Message to recruiters: 15 ways you will screw up your next placement

The biggest cause of new job placements going wrong is the recruiter making flawed assumptions. Information is what drives success in recruitment. And that is why the industry will never die. The craft of managing the process still determines whether a candidate is offered and, crucially, accepts a job. Successful recruitment is not all about “sourcing”. It is also about matching, and then consummating the deal.

So next time a “dead cert” placement goes belly-up, resulting in tears all round, don’t blame the candidate, the client or “bad luck”. It’s almost certainly your fault, because you made a wrong assumption. Probably one of these assumptions:

1. The client has the authority to hire. Often they don’t. Check that early in the process. Has this hire been authorised? Given sign-off? Are we good to go?

2. The client knows who or what they need in their next hire. Often the client sets out simply to hire the same skill set and profile as the person who just left. Meanwhile, the business has changed, the role has changed, and the skills required have changed. You need to ask the questions that expose that, because if you don’t, you will spend time looking for the wrong person. And the client will only realise that late in the process. And then they will change the brief, and ask you to start again.

3. The client you’re dealing with has the final say on who gets the job. That’s often not the case. Who gives the final nod? The line manager? HR? The line manager’s manager? The CEO?

4. The client is briefing only you on this role. Yeah, right! And every person, in every marriage, is faithful too! You have to ask the question – and you need to try to get that exclusivity.

5. That the “critical” skills, qualifications and experience the client described in the brief as “essential” are indeed “must-haves”. They rarely are. Usually there are just two or three total deal-breakers. You have to dig until you find out what they are. A client will forgive a multitude of missing skills, if your candidate has the two key things they really want.

6. The clients’ “top salary package” for the role really is the ceiling. It almost never is. You have to find that out before you start your talent search.

7. The client is not considering internal candidates. They are.

8. Your candidates are as interested in the role as they tell you they are. You also believe them when they say they are not looking at other roles, and they will not accept a counter-offer “under any circumstances”.

9. Your candidate knows how to sell themselves in an interview, knows how to highlight why he or she is suitable for the role, and won’t do dumb things like bring up money and benefits in the first five minutes. You have to coach your candidates on how to interview well – perhaps even role-playing questions and answers. Too hard? Well prepare yourself for many disappointments.

10. Your client knows how to interview and sell their company and their job. They usually don’t. Subtly, via feedback, suggestions and sometimes outright counselling, you need to make sure your client – the company seeking to fill the position – knows that they are being assessed too – and if they don’t perform, they’ll miss out on the top talent.

11. Your candidate is as fixed on their “salary floor” as they tell you they are. Sure. And that’s why a better recruiter than you will sell the opportunity better than you do, and secure the candidate you overlooked – because they “wanted too much money” – to go for an interview, get the job, and accept it at 10 grand lower than they told you they would ever accept! This will help you avoid that mistake.

12. Your successful candidate knows how to resign and has the confidence to do that without succumbing to emotional or financial blackmail from their current employer. You have to manage that, prepare them for the resignation meeting, and follow up right afterwards.

13. That an offer, once accepted, is a done deal. It’s not. You have to keep in touch between acceptance and start date – every day if you must. There is many forked road between acceptance and the candidate actually turning up on day one.

14. Your client will do a good induction job with the new hire. You must be in touch with both parties after the start date to smooth over difficulties and manage feedback from both parties. This is crucial. Many an early fallout can be saved.

15. That the candidate is making decisions on his or her own. Often wrong. The spouse or significant other is often hugely influential and sometimes actually driving the decision. Ask: “What does your wife/husband think about you making this move?” If it’s a senior role, and maybe a geographical move, get the spouse involved. I have had the spouse meet the client before. Seriously. It worked, too. If I had all the fees back that I have lost because of a spouse getting cold fee, I would be retired by now!

Assumptions. Lack of knowledge. Overconfidence. Lack of attention to detail. Missing the signals. Not asking the key questions. They’re all poison to your next placement.

Never ever assume anything in this business.

Assumptions in recruitment will bite you in the bum. Hard. And it hurts! 

Greg Savage is the founder and driving force behind Firebrand Talent Search. This article first appeared at Firebrand Ideas Ignition.