Sital Ruparelia of 6 Figure Career Management sent me a link to a recent blog post “Cobblers Children Have No Shoes – Have you?”.
Over the years this is a conversation I have had on many occasions. Recruitment consultancies starting the hiring process with no job spec in place, forgetting they are headhunters and just posting the job on Exec Appointments (not that there is anything wrong with Exec Appointments!), not bothering to research industry specific job boards (such as UKRecruiterJobs!!), putting candidates through unstructured “lets meet for coffee” interviews, making them meet everyone in the organisation but on different days, being inflexible about int erview times, the list goes on….
And then it’s often no better when they start with broken promises (no mobile phone, laptop or pension) and no induction programme or training.
Blimey, did I get out of bed the wrong side!
A bit philosophical today Louise…?
All horribly familiar. I started at one job with a desk…but no chair, no laptop, no phone etc. One of the partners gave me his pencil, saying “you need it more than me”!
Thanks for the mention Louise.
What you and Caroline describe is, I believe, a huge missed opportunity for recruitment firms.
When any business hires new people, the whole recruitment and induction process represents a on-off opportunity to educate and teach new recruits about the brand values of your business – the standards you set, how you operate and how you expect them to operate with your clients.
From personal experience, when I have been hired in with excellent processes it makes me think “wow, I’m going to have to raise my game here – they seem excellent”
The danger with recruitment firms not handling their own recruitment professionally is that (without knowing it) they are giving their teams permission to be average and occassionally cut corners.
It becomes ok to work on roles without full briefs, it becomes ok to work on roles without meeting the hiring manager, it becomes acceptable to send candidates for interview without complete preparation because “that’s how i was hired”
All of which dilutes the impact the recruiter has and hit’s both the recruiter and the firm in the pocket.