In a coincidentally convenient follow up to my last blog, HR Magazine this week published a report that 75% of employers feel "ripped off" by recruitment agency fees. I cannot help but think that this is a variation of the theme that it is hard to find good people.
There is an old adage that says, "Always remember, when you point your finger at someone there are 3 pointing back at you!" Employers would do well to remember this, because they are probably just as much to blame as the recruiters, if not more. After all, at the end of the day, the agency simply selects candidates to fit their requirements and they:
- Determine the job description and what they are looking for in a candidate;
- Make the final candidate choice and accept the candidate put forward;
- Accept the recruitment agencies terms for finding a candidate.
The major explanation given for this employer dissatisfaction is the quantity of "poorly-targeted CVs that don't meet their requirements." This also points to a failure to fully understand the recruitment process, and the choices of recruitment available. After all there are 2 types of recruiters – retained recruiters – who get paid a fee to find a suitable candidate, and contingency recruiters, who only get paid when a candidate they put forward is employed. So in both cases the ultimate onus is on the employer.
Perhaps the article itself is just extremely shallow or the survey it was based on flawed. However, I cannot help feeling that employers are misdiagnosing the problem and blaming the recruitment industry for what is effectively a poor process. Rather than pointlessly criticising, they should be more proactive and take steps to ensure that they recruit the right people and improve employee retention rates.
Specific problems that they might look at to improve the recruitment process include:
- Looking to recruit people rather than just fill job descriptions;
- Look to recruit for employee personal development rather than expecting the recruit to continue doing what s/he was doing previously;
- Recognising that a new person requires support and time to grow in comfort in the role and accommodating that need;
- Eliminate the problems that caused the previous employee to leave in the first place.
Recruiters on the other hand, should take this report as an early warning and take a lead in working with employers to address the problem. Ultimately their livelihood may depend on it.
The blame game is going to go on forever as it is the nature of us humans to blame others for our misgivings.
Sometimes its best if you do recruitment personally then by letting agencies do because you get to screen those potential employees who have what it takes to make your expectations come true.
Sometimes doing recruitment gets you stressed and thus making you a little grumpy. You can’t really avoid this cause it is really part of the recruitment process.
Of ourse it depends on how much recruiting you do and how well placed you are to do it, but as a general rule I would say that it is always best to do your own recruiting. If you truly value your people and want to engender the right culture and sense of a cohesive team this seems obvious. The only danger is that you risk only hiring people like yourself, which might not always be best for the organisation.
Your point about getting stressed and grumpy is also valid, but is something you need to guard against. I would suggets you ask yourself whether it is the recruiting itself that causes the stress or trying to squeeze it in with everything else you are doing. If it is the latter then:
a) Try to delegate some of your other responsibilities if you can; and
b) Set up recruitment interviews for first thing so that you are fresh and before anything else specifically occurs that can make you “grumpy.” As you will understand it is not fair eith to the candidate or the organisation to try to recruit people if you are feeling that way.
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