No bums on seats, please
Reflections and opinions from two decades in recruitment, by Cynthia Harris
One of the most memorable moments in my early recruitment career was a tough phone call with a client. Aside from navigating the situation professionally and with grace (in the face of confrontation), it’s a conversation that has stayed with me.
I’d received an email request for a temporary marketing resource. So I picked up the phone to take the brief. The email had some of the information we needed to find the right person, but not enough info.
And best practice in consulting (in my books anyway) is to always pick up the phone.
Unfortunately the client did not want to speak with me. She seemed surprised that I had called and was not at all receptive to my curious question-asking.
“Look, I just want you to send me the CVs” she said in a gruff voice.
When I say I was early in my recruitment career, I was still in training, probably week 2 or 3 on the job. I was 25 years old. I was confident, but new to consulting and to recruitment.
On that day (thankfully) I was being shadowed by a more experienced consultant who was listening in on the call. She was as shocked as I was.
Surely spending 5-10 minutes on the phone was a good investment, in order to get suitable CVs?
I managed to gather some more information about the role, enough to identify and brief suitable candidates, and the client got her CVs and someone suitable for this temporary role, within a couple of days.
Looking back, I’m sure she was just having a bad day. Or she was super busy. Or the hiring need had been dumped on her by someone else. We never know what’s going on for someone on any given day.
But I do know this. Effective recruitment is not bums on seats.
It’s a series of conversations which create connections.
It’s the beginning of a professional relationship.
Talent attraction is engaging hearts and minds.
Photo by LYCS Architecture on Unsplash
There isn’t a recruiter in the world who can do this effectively without a conversation with the hiring manager. Period.
This is one of my golden rules: No meeting or conversation, no search.
What is the hiring team/manager time investment when working with Heart?
Typically we ask for:
30-45 mins at the briefing/discovery stage
prompt response to questions which arise throughout the initial assessment and qualification stage (usually via email)
up to an hour for each of the candidates you want to interview (typically no more than 4)
a short phone call to share interview feedback and decision/next steps.
If you have a second interview in your process, you might invest an additional hour for one or two people.
We’re looking at 6-8 hours, maximum. What’s the return on your investment?
5 x reach: Increase the qualified, engaged talent pool up to five-fold, in 1-2 weeks.
Traction: Recruitment content which outperforms the competition by 83%.
High quality, matched talent: Leaders meet 85% of recommended talent.
Proactive search: Up to 60% of talent is sourced outside job boards.
Efficiency: From briefing to signed contract in 23 days, 48% faster than average.
As a hiring manager, you invest around 6 hours and you get a quality hire, guaranteed.
That’s a pretty epic ROI, I’d say.
Got a question or want to know more about how Heart can help? Get in touch.