that being made redundant isn’t the end of a career. It’s only the end of one part of it. There are many cases, in fact, where people have looked back on a layoff as the best thing that happened to them. In these cases, it led to a new opportunity that took them further than they could ever have gone with the company who let them go. Of course, it’s very difficult to remember this (or at least feel it) at the moment. That’s why this is a great time to focus on the value you bring to your job and to your employer. Think about it, make notes to yourself about it, quantify it. Look back for emails praising your performance, and thanking you for jobs well done. This serves two purposes. First of all, it’s important to maintain confidence in uncertain times, and there’s no better way to do that than to remind yourself how good you actually are. And second, being able to understand and articulate your value is a good way to protect the job security you have now, and to compete for your next job if necessary.
More Candidates, More Competition
The flip side of the layoff coin, of course, is that in a recession, there are more candidates on the market looking for work. This has implications for both the job seeker and the employer.
For job seekers, there’s almost never an absence of competition. In a slowed labour market, however, the nature of that competition changes. There is the possibility of going up against a greater number of candidates, of course. But the other candidates might also have different experience (if more experienced people find themselves on the market), or have different compensation expectations than they’ve had in a more heated market. This is why taking time now to focus on your value as an employee is important. Recruiters can help with this – we’ll talk more about that in a moment.
For employers who have become accustomed to having few candidates for vacancies, a recession would bring a change to that, too. A downturn could mean a significant increase in the number of applicants, an increase that might not necessarily reflect an increase in the number of qualified applicants. While most companies see the value in working with recruitment firms in a tight market for talent, smart companies also see the benefits of continuing to work with recruiters in a slowdown. Recruiters can help manage the volume of applicants, allowing you to focus on other responsibilities, while also protecting your employer brand by keeping the lines of communication open with potential future candidates. One final note for employers: rightly or wrongly, in an overheated employment market, we can develop preconceived ideas about active versus passive candidates. Be aware that these biases may exist, and ensure your team is ready to assess active – perhaps unemployed – candidates in the same way as passive or recruited candidates.
What to Do Now
Whether you think of yourself more as a job seeker or an employer, the most important thing to do right now is ... keep calm. There are a great many moving pieces right now in the world, and it’s understandable that there’s some uncertainty and caution with respect to the economic future. But a recession can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t let the headlines stop you from investing in yourself as an individual, and in your company’s future.
As employers, there are a few things you can do to ensure that you’re well-positioned for whatever is ahead. Over the past few years, to keep up with demand, you may have found yourself working with a larger number of recruitment firms. In the ways mentioned above, now is a great time to deepen relationships with a smaller number of those partners. Lean on them for the support they can offer you, and – if the pace slows – use that time to build a stronger foundation and partnership with them. Additionally, this may be the right time to take another look at your hiring processes, and iron out any wrinkles that could hold you back in the future. It’s tough to do that when the pace of hiring is what we’ve seen over the past few years. If the pace becomes more reasonable, it allows you to look at each stage in the process and streamline it so that it’s as efficient as it can be when we’re at full speed again.
If you’re reading this more from the perspective of an employee (or a possible job seeker), remember that even if there is a recession, job changes still happen. Companies still hire when the market slows, so don’t shut the doors to opportunity. On the contrary, this is a good time to keep your finger on the pulse of your network. If you’re on LinkedIn, update your profile and give it a polish, and – if time allows – dip your toe into relevant groups and discussions to stay visible. Touch base with recruiters who’ve been in contact with you over the past few years. Even if you’re not actively looking, let them know you’re open to staying in touch. This is also a time to ‘sharpen the saw’; to get your tools in shape before you need them. Take a fresh look at your resume, and make sure it represents you the way you want it to. Interviewing is a learned skill that improves with practice, and speculative or informational interviews are a great way to do that. The latter two are ways that recruiters in your network can be of help with – another good reason to keep those connections fresh.
Key Takeaways
Nobody knows for certain what the future holds – economic or otherwise. Yes, there has been some widely-publicized bad news (in some corners of the tech sector in particular), but the chatter about the possibility of broader recession may be premature.
So first, don’t panic. Don’t allow the daily headlines to pull your thinking too far in any one direction.
