Another appeal from Headhunter made me think about why the work of finding personnel is not always effective, and sometimes counterproductive for their clients.
Each of those working in the IT field receives requests from Headhunter with enviable regularity. Someone completely ignores such requests, while someone continues to politely refuse annoying bounty hunters.
In my opinion, there are several reasons that significantly reduce the effectiveness of recruiters.
Perhaps the main reason for failures in the search for staff is the complete lack of an individual approach to potential applicants.
What is it expressed in? Let's look at a dummy example.
A few years ago, an employee of the Best Headhunters recruiting agency contacted Cloud specialist Mr. Klaudman via the Xing platform (the most popular platform on the German-speaking Internet). Mr. Cloudman politely thanked for the offer, informing the recruiter that he was completely satisfied with his current employer. After some time, Mr. Cloudman again receives an offer from the same employee of the recruiting agency. Mr. Cloudman once again politely thanks for the offer, informing the recruiter that he is completely satisfied with his employer. But this time with his new employer, to whom Mr. Cloudman moved just a few months ago. At the same time, Mr. Cloudman, out of idle curiosity, wonders if the ad is talking about the company XYZ and what salary is offered for this position? In his response, the employee confirms that it is company XYZ, but the answer to the salary question remains open. The recruiter ends his letter with an absolutely formal and banal wish of all the very best, and in the form that is usually used in refusing an applicant.
So what was wrong in my humble opinion:
The recruiter didn't take much interest in Mr. Cloudman's profile information. He had to notice the change in the workplace and respond to it. Why not ask the question of what was the reason for such a decision? It would be worth asking about the new employer, is he satisfied with how the first weeks of work go? After all, not everyone moving to a new job retains it. Ignoring the question of wages is unreasonable at the highest level. In my opinion, the correct response would be a proposal to discuss this issue by phone.
Instead of a conclusion
So, not being a specialist in the field of recruitment, I will allow myself to give some recommendations to both employees of recruiting agencies and their customers.
Gentlemen recruiters, your clients expect the following qualities from applicants:
- analytical, systematic, structured and independent way of working
- initiative and creativity in solving problems.
I believe these requirements apply to you as well.
In my opinion, for a recruiting agency employee, a potential candidate is just a number on the list. He doesn't see him as a person.
Dear recruiters, add at least some hint of individuality to your letter. Pay attention to the data specified in the user profile, use them. Let the potential candidate know that you are talking to him, and not to several hundred others with similar profiles.
Install some kind of CRM system for yourself in order to somehow systematize the database of potential candidates and information about communication with them. It would be desirable to know exactly when the last contact was made. If you have already decided to start communication on you, then returning to you looks somewhat inappropriate.
Let's look at another fictitious story, this time from the side of recruiting agency clients.
Assume that a medium-sized System Integrator located in a major city in southern Germany is looking for a Senior (Company or ProductName: zB Citrix, WMware, Azure, Cloud) Consultant. The main clientele of this system integrator is located there. Thus, after the end of the working day, all employees return home, and not to the hotel.
To find a suitable candidate, the System Integrator turned to Headhunter. Mandatory requirement of the client, the candidate must have two certificates, Professional and Expert (for example, VCAP and VCDX or CCP-V and CCE-V). Probably, first of all, Headhunter will turn to its own database, but if it does not find a suitable candidate, it will probably do the following:
- Opens Xing (possibly LinkedIn) and enters the name of the above certificates into the search box.
- so before him is a list of several hundred names:
- let's try to remove those who live far enough from the specified place of work. Not everyone is ready to move, especially to a region with very expensive real estate.
- then it is necessary to exclude those who, for example, already occupy a higher position (Head of ..., Lead ...), work for a more famous, prestigious employer, for the manufacturer itself or Freelancer.
So, how many potential candidates are left ... There will be no more than 10 of them, in total ... That is why many positions remain unoccupied for a long time.
Even if a miracle happens, and from the remaining candidates there is a person who wants to change jobs, then this candidate must still please the customer for an invitation to an interview. As a result, even a multi-stage interview is not a guarantee that you have found exactly the specialist you were looking for. As one colleague of mine said of another former colleague, βheβs the best for 10 minutes.β
Are Headhunters really indispensable in finding the right staff? What prevents an internal employee from doing the above actions? The internal employee even has a slight advantage over the recruiter. Namely, to see the chain of contacts between your company and the candidate that interested him. Thus, you can try to offer a job "directly" using a chain of contacts.
In my opinion, many employers underestimate internal recruiting. They are ready to pay tens of thousands to a recruiting agency that blindly looks for matches in profiles, without even understanding what is behind all the IT acronyms. An internal employee, on the other hand, can not only assess knowledge and abilities, but also understand how a potential candidate is really suitable for a particular project. He will not recommend someone in whom he himself is not 100% sure. No one wants to embarrass himself in front of colleagues and superiors, or recommend a move to a company that you yourself are not happy with. In fact, an internal employee acts as a guarantor of the quality of the candidate and, in my opinion, deserves to receive more than 2000-3000 euros.
PS I hope I did not offend anyone with my article, since the approach to work for various recruiting agencies is significantly different from each other. Perhaps I did not come across real professionals.
Source: habr.com