Time for a vent. Everybody in recruitment will have, at one time or another, been in this situation. Picture this: your client calls you with an urgent need for a candidate. Man, oh man, they’re desperate! I mean more desperate than the people who enter the Big Brother house. They need your help! Responding to their needs immediately like the flexible recruiter you are, you drop everything to work on this role they are so desperate to fill (I will keep on using the word desperate to emphasize their desperation).
After a lengthy search, some blood, sweat and a few tears, you manage to find 2 or 3 likely candidates who fit the remit. You send them across to your client post haste. You leave it a day or so then call the client for their feedback, safe in the knowledge they will praise your speedy work and give you interview slots for the candidates you spent the last couple of days finding, qualifying and vetting.
“Hi Paul, yes we got the CVs. Thank you, they are with the hiring manager but he hasn’t read them yet as he is really busy. We’ll call you as soon as he lets us know what he wants to do.”
Hasn’t read them yet? So much for desperation; so much for dropping everything because they were so desperate. Then comes the inevitable call later in the day from the candidates, asking what the client thought of their CV. You can hardly blame them, you did tell them this process was being fast-tracked to the speed of light.
“Nothing yet, they do have your CV and I’m sure they will get back to me today as they were desperate to get the role filled.”
I know you are filling in the blanks here because, let’s face it, we have all been there at least once in our recruiting lives. You chase, they stall, you chase again, they stall again, the candidates grow increasingly twitchy. Then your disgruntled candidates take to social media to bemoan the fact recruiters are subhuman animals playing with lives, building up your hopes only to dash them on the rocks.
“Those buggers never get back to you! He rang me about a Firtling job in Pilling… told me it was urgent, then… nothing! No feedback! I think they’re just fishing for CVs. Typical.”
Clients, this is what we put up with on your behalf! You called us to do a job, because you were desperate (that word again)… and so we went above and beyond to help. Then? Nothing – NADA – from you; how can something so desperate suddenly not be important anymore… what has changed? Recruitment is a give and take industry. You want us to drop everything (fees included) to get the person you so desperately need, then you give nothing back.
Now I do understand – you can be extremely busy (hence the need for new staff), but surely the right thing would be to put aside some time to see the people you are so desperate to employ? In the long run it will only be beneficial to you, me and the candidate. A win-win-win situation. You’ll get the right person who can take some of the burden off you, which is clearly grinding you down, which will free up your valuable time so that your son at home doesn’t keep calling you “that woman or man with the worried look who visits sometimes”, and can start calling you Mum or Dad again.
See, not only do we take the hard work out of finding the right staff, we can also help in your home life, giving you more time to spend with the family… all you need to do is give a little back.
In short, I think it’s really important to put some trust in your recruiter; trust us to find you the right people. Give up half a day to meet them, safe in the knowledge the Firtlers, Noodlers and Fettlers we send you are going to be worth meeting, and will be perfect for the role. It’ll give you back your life and give them the job they want. A good recruiter is a Godsend for busy hiring managers; if you build a relationship with your recruiter, you will reap the rewards.
*Noodling and Firtling may or may not be real or made up, but the more I write the more I believe, Fettling is definitely a thing in both Lancashire and Yorkshire, Lancashire Fettlers being obviously superior
*Pilling is a town in Lancashire, by town I mean it has a Pub