Then, in the meantime, bolster the foundations. As an employee, take time to understand your value proposition, make sure the ways you communicate that value are in tip-top shape, and keep your network strong and active. As an employer, think about the strategies you’d put in place to mitigate the effects of a possible slowdown, to ensure that if there is one, your employer brand emerges stronger than ever. The best part? Doing these things is beneficial, no matter the economic climate. So if the doomsayers are wrong – as they often are – you’ll still be in a stronger position than if you hadn’t done a thing.
5 Ways to Keep Your Recruitment Consultancy Working at their Best
Recruiting is difficult, we all know that. Naturally then, it can make a lot of sense for a company to engage outside assistance and support from a recruitment consultancy. These firms work hard to bring the best candidates forward for your open positions, helping you hire the talent you need.
There are several misconceptions out there about how to best work with these firms, though, so we’ve prepared this helpful article to dispel some of those misconceptions. Below are five ways you can make sure your recruitment consultancy is working at their best.
Keep Them on their Toes
If you really want your firm to be working their hardest, the keyword is competition. If you treat them as a partner to your business, there’s just too great a chance they’ll become lazy and complacent.
It’s important, then, to engage as many firms as possible for each vacancy. Sure, there’s a chance that they’ll trip over each other in their efforts, talking to some of the same candidates over and over again. That’s fine, it will remind them that they need to work a bit harder than the others. And in any case, it’s a very small price to pay for the possibility that one of them might find a candidate that the others don’t.
Speaking of finding candidates, don’t let up on your own recruitment efforts, either! Make sure your internal staff are turning over every stone in their own network in search of qualified candidates for those same vacancies. Sometimes, you can beat the recruiters at their own game – finding the right candidate before them so you don’t have to pay them anything. What a great way to save on your budget! And the recruiters? They’ll realise that they’ll just have to work a bit harder and faster next time.
Keep Them at a Distance
On a somewhat related note, it’s helpful to keep recruitment firms mindful of their place in the world, keeping them at arm’s length from your business. You don’t want to let them get too close, or they may start acting like a partner rather than a vendor.
One great way of creating this barrier is to ensure there’s never any direct communication between the recruiter and the hiring manager, or any of the other staff that the vacant position would interact with. No matter what anyone says, recruiters don’t really need to get a firsthand sense for personalities or management styles. That sort of thing isn’t helpful at all when assessing a candidate’s fit for a position. Similarly, there’s never a good reason to invite a recruiter to visit your workplace; anything they would need to know about the culture and environment, they can get from you or from your website.
Don’t Show Your Cards
Information, as the saying goes, is power. You certainly don’t want to give a recruiter too much power, so don’t give them too much information.
You can put this strategy in place right at the very beginning of a search assignment. Share the basics about the position with the recruiter, of course, but make sure to hold a few key pieces of information back. If you’ve got a bit of flexibility on the salary range, or if some of the candidate attributes are ‘nice-to-haves’ rather than ‘must-haves’, there’s really no need for them to know that. Maybe there’s a possibility for the new hire to be promoted fairly quickly because their manager is moving up, but that’ll just make for a great surprise when it happens. Oh, and don’t just withhold the positive things, either. If there have been some challenging dynamics on the team, perhaps some turnover, you’d certainly never want to let on about things like that.
Later in the hiring process, when candidates are being interviewed, you’ll almost certainly have recruiters asking for feedback on the candidates they’ve put forward. They’ll ask all sorts of questions: why you liked this one, and what specifically you didn’t like about that one. How pushy! All the recruiter needs to know is whether their candidate will be coming back for another interview or not. Anything else, frankly, is just nobody’s business but your own, and a distraction from their work.
Play Hard to Get
A recruiter should always understand and appreciate how busy you are, and one way to accomplish this is to make sure that it’s as difficult as possible to reach you. That’s getting tougher, in this hyper-connected world that makes it possible to contact you by phone, email, and even text messages. A good rule of thumb is to let at least one full business day pass before returning one of their messages; two days is even better. If the recruiter follows a message with another one before you’ve gotten back to them, you can feel free to start the count again. How else will they learn patience?
This becomes doubly important when it comes to scheduling interviews with candidates. Now, there are two people who must understand how busy your schedule is, so it becomes even more important to show how limited your availability is. If there’s an interview to be scheduled, for example, never provide more than one possible interview time for any given work week. Naturally, the more people involved in the interview, the more complex this process should become, but the calculation is simple. If there are two interviewers, there should only be one available time slot offered for any given two-week period. Three weeks for three interviewers, and so forth.
