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March 18, 2016 Friday Focus

Which Recruiter Should You Work With?

Recruiter.com founder Miles Jennings PHOTO | Contributed Miles Jennings, CEO and founder of Recruiter.com in Farmington
By Miles Jennings

Back in the day, I worked for a staffing firm. When I spoke with a hiring manager or HR director, I knew to talk about our recruitment process, our pipeline of available talent, and our strong network. But let tell you a closely guarded industry secret: There is no product.

We recruiters aren’t selling you a patented process for sourcing talent. Every search for a particular job was, in essence, a brand new search. We start at “Go” every time, just like you do.

You can’t blame the recruiters for this. It has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the incredible variance of job requirements, market changes, and the simple fact of working with people. You can develop a “talent pipeline” of Java developers all day long -- but then you’ll be asked to help find one with mobile experience, an understanding of insurance regulations, or the ability to create and deliver engaging presentations to senior executives.

Holes in the Pipeline

Each of these unique qualifications will poke large holes in your pipeline, and those passive candidates start emptying out like water. Throw in personality matches and cultural fit, and it’s likely you’ll end up back at square one. There’s nobody in your pipeline who actually meets the client’s needs -- you may as well have no pipeline at all.

Given that this is the case, we now face a set of serious questions:

  • When a recruiter calls your company to get your job requirements, what are they really asking for?
  • How should you evaluate the recruiter?
  • Whom should you call back, and whom should you ignore?
  • Who will add value to your recruiting process and find talent that you couldn’t find on your own?

Your Options

You have a couple of options here. You could take the easy way, focusing on superficial qualities to weigh competing firms against one another. In this scenario, you’d ask the recruiter about their rates, the number of recruiters on staff at their firm, their current clients, the jobs they are most skilled at filling, and the industries in which they have had the most success.

Then, there’s the second – and better – option for evaluating competing recruiting firms. It is more difficult and nuanced. You start by recognizing the fact that you, as an employer, must sell yourself to the recruiters as much as they must sell themselves to you.

The best recruiters will demand as much from you as the best real estate agents will. They won’t waste their time with employers that are unable to guarantee good results just like a real estate agent won’t waste your time with people not qualified to buy your home.

Value in Hiring Hard Workers

When I was 25 years old, making 2,000 cold calls a month and knowing very little about business, I couldn’t have provided very much in terms of business consultation. I did, however, have one thing going for me: I wasn’t yet too busy to work with the picky client. I wasn’t yet too smart to waste my time on a hard search.

For the employer, there is real value in hiring this kind of person as a recruiter. This person will work for you; their intentions are aligned with yours. They try hard to get your business, and they are excited to land you as a client.

When evaluating potential recruiters, do more than look at each firm’s “process” or recruiting “bandwidth.” Go beyond the buzzwords and learn about the individual that you’re working with.

Are they personally dedicated? Driven? Able and capable? Motivated to close business with you? Hardworking? Are their intentions aligned with yours?

Aim for Flexibility

If you want a successful recruiting partner, you should go with people who can endure the changing job requirements, the stalled projects, and the hiring mistakes. Find people who want your business more than anything -- the people who will work to earn it.

Then, sell your business to them -- get the best recruiters excited to work with you on your jobs.

You’ll access the best talent in the market and ensure coverage for your open jobs.

(Miles Jennings is founder and CEO of Recruiter.com, a Farmington-based recruiting startup that helps people hire and get hired.)

Read other Friday Focus columns.

Friday Focus is an online-only weekly series of columns focusing on human resource, business legal issues, technology, and marketing. Interested in participating? Send an email to Keith Griffin at kgriffin@hartfordbusiness.com.

 

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