This week’s Discuss HR is brought to your via a (very wet) campsite and the wonders of WiFi. Whilst I may be attempting to garner some sympathy for my damp holiday, it is more an illustration that Discuss HR is now firmly a weekly event. On that note I am pleased to announce that all our columnists will continue until the end of the year. As always we have regular guest writers and today we welcome Mark Ions, an experienced HR recruiter. Today Mark looks at how HR can improve the recruitment process. (Ed Scrivener)
How HR can help
Is the recruitment market in 2011 different to what it was four years ago? You may be reading this pondering why I’m asking such a ridiculous question – you’re shouting at the screen - of course the market is completely different! But is it?
At the peak of the recruitment boom back in 2007 companies couldn’t recruit quickly enough and recruitment consultancies took the money off their client’s hands even quicker. Recruitment practices reached an all time low; CV’s being sent without the candidates permission became commonplace, forcing candidates to take jobs they were not interested in was practically accepted and the daily harassing of HR departments by a recruiter was an everyday occurrence.
In essence high fees were being charged for sub-standard practices.
In 2007 I launched Exclusive Human Resources, little did I know that the economy was about to change dramatically; Northern Rock went pop quickly followed by the rest of the banking sector. Companies stopped recruiting. But then good news - in 2010 we saw tentative growth and a rise in GDP. 2011 has seen a confused economic picture with a fragile economy, Greece about to default...but steady growth all the same.
So back to my original question – four years later, have things in recruitment changed? No.
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| The typical recruiter? |
Why? Because we still allow these practices to happen. Recruiters are viewed as nothing better than estate agents or used car sales people. This view is not helped by the appearance of Natasha Scribbins on last night’s BBC Apprentice with her typical in your face recruitment sales approach.
In order to change the practices that happen within recruitment we need to be educated as to why these practices happen and ultimately, what we can do to prevent them from continuing to happen. This process starts by understanding there are two sides to every coin, understanding both sides will allow us to stamp out these practices.
So as an HR professional, what should you expect from your professional recruitment partner? Well in essence you should expect a lot. In summary:
A good recruiter will want to develop relationships; they will want to go that extra mile for you and deliver a superb end result.
They will give you a consultative approach. This does not mean sending you ten CV’s by close of play today. It means meeting you and asking what you want. Not assuming you are the same as everyone else.
They should manage your expectations and demonstrate thorough market knowledge. If you are being unreasonable regarding the salary you are looking for, they should explain that. Test them out! Try to avoid the jack of all trades, master of none consultancies.
A basic premise of recruitment but one not practiced by all – Identifying excellent candidates. They should send you three or four relevant, fully briefed candidates. We regularly hear of agencies still sending ten to twelve CV’s!
Ensure that your consultant is speaking to the candidates before they send them over. This way you don’t waste your time reviewing and selecting candidates that are not interested in working for you!
Ask your recruitment partner to quantify their service. What do your recruiters actually do? Do they just send you 10 CVs off their database and then expect a fee? Get it quantified and ask they carry out the following as a minimum:
Consultation with you, Advertise, Identify quality candidates, speak with candidates on their database, shortlist, organise interviews, give them a briefing – very important, handle the offer stage and finally follow up once they have placed a candidate into your vacancy.
Above all they must be professional, ethical and transparent.
Now that you know what to expect from a professional recruitment partner, you need to fully understand what role HR must play in improving standards. You may feel this is a brave subject to blog about when my audience is made up mainly of HR professionals, but I genuinely believe that in order for standards to improve, both HR and recruiters must understand the role they each play in a successful recruitment process:
Don’t start a CV race by using multiple agencies. You need to be looking for quality – Not quantity. You need ONE excellent candidate, so why use five agencies??? Why do you need five CVs from each agency? It defeats what you are paying for. You are saying that speed is the basis for going out to five agencies – NOT who will do best quality job for you. We recently experienced one HR department that went out to fourteen recruitment consultancies!!!
By going out to multiple agencies you are not giving a commitment to any one recruitment consultancy – you are not putting your faith in any one true partner. What commitment do you think the consultant then feels back to you?
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| CV sifting is a fulltime job! |
It is guaranteed you will see a flurry of activity initially. But when the hard work is required the service drops.
Give your recruitment partner exclusivity. This shows commitment, it shows faith and is rewarded with a higher level of service – normally!
You state you want a better spread of candidates. What percentage of people do you think are available to move jobs that are currently registered with any recruiter? Latest research suggests this number may be as low as 5% - role dependant. If you go to four or five recruiters they will all be fishing in same limited, active job seekers pond as the recruiters only have time to look at the database due to the CV race! If you go to one consultancy and you afford them the time to deal with your role professionally they can then advise on the best way of sourcing candidates. They can look at the other 95% of the market – utilise their network, advertise, headhunt, conduct a thorough database search etc. They will look at appropriate strategies
I read a quote recently on one blog that stated; “Paying a contingency fee for a multi-listed job is like paying a bounty hunter in the days of the Wild West – And if you pay recruiters like you pay cowboys, you might just get cowboys!” A very true statement.
When it comes to market rates, please don’t brag about how you hammer your recruitment partner down to rates of 8% or 10%, aim for a fair deal. If you pay 8% - expect a sub standard service as after all you get what you pay for. Understand a recruiter has to plough resources into helping you, pay less and the service levels will be cut, simple economics.
When it comes to your timescales please be honest – be realistic especially if you know it’s a tough role. Your recruiter can then truly help you.
Benchmarking – if you are going to do this, please, please be honest. Are you genuinely open to external candidate? A recruiter can tell you how your internal person benchmarks – especially if it’s an honest recruitment partner. Not being honest wastes a recruiter’s time and resources and you will jeopardise your future relationship.
Give Feedback on candidates, this is absolutely vital. Failing to do this can and will, damage your brand perception. We recently witnessed a client receive a wonderful response rate from an advert, something in the region of 100 applications. 10 applicants were interviewed but no feedback was given to the nine unsuccessful ones. The other 90 applications did not so much as receive an acknowledgment. The facts are simple in this case, 99 unhappy individuals that have been introduced to your brand that you have damaged.
Always communicate with your consultant, after all we act on your behalf and need to manage candidate’s expectations. Simple and effective communication allows us to do this on your behalf.
Avoid using Portals/email only application processes. How can the recruiter know what you want, give you any advice and be of any real help to you?
Finally PSLs – if someone breaches your PSL by sending a CV without permission of the candidate – please DON’T use their services. Continuing to use the services and paying the fee condones this behaviour and the message is given loud and clear that their methods work and they WILL continue in this manner.
To bluntly summarise the role of HR in the recruitment process; if you are using poor recruiters and knowingly continue to use poor recruiters – please don’t grumble and tar us with same brush.
About the author:
Mark Ions is an experienced HR recruitment professional who founded Exclusive HR in 2007 which specialise in professional recruitment and HR consultancy.
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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK. Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 25th June and will be written by Leadership Coach Dorothy Nesbitt.
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