Make Them Work for It
Although we talk about recruitment as being complex and difficult, all recruitment consultants are really doing are finding people for you to interview and hire. That being the case, it’s understood – even expected! – that the process shouldn’t be an easy one.
A good first step is to make your hiring process as long and cumbersome as possible. Arrange for there to be as many interviews as you can. Six is a good number to start with, but in some cases, eight or even ten interviews isn’t out of the question. You’ll almost certainly have candidates drop out of the process, either because they’re not willing to interview that many times (the nerve!), or because they’ve accepted an offer from another company. Your recruitment consultant will understand that this is natural; it’s all part of the selection process.
Of course, interviews aren’t the only way to keep your recruiter and their candidates hopping. There are any number of tests and assessments that can be assigned at any stage of the hiring process, whether they’re directly related to the job, or only barely. It can be especially instructive to assign lengthy and challenging tests very early on, even before a first interview. If a candidate isn’t willing to participate, to devote a few hours to the hiring process before they’ve come in for an interview, how committed are they, really? This is a fantastic way of weeding out people who probably weren’t that interested anyway.
Naturally, according to the ‘don’t show your cards’ principle as outlined above, you won’t tell the recruiter ahead of time how many interviews you’re planning for, or what sorts of tests and assessments you’ll be assigning. They’ll find out when they need to know.
Of course, at some point in this process, you’ll reach the final stages with a candidate who would be a great fit for the job. Someone who has all the experience and skills you’re looking for, who would work well with the manager and the rest of the team, and whose salary expectations are a match. It’s very tempting at this point for hiring companies to become singularly focused on that one candidate and jump right to extending an offer. Don’t let this happen to you – you never know who else might be out there!
No matter how excellent the candidate you’re considering hiring, and no matter how many candidates your recruitment consultancy has presented, always ask to see just a few more. Your recruiter will appreciate your diligence, and will enjoy the challenge. And naturally, the candidate you could hire will wait for you to make a final decision. At least, they will if they really wanted to work for your company to begin with.
Final Thoughts
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this bit of satirical fun, and that you’ve had a few smiles along the way. The advice above is, of course, everything that a company shouldn’t do when working with a recruitment consultancy. Maybe we missed a few, though. What’s your best piece of (bad) advice?
A Fine Balance
There was a time - not so long ago in the grand scheme of things - when you had no choice but to leave work at work. You departed from your office at the end of the day, leaving your office phone on the desk, and for all but perhaps a briefcase of papers, there your work stayed until the start of the next day. There was a fixed boundary between your life at work and at home. Over time, things changed.
What Happened to Balance?
A series of evolving technologies chipped away at that boundary. Pagers, then cell phones, then smartphones made us more available outside regular work hours. Then came the pandemic. More people began working from home (all or part of the time), and many of those people are continuing to do so indefinitely. That’s a good thing in many ways, but by definition, it blurs the boundaries between work and home life, or eliminates them altogether.
Several decades ago, if an employee spent 80 hours - or more - every week at the office, it was difficult to overlook. Someone, either at work or at home, would usually bring that level of overwork to their attention. Like the metaphorical frog in boiling water, it’s easier today than ever before to slip into a lifestyle that is chronically imbalanced without noticing. And even if you don’t reach the level of actual burnout, you simply can’t sustain that over time. The mind and body both need rest, and rest means time away from work.
One quick aside: this kind of imbalance is different from the normal pressure of a demanding job, and the requirement we all have sometimes to be available outside regular hours. This is common, almost universal; it just shouldn’t be the norm. 24/7 availability should be the exception, not the rule.
How it Happens, and What to Do When it Does
Problem 1: No Physical Separation
If you do part of your work at home, is your work literally ‘in your face’? This doesn’t just affect people who officially work remotely, either all or part of the time. It can just as easily affect people who work in an office during the day but bring their computer and other materials home in the evening and over the weekend. If your workspace is shoehorned into your living space, it can become too easy - in the evening, or perhaps over the weekend - to just pop open the laptop to check out what’s going on. Even if you don’t truly engage in work, though, the physical cue pulls your thoughts into your work (especially if you’re the kind of person who enjoys and cares about your job). Your mind doesn’t get the opportunity to distance itself from the daily grind.
