LEAN, Just-in-Time Recruiting!

I know a lot has been written on this topic, but it was on my mind in recent discussions with recruitment leaders the last two weeks. In four separate conversations, our discussions on best practices turned dark. Comments included:

• “Our recruiters won’t be so stressed out if they engaged managers and set priorities”
• “Closing candidates is a lot easier if you can get hiring managers to make fair offers”
• “Hiring Managers would cut the recruiter more slack if they knew what their process was and what they were doing”
  

Clearly, these comments indicate the hiring manager does not view their recruiters as staffing/hiring/recruiting experts. While there are many things a recruiter can do to be recognized by their customers (and peers) as a recruitment expert, a simple, easy thing they can do is to become knowledgeable about the hiring managers operation.

Do you sit in operational meetings with your hiring managers? Do you sit in interviews with them? Do you provide any educational material on the labor market; the war for talent within the core skill sets they hire for?

In recruiting, it is hard to gain the respect of the hiring manager if you don’t understand what they do.

While this might be elementary to seasoned recruiters, from my discussions, it clearly is not elementary to the recruitment public at large.

I was reminded of that over the last two weeks.

I hope you can use this advice and/or pass it along to a fellow recruiter in need!

Frustrated candidates often talk about the lack of follow up they receive from recruiters.

Knowing the kind of req. loads (or candidate loads) corporate recruiters carry at any given time . . . I somewhat understand the reason for the lack of follow up (juggling too many balls at once). Talking to my partner the other day, he shared that a recruiter he was talking to had over 60 candidates in process! That is a lot to follow up!

But I am sure you all would agree that no matter the number of candidates and/or how busy we get; we owe them the common courtesy of timely feedback/status.

It shouldn’t be that difficult if you have the discipline to do the following four things (myself included):

1. Whenever you talk to a candidate, make sure you set an SLA (Service Level Agreement) for the next time you will provide feedback/status/talk next. To manage your time, try and set this as far out as possible so you are not talking to each candidate every 24 hours.
2. Set a reminder (in outlook or your ATS) to contact them.
3. Set aside time to make these calls (see above). If possible, have a specified time each day for this activity. (lunch, end of day, etc…).
4. Make use of email for routine “check ins” which allows you to do this in off hours if necessary.
   

This process is pretty simple but can relieve frustration for candidates and for you. If you are already in the habit of doing this…my hat is off to you. From my experience, you are not that “common”!

For those of us that are struggling to form (keep) this good “habit”, discipline is the key.