Recruiter As Partner

I had a chance to listen to a recent interview with the director of an online executive job posting site from Australia as she was asked about the continuing relevance of recruitment agencies and search firms given the proliferation of web based recruitment sites, and I have to tell you she provided some great insights. Those Aussies are pretty damn clever. Many of us may not be aware, but they avoided most of the recent financial crisis.

One of the places she starts the discussion is the idea unless you are using very targeted websites the space out there is pretty “noisy” or generalized. You may not be getting your posting in front of the right candidates. She points out that unless you are searching for pretty standardized or “benchmark” jobs both these sites and your own human resources department may not be your best strategy.

High level search firms are specialists. This is what they do day in and day out; it isn’t an ancillary activity to them. She makes an interesting reference to Jim Collin’s iconic book, From Good to Great, and tracking the history of what made for enduring great companies. Not surprisingly one of the key differentiators is the acquisition and retention of the right talent; as Collins referred to it “getting the right people on the bus”. For many businesses this can represent a significant challenge. Recruitment and selection is probably not your core competency.
There are some other things that she presents that represent excellent value points as well. One of them is regarding the use of “screening software”. She feels, and I agree is that the problem with this software is that focuses primarily on “technical” skills. It is typically the intangibles or soft skills that cause failure or success. Very few candidates fail because they were technically unqualified for the role; the issue is one of “fit”.

Another area she focuses on is the job specification or “brief”. In many cases this is represented by a job description and salary range. I can tell you after over 30 years as an HR executive and consultant those are woefully inadequate. They rarely convey the values, key attributes, and “soft skills” really necessary to do the job. A really good profile includes all of those elements and that requires some upfront work. I firmly believe that the most important part of the process is the upfront process of really “defining” what the successful candidate is going to look like.

I can see some of you rolling your eyes already about the time that this involves, so let me share a couple of statistics with you.
· 40% of new managers fail within the first 18 months of their promotion or reassignment, usually for non-technical reasons.
· The estimated costs of a “wrong hire” range from 2 to 4 times annual salary, and that is just the hard costs.
· “Engaged” employees tend to be 21% more productive than neutral employees and are 60% less likely to seek other employment.
· Over the next 10 to 15 years, the demand for experienced talent is expected to increase by 25% while the supply decreases by 15%.

The other interesting phenomenon is that “engagement” begins in great organizations during the hiring process. They don’t try to teach people to embrace their values and norms; they build it into their selection and development process! As a colleague of mine says “Hire hard, manage easy”.
Let’s be honest with each other. In most of our organizations our hiring is typically reactive. We need additional staff or someone leaves and we begin to look for applicants. In many cases that process is one of urgency if not panic. We need a body; we have not really stopped to think about succession, long term investment, or fit.

If we go back to Collins and Good to Great, those organizations were good at recognizing and acquiring talent proactively.
If you explore that paradigm your sourcing organization goes from “vendor” to partner. They aren’t responding to a crisis, they are “scouting” on your behalf. They have an intimate knowledge of your organization and your culture and they are seeing potentially hundreds of candidates each year that you or your HR department are likely not aware of and presented with. They are transitioning from performing a task to providing consulting to your organization on the key areas of the acquisition and retention of key talent.

I am not going to tell you that every search firm or recruiter offers this kind of sophisticated view and capability. Just as selecting a candidate or an executive coach you need to seek out that “fit”.
I will leave you with this thought. Think about a situation where the best team; defined as possessing not only the skills and attributes, but also the commitment and passion didn’t ultimately prevail, I can’t remember one…