The Fix
In a perfect world, if you work at home, that work would be done in a totally separate space - a home office, apart from your living area. The world is far from perfect, however. If it’s not possible to do your work in a completely separate space, make physical changes that replicate that. Don’t leave your computer sitting on the dining room table; put it away. If you’ve got files and papers spread out on a table, gather them up and put them in your bag. In short, for the time you’re not working, keep your work out of sight … and therefore out of mind.
Problem 2: No Time Boundaries
When everyone went to an office to do their work, it happened during specific hours by default. When our work began to travel more readily back and forth with us, the boundaries between work hours and off hours began to blur. Given the current state of work, drawing the delineation between work time and time off has to be intentional and deliberate.
The Fix
Maintain office hours. Remind yourself that if you had to commute to an office, you’d arrive at a certain time and leave at a certain time, and - as much as you can - mirror that. If you find that you’re tempted to start work earlier in the morning (without taking some compensating time for yourself later in the day), create a healthy morning routine instead: reading, meditating, going for a walk. If you find yourself working into the evening, set timers or alarms to remind you that it’s time to shut down. And then do it.
Problem 3: Constant Connection
Many of us carry phones to read and respond to our business email. For the sake of convenience, a lot of us also choose to access our personal email accounts on those devices as well. Increasingly, we text with our colleagues in the same way as with our friends. Our well-meaning devices pepper us with (helpful?) notifications day and night, but they don’t differentiate between work and not-work. As a result, our work and personal lives are enmeshed - the technology equivalent of having your work spread out on the kitchen table at all times. This doesn’t allow our brain the ability it needs to fully disconnect.
The Fix
If you are using one device for both work and personal use, use the settings to help. Hide work emails when you’re off. Mute texts from colleagues, if you’re getting non-urgent work-related texts through the evening and over the weekend. It’s a drastic step, but if you recognize signs that this constant connection is problematic for you, consider using two devices. Technology gives you the power to choose to be as connected as you need and want to be; use that same power to be as disconnected as you need to be.
General Balance
In addition to dealing with these three specific challenges, there are other things you can do on a regular basis to make sure you’re maintaining a healthy balance of your life and work.
- Examine the range of activities in your life. In addition to work, it might also be important to have time with family or friends, to pursue hobbies you enjoy, and to get some physical activity as well. Are you making time for the things that recharge you?
- Take your paid time off. All of it.
- Take sick days when you need them. And when you take them, actually take them. Whether you work from home, or just take work home with you, it’s become easier to keep doing work when you’re under the weather. Then, more than ever, your body and brain need you to give yourself a break. Listen to them.
- Consider your mental health as much of a priority as your physical health. A sick day might be just as important for one as for the other.
For Leaders
All of the above applies equally to people who have no direct reports as it does to those who have dozens of people reporting to them. However, if you’re in a leadership position, you have a special kind of responsibility.
It begins with the fact that you’re a role model. Your people will adopt the behaviors they see you demonstrating. Are you sending or replying to non-essential emails in the evening and over the weekend? Are you taking vacation time, but at the same time letting everyone know how they can reach you? Your people notice.
As a leader, you should also be checking in with your team on the aspects above. Ask how they’re feeling, how they maintain balance. Ask what they’re doing to maintain their physical and mental well-being. Asking questions like this in one-on-one meetings is perfectly fine, but also consider the message it sends when you add this as an agenda item for team meetings. Placing it alongside the other agenda items underscores its importance.
If you’ve read this far, I trust that you know as a leader that this isn’t just for ‘fluffy’ feel-good reasons, but I’ll spell it out regardless. There are two business reasons why maintaining balance - in yourself and for your team - is important. First, someone whose work and life are imbalanced might perform at an extraordinary rate … but only in the short term. No one can sustain this in the long term. Someone who tries is simply sacrificing long term performance for short term gain. Secondly - and perhaps even more importantly - employees want to work for leaders who care about them as people. Just asking these questions shows that you’re concerned for them, not just for the results they produce. Doing this will improve your retention rates, and your ability to recruit the best talent.
Recruiters and You: How To Make a Great Partnership Work!
Whether you’re in the market for a job (actively or otherwise), or a company hoping to hire great people, working with a recruiter can be an important piece of the puzzle. In one of my recent blogs, I talked about how to select a good partner if you’re a company looking for assistance with your recruiting. But what happens then?
