Is it us?

Dear clients,

We’re trying to help you.  Can you please help us?

We think we’re ok at this recruitment lark at ABPM.  Others may disagree, but that is for another time.  We’re open, transparent and honest, we even enjoy working with most of our clients!  We’re not perfect, but we certainly give it our best.

So why does recruitment feel so frustrating and how can we improve the experience for everyone?  It feels like we have one, possibly both arms tied behind our back at times.

Do you feel that you get the best service by giving your vacancy to a number of agencies?  It simply becomes a race, quite often to the bottom.  Duplicate CV’s, job seekers not even aware of where their CV’s are being sent, lack of quality, lack of research, regurgitated job specs … I could go on.  

Maybe you’re happy with this approach, maybe it is just the end result that matters to you.  There’s a lot that should go on behind the scenes though, it is about your reputation, our reputation, the job seeker experience.  No-one tends to come out of this looking too great.

Let’s rewind a few steps.  Why can’t we speak with the line manager, why wouldn’t they invest the time to brief us, how do we obtain the additional information required to truly sell the business and role, is that not the same spec you used 2 years ago?  What does half of the spec even mean?  Spend the time upfront and reap the rewards later.

Ok, we’ve pulled a few rabbits from our magical hat and sent you a short list.  Now is the time to act on this, let us know your thoughts, have we hit the spot?  Let’s get some interviews lined up, other people will react, and good candidates will find a job.  We’ve done a fair chunk of our job by this stage; we don’t really want to be starting over. React.  Think of the reputation and experience.

Wow, interviews have taken place, and everything is going swimmingly.  Nothing could go wrong, could it?  Oh, our candidate didn’t get the job, that’s fine as these things happen.  Could I take some feedback so we can all learn from the process?  Nothing!  No feedback, just that someone else got the job.  How does that help anyone?  What about the reputation of your business, the candidate experience, the time taken to get to this stage … surely they deserve some feedback?  Surely we do too.  Is it not common courtesy?

I could go on, there are many examples of how recruitment could be handled better.  I am trying to highlight how easy it is just to focus on the result, which often leaves a sour taste in the mouth.  Put yourself in the position of the job seeker, would you like your job search to follow a similar pattern?

Maybe it us.  Maybe we are too demanding, perhaps we should choose our projects more carefully.  Maybe we are trying to help too much, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.  Let’s work together, let’s try to offer the best experience possible and the successful outcomes should fall into place.  This can only benefit all of us.

Talk to us, I’m sure it isn’t us (is it)?