How Good Recruiters Help Improve Hiring Outcomes

There has been a noticeable increase since 2020 in the number of junior candidates (0-5 years experience) that have had several jobs in under 12 months so it begs the question, why would this be the case? 

I don’t think it would be fair to say it is all candidates making poor decisions nor is it the case that hiring managers have forgotten how to interview people properly, so I thought it worthwhile breaking down all the different things that can affect the success of a hire and potential strategies for minimising the risk.

Broadly speaking, placements don’t work out because of a misalignment of expectations. 

On the businesses side, it is usually because the person they hired is not as skilled as the hiring manager thought. 

On the employee side, they usually leave because of some aspect of culture OR more likely the work they are doing is not what they thought it would be or they need more help.

OK great, so what has actually changed?

In short, there are more 1 -2 person recruitment businesses run by people who have 1-2 years recruitment experience.

Why does this matter?

The number and quality of recruiters a potential candidate is speaking with

The number of recruiters a candidate is speaking with will effect a decision in the following ways:

• The more recruiters (sales people) the greater the incentive based bias for each recruiter, i.e. if a candidate is speaking with 1 recruiter who knows what they are doing, that recruiter has about a 80-90% chance of placing that candidate, if they are speaking with 5+ recruiters, that decreases to 15-20%, so as the number of recruiters increase, the bias of each increases;

• Worse than this, it can create a situation where recruiters are misrepresenting roles, businesses etc just to get a deal over the line, this happens all the time.

The quality of recruiter a potential candidate is speaking with will effect a decision in the following ways:

• Good recruiters want placements to work out, hopefully because they want people to happy, more likely because they do not want to have to refill a job, they would much rather not make the placement;

• This means they will make sure they ask the candidate lots of questions about what it is they are actually trying to change and how that affects their long term career options;

• In this process they will uncover reasons why a placement will not work out and they will discuss these with both the candidate and the hiring manager and encourage them to discuss them in the meeting to see how big an issue it is.

• Good recruiters know the market, know what different businesses are like to work for and will tell candidates warts and all about the businesses they are meeting, they will give candidates a cost v benefit of each option they have all of which reducing the risk of accepting a job for the wrong reasons;

This is all just to highlight how a good recruiter will work, this was as true before covid as after covid.

One of the issues is that during Covid, because of the move to remote work lots of people started working for themselves who have very little experience.

The same recruiters would otherwise be working in teams where they would be getting regular training and feedback to make sure they are doing things in a way that delivers the best outcomes for candidates and clients.

It begs the question, how would hiring a candidate through a good recruiter V an average recruiter affect the hiring success of that person?

To use an example.

Candidate A is a business services accountant with 3 years experience at a 20 staff firm, CA qualified and has a pretty typical client base, all entities, businesses up to 10M.

Candidate A speaks with 2 recruiters, they tell both recruiters they are looking for:

A role in a “Mid-tier”, they want 3 days WFH and the main reason they are looking to leave the 20 staff firm is that they just want to work for a larger firm because they have better training.

Average recruiter will, at best, say to the candidate these are the 50 businesses near where you live that are larger then where you are currently working, let's start with the 10 largest and work our way through the list.

OK so what is wrong with that?

You know nothing about the candidate's current situation, what the existing training is like, what they think constitutes good training, why working at a Mid-tier is important, do they just want a name on a CV or do they want/expect specific client experience.

You know nothing about what their current working culture is like, what they like and don’t like, what an average day is like, are there things about their current employer they really value (i.e. free lunch, gym etc). 

And the list goes on.

From the candidates point of view, they know nothing about the differences between each firm, if they accept a job with a firm through the above process, they will be accepting based on salary and size of business.

Neither someone's salary or the size of the business they are joining is a predictor of success in a role.

A good recruiter will ask questions to make sure they understand exactly what constitutes a good job for the person they are speaking with, the questions might include:

• What is it about working for a mid-tier that is important to you, i.e. what do you think you will get at a mid-tier you won’t get at a smaller firm?

• Is there a reason you need 3 days WFH? There are probably only 1-2 Top 50 firms that offer 3 days from home, how badly do you need 3 days from home? What hours are you happy to work, do you have commitments outside of work that are hard to keep?

• What are your medium term goals, i.e. are you looking to progress within an accounting firm or do you have medium term goals to move to commerce etc?

The goal of which is to really diagnose the problem the person is trying to solve, provide them with options of how to solve it, the cost and benefit of each option both short and long term.

The vast majority of people really just need some help working through the process of working out what they want and some guidance about what options are available to them.

So, same candidate: 

Through an average recruiter, when you meet them they will likely be still trying to figure out what it is they want.

You could end up meeting a lot of candidates and evening hiring someone who was never going to be successful in the role because it was not what they really wanted.

When they accept a role with a business, they will likely be accepting on a superficial value, not because the role is an essential part of their 5-10 year career plan.

Through a good recruiter, when you meet the candidate they will have a clear understanding of what is missing from their current role and what they want in their next role from a skill development point of view, the implications of solving those problems and how a role with your business will help them progress through their career.

Equally important, the recruiter will be clear with the hiring manager about what the candidate actually wants, what the culture is like where they work and will recommend making sure they discuss specific points of interest to the candidate.

This creates a greater connection to the role so when someone comes knocking on a bad day saying they can get them an extra 5K, they are far more likely to decline the offer to leave.

If you are interested in discussing how to get the most out of your recruitment process, please feel free to get in contact, always happy  to speak with people.