Just as with any other professional, the way in which you work with a recruiter can lead to either a great experience … or one that’s not so great. Below, you’ll find some tips for working effectively with recruiters, to help make the experience as good as it can be. And yes, this may seem self-serving, but a great working relationship really is mutually beneficial. Whether working with me or one of my industry colleagues, I want you to have the best experience possible.
A Partnership Approach
A great working relationship starts with a mindset of partnership. Partners look for ways to make each other's lives easier. I try to do that, for my clients and also for the candidates I represent. And of course, I appreciate it when they do the same for me.
For job seekers, this means simple things like making sure your resume is easy for me to organise and send to clients. Save documents in common file types, like .doc and .pdf, and include your name in the filename. Be as accommodating as you can when it comes to scheduling interviews. I know you’re busy, but coordinating multiple calendars is a tricky part of my work, and I promise I’m not trying to make it difficult for you. Following up with me for updates is okay, but not too often. Remember that you’re one of many people I’m trying to keep up to date. I promise that if I have news for you, I’ll get in touch. One last thing: when you’re in the business of people, as I am, connections - referrals to people looking for a new challenge, or looking for new employees - are always appreciated.
If you’re an employer working with a recruiter, you may have found that we ask a lot of very detailed questions. This helps us define the role, giving us the best chance of a successful outcome. So be patient with our questions, and as detailed as you can with your answers. More information is always better than less. Similarly, be open to feedback I might offer. My work in the marketplace gives me a broad perspective, a perspective that allows me to offer insights and information on things like compensation ranges, and labour market trends. I’ll close by saying that there are some people out there - no one reading this, I’m sure - that behave as if they’re competing with recruiters. Working with your recruiter, rather than against them, will produce a much better result.
Communication and Responsiveness
Things can move very quickly in the middle of a hiring process, especially when it comes to interviews and offers (and especially given today’s market conditions). My work puts me square in the midst of that flurry of activity, doing my best to juggle schedules and information between any number of people. Whether you’re hiring or being hired, open lines of communication and quick responses help me to help you.
Be as available as you can - by phone, email, or text - and respond as quickly as you can when you’re not available. Whether we’re nailing down a time and place for an interview, clarifying an important piece of information, or getting an extra question answered, being as responsive as possible will make all our lives easier.
Transparency and Honesty
When I’m representing you as a candidate, the more I know, the better I can help you. Your compensation range, for example: what are you hoping for, and what is your bottom line? Are there things just as important - or more so - than salary? Perhaps there’s something in your work history that you’re concerned about. Don’t hide it; tell me and we can talk through how to handle it. If you’ve gone to an interview I’ve set up, be honest and open with me about how it went, and about your interest level. If something changes midstream - meaning that you may not take a position we’ve been talking about - please don’t keep it from me. I’d prefer to get bad news earlier, rather than a surprise later.
This kind of transparency is just as important on the client side; again, the more I know, the better I can help. If a candidate I’ve presented isn’t the right fit, it’s not going to hurt my feelings to hear that, it’s going to help me be clearer about the kind of candidate who would be. Letting me know who’s in and out of the running promptly lets me pass that on to the candidates. Being the bearer of bad news isn’t fun, but it’s a big part of my role, and it protects your employer brand - and mine, too. Things often change during a hiring process - people change, expectations change, delays happen. When and if these kinds of changes happen, the sooner I know, the sooner I can adapt and provide the best support to you.
Come to the table as a partner, be as responsive as you can, and as open and transparent as possible. I’ll do the same, of course, and - to paraphrase Casablanca’s Rick - this could be the beginning of a beautiful working relationship.
Dealing with Rejection: What to Do When You’re the Runner-Up
At some point in your life as a job-seeker, no matter how amazing the skills or experience you bring to the table, there will almost certainly come a time when you’re not the successful candidate. You’ll get an email or phone call with the bad news that the company you’ve been interviewing with is moving ahead with someone else.
Rejection is hard even in the best of circumstances, and handling it well is really difficult. Particularly so if you’ve become emotionally invested in the job you were interviewing for. It’s quite natural as interviews progress to start imagining what the new job will be like, picturing ourselves in the offices, working with the people we’re meeting. We can become very attached to that imagined future. When you learn that you aren’t the successful candidate, it can feel like the rug was just pulled out from under you.
