Don’t get swindled by recruiters!
After watching the hit Netflix Documentary ‘The Tinder Swindler’… it got us thinking about recruiters in general. How many recruiters sell their prospective clients ‘The Dream’?
Generalist Recruiter: “I PROMISE I can source the most niche talent, perfect for your role! Look at how inexpensive I am compared to the specialists! The best part is, I work on a contingent basis so you don’t pay me if I can’t find someone!
Sounds like a dream, right? Surely this generalist contingent recruiter working with 15+ companies at once (all in different sectors) will efficiently fill the job with the right candidate……… right?
WRONG
I can read your mind – why talk about recruiters in such a negative light?
Don’t worry, we’ve been recruiters for a long time, so I have a thick skin. I know my profession doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation.
But here’s the thing…
Not every recruiter is cut from the same cloth.
AND…
Some of these dreams that become REAL problems with your recruiters are fixable if you recognise WHY the failing is happening (and not being swindled by false promises).
This is a BAD Idea
One of the worst inventions in the history of recruitment is the “contingency” contract.
This is what we call taking a brief from a client for a role, fully aware that we only get paid if we find a candidate that you hire.
It’s a terrible, terrible idea.
This is ironic because it might be one of the few things about recruiters you actually like.
I mean, it SOUNDS like a good deal – almost like a dream!
You send a recruiter (or even a few of them) off to find you candidates, and you only pay if you get a candidate that you like enough to hire.
And, the vast majority of the time, that’s exactly what you’re going to get.
A candidate that you like is JUST enough to hire.
But that’s a whole world… no… a whole UNIVERSE away from a candidate that you love – a shining asset in your business that will stick around for years to come.
It’s almost impossible to get a great candidate through a contingency contract.
Not because your recruiter is necessarily bad at their job (although that is a possibility), but because this business model sets everyone up for failure (and sells dreams that leave you SWINDLED).
A Race to the Bottom (of the Barrel)
Imagine for a moment that you’re a recruiter and you know with a fair amount of certainty that it will take you two weeks to find a handful of GOOD candidates. If you are a generalist, with no pre-existing network – that could even be months!
On top of this, other recruiters as well (RAT RACE) – sending the employer a bunch of AVERAGE candidates in less than a week.
What’s the point in expending time and effort to find good candidates if, by the time you do, the employer has already chosen a candidate provided by a competing recruiter.
It is impossible for your generalist contingent recruiter (and all the other contingent recruiters) to fulfill the dreams they sold of hard work and excellent delivery whilst competing in this rat race!
This is the reality of the situation.
When you hire several recruiters on a contingency basis, you’re creating a race to see who can rustle up some half-decent candidates in the quickest amount of time.
This causes you to get swindled on ALL ACCOUNTS, as the candidate you end up with will inevitably be found out of panic rather than thorough sourcing and strategy.
This will result in receiving an active candidate, desperate for a role (worryingly so!) rather than a passive candidate strategically headhunted.
You’re sacrificing a whole lot of quality for the sake of finding candidates in one week instead of two.
Vote of No Confidence
And things aren’t much better if you hire a SINGLE recruiter on a contingency basis.
You give your recruiter some breathing room, but payment is still contingent on placing a candidate – and you will not get the dream you were sold!
Again, imagine you’re a recruiter spending a month to find great candidates, only for the client to reject the shortlist, fill the role internally, or decide to delay making the hire.
That’s a lot of time and effort with no financial reward.
So, as a recruiter (with substantial targets to hit) you have no choice but to limit the amount of time you spend on each role. You also have to take on lots of roles simultaneously, so that the jobs that pay will cover the jobs that don’t.
The end result is the same.
A shortlist of average, and probably ill-fitting, candidates.
The dream you were sold was a LIE!
You pick the best of the bunch, but it’s not a great match. And after six months, you let the new hire go – at great expense to your business – and contact your recruiter (or recruiters) again.
Hoping that this time, they’ll do a better job.
What’s that old saying about doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results?
And do you want to go back to get swindled again?
Let’s Start Over…
Contingency recruitment is bad for recruiters, bad for candidates, and bad for you.
If you want to experience recruitment with high-quality results, you’re going to have to try a different approach.
One that involves…
- Comprehensive job briefs
- Wide-ranging market searches
- Deep candidate assessments
- Highest-quality shortlists
This is how you get a different end result – how you receive the true recruitment dream!
One in which your recruiter helps your business grow and prosper – hiring candidates that will add long-term value and remain in the role for 12+ months at the minimum!
To find out how you can make this switch – contact us here!
Let us optimise your recruitment process and over-deliver on our promises!
Click here to see how your previous recruitment swindlings have affected your business.
