The work of agency recruiters never stops. They are the ultimate plate spinners who could always be ‘doing more’. While they constantly strive to bring more work in, nurturing relationships with candidates and clients, some roles are honestly more pain to work on than they’re really worth.
Having an impossible-to-fill role on their books is a real drainer. It doesn’t matter how ‘great’ the client is or how chunky that salary is; if recruiters can’t place someone happily in the role, it’s moot point. As a salesperson in the talent space, it’s a really difficult position to be in. Conscious of keeping all parties happy, recruiters feel compelled to brave the storm and try again, and again, and again… even though they know the role is clearly doomed. No matter what they do, the process keeps bursting into flames; candidates dropping like flies.
Are you a hiring manager with a role your external recruiters can’t seem to fill for you? Before you start blaming your third party consultant, you should probably check your own backyard, because you might just find the real reasons are right there…
It’s not an interesting position
Take a look at the job description. Would you want to do that job? Sure, recruiters will find ways to draw out the positives and sell that to suitable candidates, but if the role is genuinely not a desirable position, you’re already starting the process on the back foot.
Your expectations are unrealistic
Not only is the job super boring-sounding, you are holding completely outlandish expectations regarding the type of candidate you want. How many of the ‘essential applicant critera’ is actually truly ‘essential’, and how much of it is simply ‘ideal’ or a ‘nice to have’? Knocking back perfectly capable candidates because they didn’t go to one of your favourite universities is clearly not going to help with filling this position.
The interview process is horrendous
Even when recruiters find candidates who are interested and ready to go in for an interview, you completely turn them off by staging a poorly organised interview. You make them feel like they are one of a million applicants you had to begrudgingly make time for, and then spend an hour grilling them. They leave feeling incredibly tired and deflated, and don’t even want to join your company.
You delay everything
On top of all this, you drag your heels at any opportunity to do so. You take weeks to review CVs, days to answer simple emails, way too long to book in interviews and the whole things is almost at a standstill. Recruiters find you candidates, who end up getting other jobs offered to them before you’ve even looked at their CV. When it comes to hiring good people, time is of the essence!
You aren’t paying enough money
Some roles come with more challenges than others, and workers need to be compensated for their troubles. You are offering a salary that’s below market rate and candidates know they can join a competitor and earn considerably more. You’ve done nothing to show them the benefits of working for your company (at such a low salary) and for the candidates, it’s a huge no-brainer to go somewhere else.
Your employer brand is terrible
One search on Glassdoor shows that people within your organisation are unhappy. Not only is your pay sub-par, but so are your working conditions. Your staff retention rate is extremely low, and the office space is dank. Your company website is in need of a makeover and has no human touch or warmth of any kind. Most candidates run Google searches on an organisation before applying for a role – what do the results of the WWW have to say about your workplace?
And there you have it. The cold hard truth. This is why recruiters can’t fill that role of yours. They might not tell you so bluntly, because they don’t want to offend you. But if you want to fill that role, you might want to consider a little revisit!
**Obviously, this piece is a massive generalisation to get hiring managers thinking about their hard-to-fill roles a little differently 🙂