It may feel like your professional capabilities are being called into question, that your experience is less valuable; you might even feel that you’ve come across in your interviews as less personally likeable than the other person (all of this complicated by the fact that you don’t usually know anything about the other candidates). In reality, it’s almost certain that none of these things are true. In any competition for a job where there are multiple candidates, only one can be chosen. That choice is often quite difficult for the people making the decision, and it’s often a very, very close call. You wouldn’t have progressed as far as you did if you weren’t skilled, with good experience, and weren’t likeable.
That having been said, no matter what emotions you might be feeling (or what choice words you might really want to say to the person delivering the news), it’s vitally important for you to respond to this bad news professionally, and with decorum. To avoid shooting the messenger, in other words. Here’s how.
First, take a moment.
Before doing anything else, you’ve got to deal with the emotions you’re feeling. It’s perfectly natural to feel anger, hurt, sadness, even envy of the person or people moving forward. Allow yourself to feel what you feel. Force yourself to wait to respond. This is much easier if you’ve received the bad news by email (in which case you only need to resist the temptation to reply right away). It’s more difficult if you’re getting the bad news by phone. If this happens, it’s best to simply say, “I’m sorry to hear that, but thank you for letting me know,” and follow up with a lengthier response afterwards (more on that below).
Whichever the case, give yourself at least an hour or two, perhaps the rest of the day, to absorb the news before responding directly.
Next, reflect on the situation.
There are two parts to this self-reflection. The first is to focus objectively on the bigger picture, to apply reason to the situation. There may have been a very good reason (or several) why the company decided that you weren’t the best fit for the job. In any job, there are many factors that make for a good fit. Some relate to technical ability, others are about how well someone might work with the rest of their team, or their manager. The factors that make a person a poor fit for a specific job don’t mean they’re a poor candidate overall. It’s like a puzzle: every piece fits perfectly somewhere. Trying to force it to fit somewhere else never ends well, for the piece or the puzzle. If the company thinks another candidate should be hired, it may be because they saw factors that would have made you miserable in the job, if you’d been hired. In other words, you may just have dodged a bullet!
The second part of this reflection is a bit of self-coaching. In retrospect, was there anything you could have done differently? In the last interviews, did you answer the questions as well as you could have? Did you keep doing your research, showing sincere interest and initiative? Did you make it clear you were interested in the job? None of this reflection should be punitive; it’s not about making yourself feel worse for things you could have done differently. This is about refining and honing your interviewing skills, so you can take lessons learned into the way you compete for the next job.
Then, respond professionally.
When you respond to a rejection, whether by email or phone, brief is best. There are really only three things to be said. First, it’s perfectly fine to express your disappointment, to say that you were very interested in the job, and that you’re sorry you aren’t being considered. Second, use a positive tone (again, no matter how you might really feel), perhaps wishing the company the best with the candidate they select. And third (assuming that this is true), let them know that if things change, you’re open to being considered for this position or a different one. You’d be surprised how often unsuccessful candidates for one position go on to become successful candidates for another spot with the same company. This is one reason it doesn’t pay to burn bridges.
Ask for feedback
It’s good practice to ask for any feedback the company might offer. You won’t always receive it, but it never hurts to ask. And when you do hear back, you might hear something that helps you refine your target list of companies, identify a skill-development opportunity, or perhaps even improve something about your interviewing technique.
Finally, move on.
There’s no way around it: if you’ve invested time and emotional energy in the prospect of a new job, imagining it in the ways mentioned above, it’s difficult to move on. At the start, it may feel like you’ll never find another job as good as the one you were interviewing for. It also might feel futile - as if since you weren’t successful with this one, you’ll never be successful landing a new job. Neither is true. You will find prospective jobs that appeal to you just as much, and you will be successful at landing one. You just need to move ahead.
The best way to start letting one thing go is to find something else to latch onto. You’ll find that the more ‘irons in the fire’, the more activity you’ve got underway, the more optimistic and hopeful you’ll feel. So, after sending your response to the company who rejected you, prepare and submit a new application or two. Channel your energy into a future focus, and you will feel better.
Choosing the Right Partner
Choosing the right recruitment agency to work with is a critical business decision. Now more so than ever. Recruiting is more difficult now than it has been, in recent memory at least. You need the right talent on your team, and that starts with the right partner helping you to identify and attract them. But it’s more than just that. The firm you choose are your ‘ambassadors’ - they’re the ones carrying your employer brand to the talent you’re hoping to hire. The wrong choice in a partner can do real harm.
