The Issue Is Trust
Recruiters don’t trust Candidates, Candidates don’t trust Recruiters, Hiring Authorities don’t trust Recruiters, & Recruiters don’t trust Hiring Authorities. Confusing, but the illustration above is simple enough to understand… So, how is this distrust manifested… Cue the typical email from a Recruiter to a Candidate: Hello, Candidate – our client in the pharmaceutical sector, a global entity and leader in their space is looking to hire a new Director of Something…to hear more about this exciting opportunity, please reach out to me. Everyone is familiar with this sort of email. Here’s the explanation and much needed context… The average Recruiter receives a job assignment from a Hiring Authority alongside 3-4 other Recruiters who have been put on the same assignment. Cue the rat race! When I was introduced to this industry, I was told that you should never disclose the name of the hiring company to Candidates because of fear that they would go behind your back, reach out to the company directly, and thereby eliminate you from the process entirely. What a terrible way to establish any relationship! Recruiter to Candidate Distrust: From the perspective of the Recruiter, I expect you to take my calls during your work day, listen to what I have to say about this great opportunity, take time off your job to meet with me and interview with my client, leave your comfortable position, and move to a company that you know little about, all while I keep the company’s identity from you until it’s convenient for me to share it with you. This is essentially what we do as Recruiters, and we gripe when candidates don’t call us back, ghost the process when it’s no longer convenient for them, or take a counter-offer after you’ve spent 3 months working with them to get them to the finish line. Candidate to Recruiter Distrust: Candidate: So, who is your client? Recruiter: I’m sorry, but I cannot disclose that for confidentiality purposes. Candidate: So, you expect me to commit to this process without knowing the company? Recruiter: Yes Candidate: Can I at least know what the salary range is? Recruiter: How much are you looking for? Candidate: Not interested. Thanks. Hiring Authority to Recruiter Distrust: From the Hiring Authority’s perspective, you’ve dealt with enough Recruiters in your lifetime to know that they surface only when they want something and fling resumes that they haven’t properly qualified. The conversations are generally centred around what is best for them with little to no effort to get to know your company, your team, the position, or the culture. Why would I trust a professional who operates in this manner? Mindset: I’ll force recruiters to work against themselves since they clearly don’t know their own value. Recruiter to Hiring Authority Distrust: You know that Hiring Authority is flirting with other Recruiters which automatically diminishes the relationship and causes that Recruiter to keep their options open as well. That’s why it’s easy to ghost their clients. “You haven’t committed to me, so I won’t commit to you.” If this works out, great, but if not, we’re not married to each other. Again, hardly the foundation for anything good to come from this. Yet, we continue to engage in this sort of transactional behaviour. This is precisely why Recruiters must change the way they see themselves. If you don’t respect what you do, then how can you expect others to take you seriously. Takeaway: For Recruiters to remain relevant in their marketspace and be seen as a solution, and not a thorn, they need to change the way they operate. Admittedly, that change has to start at the leadership levels within our own ranks. AI will never become a threat to the profession if we position ourselves as value-adds that give more than we take.
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