Recruitment Partner? I know some would scoff at the term “Partner”. For most who need support for hiring needs, ”Vendor” is the word normally used when referring to someone who supports hiring requirements. Then why I am using the term Partner… Read on.
Let us understand the difference between a Vendor and a Partner before we move forward. AVendor is a person who sells things, for example food or newspapers or a company that sells a particular product.
APartner is a person that you are doing an activity with, such as dancing or playing a game or one of the people who owns a business and shares the profits, etc.
The key aspect here is that a Partner is someone who is invested in your business and who is jointly doing an activity with you, that is, helping you identify and onboard the best talent completely suited to your requirements and budget.
At some of point in time, organizations would have experienced receive loads of responses to their sourcing channels such as online job postings, with 95% of the responses not matching even 20% of the job requirements.
The Hare and the Tortoise?
All of us have heard the fable of the hare and the tortoise, in which the tortoise beat the hare in a race. For all of us, although the fable had imparted some lessons, it was difficult to believe that a slow tortoise could ever beat a faster hare. And we all know that in 99% of the cases (other than the fable) the hare will win hands down. No matter how much time and money you invest in training the tortoise, the hare will still win. A similar story plays out in organizations with very little focus on search and selection and a very high budget for training and development. Training and development is still an important part of organizations, however, it is best spent on the hare to make it faster, with more stamina and the ability to take sharper turns.
Organizations with little focus on search and selection practicesput themselves in a perilous situation with wrong hires costing equivalent of whooping 6 months compensation at junior roles and to over 2 years compensation at senior roles.
Carrying the hare and the tortoise analogy further, what does hiring a hare have to do with a recruitment partner? You can only select a hare if your recruitment partner brings a few hares for you to select, if he/she brings 99 tortoises and one hare, the time and effort taken by you to first find and then assess the hare will be quite high, and in most cases, you many just get tired of assessing tortoises and pick the fastest tortoise
Having inadequate low quality options to choose from may compel the hiring manager to recruit a mis/half-fit and then spend time trying to convince the hiring manager about how good the candidate is.
As an owner of a company, a MD or CEO or a HR head or Talent Acquisition head, one is under severe pressure to fill up a position at the earliest, with the best candidate and in the least cost. Cost also includes time spent by HR and line managers in interviewing candidates which although not apparent can run into thousands if you calculate the time spent by business heads and manager and convert it into cost calculating the cost of one hour of their time based in their compensation. The pressure of closing the position in time pushes them to select the best tortoise rather than wait for the hare to be put up for selection.
Imagine if the following happened- the recruitment partner presented 5 profiles, you call the best 3 for interview and all three are selected, you make the offer to the best candidate and he/she accepts and joins on due date. Stuff of dreams ,correct?
Wrong, a good recruitment partner can make it happen more often than not. How?
- He knows your company and is invested in your success. He understands the company culture as also the kind of person who will fit in the company.
- He takes time to interact with and understand the key criteria for selection for each position/role as well as the budget.
- He and his team take time to screen the candidates in detail and interview them to see if they meet at least 80% of the selection criteria and highlights the areas which are to be probed further by the HR/line managers.
- Expectations of compensation etc are set with the candidate by his team so that the chances of offer drop out are reduced to the minimum specially at mid and senior positions.
We talked about partners being invested in each other’s welfare, hence it is important for the organization to also be invested in the recruitment partner’s success. Which means that this differentiated service needs to be compensated. Over a period of time with almost any and every one becoming a recruitment company, the least common denominator has become cost. Choosing your Recruitment Partner based on cost, will not get you the best as it will be not be sustainable for the partner to do a quality job for you at a low price.. So as on organization you need to move out of this mindset and ensure that your partner also runs sustainable business to be able to offer top quality support to you.
In these times, whatever number of hires you may do, getting the best and in fastest possible time, before they are lapped up by others is going to be crucial. Good talent was always scarce, now it will be much more in demand as the Captains of the industry will want the best playing formation for the match!
Do the math, focusing on your core business and driving it further and engaging Partners who can support you and are paid on success basis, doesn’t it make a good case?
Happy hunting for the ideal recruitment partner !!
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