The recruiting industry is a competitive and crowded one. With so many options, how can you be sure you’re choosing the right one? Below, you’ll find five key points to consider, and some ways to determine whether the firm you’re considering is a fit.
Structure
There are several ways in which recruitment firms differ structurally from each other. Some - especially executive search firms - work on a retained basis. Many firms work on a strictly contingent basis. Others are a hybrid, charging a portion of the fee upfront, and the balance on a successful placement. Naturally, any fee paid upfront implies exclusivity on the search assignment, but some firms still look for an exclusive relationship even on a contingency basis. Consider all the various options that exist, and weigh the pros and cons of each approach. On some points (particularly the question of whether a portion of the fee can be paid upfront), it may be important to make the decision first, because that decision may narrow your field of options.
Reach
One of the most important factors in a recruitment firm’s ability to provide the results you’re looking for is their reach. Reach, in this case, might have several meanings. One type of reach is the firm’s candidate pool. Do they specialise in a particular kind of field or capability, going deep into a relatively narrow candidate pool that has a common skill set or industry? Or do they cast a broader net, providing access to a broad spectrum of candidates from diverse backgrounds? Geography is also an important consideration, especially these days. If your organisation needs people working on site, then clearly a knowledge of talent local to that area is an important factor. But with remote and hybrid work arrangements becoming increasingly common, a geographic concentration may be less important to you - perhaps not important at all.
Services
Before engaging a firm, you should expect to have a very clear understanding of the service that you’ll receive through the project. Does the firm primarily focus on inbound recruiting, searching their database of existing candidates, and posting jobs on their website and other platforms to attract others? If so, where do they post and what results have they seen from those outreach efforts? Does the firm also conduct outbound recruiting, and more aggressive sourcing of candidates? If so, where do they source, and how do they approach potential candidates? How do they vet and shortlist candidates? Assuming they interview candidates, ask about their interview techniques - the questions they ask, and how they determine fit. When it comes time to select a final candidate and make an offer, what support does the firm offer to you at that stage? All of these are fair questions to ask, and the answers will help you determine whether the firms you’re considering offer the scope of service you’re looking for. On a related note, the varying service levels provided by different firms also correlate to the price variation you may see in the market. If cost is a consideration, you might be able to save some money by working with a firm that doesn’t provide a full slate of services. Alternatively, if you’re able to invest more, you can generally expect a very comprehensive service that takes much of the work off your plate.
Quality
As with any service (in contrast with a product), it’s sometimes difficult to get a read on quality before working with a provider. There are a few objective ways to approach this, though. Review service agreements and contracts carefully. Make sure that these match what you’ve been told verbally. Pay particularly close attention to guarantees that can protect your investment if a placement doesn’t work out. References are another helpful indicator. A firm should be able to provide several references that can speak to the service they’ve received.
There are also some subjective ways to evaluate a prospective service. In particular, ask about messaging. The way a recruiter describes your company may form a candidate’s first impression. How would they describe your company? What do they see as the unique value proposition you offer potential candidates? If a highly desirable candidate is on the fence, how would they approach the need to ‘sell’ them?
Relationships
The final consideration is arguably the most important. Business is all about relationships. The relationship you have with the person supporting your recruitment efforts is one of the most important.
The quality of communication in this relationship, especially, will determine how successful the outcome is. At the outset of any project, there should be open and honest communication. You should feel able to be completely open about factors that might affect the search - challenges, for example, that the successful candidate will face when they start in their new position. Similarly, the recruiter should be able to be honest with you about issues they anticipate - for instance, offering guidance on whether the compensation package is competitive given the current market. If your relationship with a prospective recruiter doesn’t provide for that level of openness and honesty, you may want to reconsider. As you embark on any recruitment project, there will be successes , and there will also be challenges (hopefully more of the former than the latter). A healthy and constructive working relationship will carry you through all of that, and provide the best chance of a successful outcome.
We’re proud to work with the clients we have, because we know they’ve taken the time to evaluate the service we provide, to make sure we’re a good fit for each other. In turn, we’ve been able to develop great working relationships with them; collaborative relationships that allow us to be successful in supporting their talent acquisition efforts.