ATTRACTING THE RIGHT CANDIDATE (PT 1)

The way a company sources its staff does vary according to the size of the company in question.

For this edition I will focus on procuring staff for large organisations. However, I am equally keen to assist smaller businesses and provide them with the best possible opportunities, and so next time I will be looking at other methods that owners or managers in smaller businesses can follow. (Progressive managers in larger organisations will also find ways in which they can benefit from utilising some of these approaches too.)

Procuring Staff For Large Organisations

Large organisations generally have prescribed ways of procuring staff which are normally more-or-less satisfactory and provide some good employees. However, these might not necessarily be the staff that will take the business successfully through some of the toughest economic conditions that any of us have experienced, and complacency on this front can be fatal to a business' long-term survival.

While there are multiple sources of good candidates, I would not be doing my industry justice if I didn’t now focus on the use of recruitment firms by larger organisations. After all, they operate in a multi-billion pound market and provide every legal skill set known. The key to making the best of recruitment firms is to know how to appoint the right recruiter. When you use a recruitment firm the success or otherwise of the process is very much down to the individual recruiter you deal with rather than the firm they work for. That said, the reputation of the firm may have an impact on the quality of the recruiter you can expect.

Many large companies have 'preferred supplier' systems detailing which recruitment firms can be used and while these might well do a reasonable job, especially when providing generic and readily accessible skill, there can be notable downsides. Quite often the process of selecting members of a 'preferred supplier' list involves negotiating low rates, with the result that the most effective and knowledgeable recruiters at the recruitment firms in question are allocated to more profitable tasks.

Typically, this can mean that the less effective recruiters working on the 'preferred supplier' contracts will only be accessing the market of candidates looking for a vacancy at that point in time, they will often have less market knowledge and they will be unlikely to have a network within which they can verify a candidate's skills and aptitude. In short, the whole quality of the process suffers, including the results: i.e. the person hired. And it's always important to remember that even the simplest positions become headaches when a 'bad fit' is employed. Only the right recruiter in the right market will know the good from the bad.

Selecting The Right Recruiter

Presuming, then, that you're reading this as a representative of a larger company and you do want the best possible employees, how are you going to pick the best recruiter?

Recruitment firms are probably beating a path to your door (all too frequently!), so you probably don't need to go to them. When you are contacted,  make a note of any consultants who appear to genuinely know what they are talking about and have recruited in the industry you are in, and within the sector that you want to recruit for. Look for someone who can 'add value' when you're in conversation with them about your sector.  In all likelihood, these will be the consultants who will have the strongest relationships within the candidate pool that you need to hire from.

That pre-selection made, thoroughly discuss your requirement with these recruiters. You will quickly know whether you have made a good choice from the quality of questions they ask you about the role, prospects and company culture. It will mean you will need to invest some time in this stage of the process, but finding one or two key recruiters who you can work with and who know your market will have longer-term rewards. You will find they can make a significant difference to the quality of candidate you can attract because if they are credible to you they will be credible in the market place, and they will represent your organisation properly too.

Conversely, work with a recruiter who doesn’t grasp what you are looking for or who isn’t paying attention to your requirements and the negative consequences can be serious. Will the candidates they contact in your name be treated well (whether or not you actually hire them), and if not, what harm is being done to your reputation? Has the quality of the candidates that have their CVs forwarded on to you been accurately researched and assessed?

You might save time by going to the first recruitment consultant who says they can deliver, but this will be a false saving if you end up interviewing the wrong people or if you hire someone but they've no real commitment and leave within a short space of time.

Paying The Right Price

I am as aware as anyone that the 'issue' with recruiters is that they charge fees for their work - even if they're only doing what anyone else providing services would do. Given this, using recruiters should only be considered if you don’t have time to take on the search for external candidates yourself, and/or if there's no-one for the role from within your existing team and/or if the implications and costs of leaving the position open for a period of time outweighs the cost of passing the resourcing to a recruiter.

Why am I saying this?!

I am saying that because I am keen for you to employ the best people possible. Remember that the fees that a recruiter charges are negotiable. The fee on the agreement they expect you to sign is up for discussion. Fine, but good recruiters are very likely to be highly sought after. As a result they will be less willing to negotiate and more prepared to move onto clients who will pay the right level of fees. That's why I say use a recruiter if you need to and can afford it, but if you're looking for a 'bargain recruiter' then you're probably better off doing it yourself.

If you are doing it yourself, then you need to learn to think like a (good)  recruiter. How do they find candidates and what could you do so that you always have a pipeline of potentially strong candidates for your key positions?

Of course, you can't expect yourself to be the match of a full-time recruiter - after all, they're doing it full time! However there are many non time-consuming activities that you can have running in the background to ensure access to good candidates and (at the risk of loss of revenue to me and my businesses) going down this route means you can save yourself paying the recruiter's fees.

Next Time

I will cover these approaches in greater detail next time - and this information will be relevant to smaller business owners and managers as well as employers in larger organisations.