 |
| Clients & job seekers deserve 'Rolex' recruitment services. |
As recruiters, we have a responsibility to our potential and
existing candidates to treat them professionally. Unfortunately, because some
firms out there are lacking in integrity and have turned the art and skill of
recruiting into a commoditized, low-quality, high-volume factory farm for human
capital, there is sometimes a negative perception of the industry and
recruiters in general, from both candidates and hiring companies.
Staffing Talk contributor David Gee gives some real life
examples of the recruitment image problem in greater detail. In essence, his examples show there are enough bad apples out there to make even the best, shiniest,
sweetest Gala seem sour in the eyes of candidates and clients who have been let down by these types of firms.
To take it a step further, equate the problem to the fake Rolex
market. I believe the fake Rolex has actually cheapened the exclusive status of
a real one. As I oversee the IT staffing
sales activities of seven offices, I'm on a lot of planes and attend a lot of business
functions. It’s no longer the rare person you see with a Rolex; instead it’s
almost the norm to see that black Submariner.
Now I’m not saying they are all knockoffs, but what was once
a symbol of class and refinement has become too common through
indistinguishable fakes. The same might be said of the recruitment industry. My
firm and many other accredited, legitimate resource providers like it, perform 'real'
recruitment work. We call, consult, engage, listen and help candidates and
customers solve their problems. Unfortunately, the fakes have tarnished our
reputation. Submitting resumes without any contact then asking for exclusivity
after the fact; posting bogus jobs in order to aggregate resumes in a database:
that's how the hacks operate.
The end result is that clients mostly ignore the 'real' firms,
assuming that we are also a cheap imitation. The value of a solid recruiting firm is
assumed to be equal to the value of a fake.
Who knows if the job boards that marketed themselves to the 'upscale'
or executive market have gone further to reduce the perceived value of good
recruitment? After all, their inconsistent results have widely undermined their
claims of exclusivity.
Either way, job seekers have developed similar behaviors to hiring
companies in some cases, and have fallen to some bad habits that make it hard
for even the better recruitment firms to truly help them find that perfect match.
Monster's Larry Buhl wrote an interesting article on the subject detailing
instances where candidates have done themselves a disservice through their
actions and attitudes toward some 'real' recruiters based on their experiences
dealing with bad ones.
When a candidate we recently hired gave us unsolicited
feedback and thanked us for the 'special experience' he had with us, we were not
surprised. He said he had done work with three other firms and had contact with
many others. We didn't do anything out of the norm for this IT project manager
and the recruiter he complimented treats all of his candidates the same way.
But in this candidate's eyes, we did far more than countless other firms and gave him a level of service he had not come across. The
point is, given his previous experiences with those who share our market space;
we should probably count ourselves lucky he even considered engaging with us at
all.
It’s time the Staffing Industry really asked itself - How
can we change this perception?
Other than chest beating about how some of us in the
recruitment industry really are interested in helping candidates and clients
get what they want from the experience; other than delivering real,
value-adding service; other than holding ourselves accountable for results;
what can we do as legitimate recruitment firms do to squash the backlash from
the resume factories?
Make no mistake – Working with a recruiting agency should be
a Rolex experience. Here, I see the true caring that goes into the process when
great recruiters bring people and companies together. More than anything, I see
the potential to help truly reduce the unemployment rate by helping our clients
realize that the great talent does exist
with some employer sponsored training and by showing job seekers that good
honest companies are still out there too.
A Rolex is still a Rolex. Why? Because of the care and
attention that goes into creating it. From a quick glance, the fake may look
the same. But if you look closely, you’ll find it’s not hard to tell the real
thing apart.
Josh Kaplan writes on
various subjects including information technology breakthroughs, big data, IT staffing and recruitment, healthcare IT recruitment, and technical industry trends.
