Why communication with your recruiter is paramount
As Recruiters, we have all have those days. You spend days scouring the internet, network groups, LinkedIn, friends of a friends and even twitter to find a slate of candidates for a very tough position; that one role that has been a thorn in your side.
You know the one, and it is literally the bane of your existence.
You finally find the candidates who will rock this role and you have them on the hook. You set the expectations with them that they are being pushed through to the next round. You have the most eloquently prepared summary outlining all of the candidates experience and showing how it perfectly aligns with the needs of the organization ready for the hiring manager to eat out of your hand. You are ready to set up next steps to ensure a great candidate experience. As you press send on the last message to the hiring manager telling them of the gold you have found, you get a chill because you can TASTE a placement. You are a recruiting god. You have curated the best candidates; You are ready to herd the cats and make a placement.
You follow up with a call to the hiring manager a few hours later because there isn’t an immediate response; but, no sweat. The next morning you send a follow up email and call again later in the afternoon. You send yourself a test email to make sure your email is, in fact, working. Suddenly, you feel a bit less confident, but you pull it back together and remember, after all, you are a recruiting god and surely, the hiring manager/team must be busy and its’ not because they are ghosting you.
The next morning you touch base with your slate of candidates, keeping them warm. You finally get a hold of the hiring manager and they say something along the lines of “I have been busy” or, my personal favorite, “I have a lot on my plate”. Yeah, George, we know. We are trying to help offload some of that work by providing you with great talent. Of course, you don’t say this, but you think it. You ask if they had a chance to review the resume and your perfectly written summary of your candidates experience and they reply with, “yeah, I’ll do that tonight and get back to you in the morning.”
Three days later, still no response from George. You get a message from one of your perfect candidates asking for an update and you respond back with all the warm fuzzies, stating they are still in process.
Seven WHOLE days after submitting candidates to George, there is still no response. You don’t want to appear too desperate and even though you are starting to worry. Seven days turns in to ten turns in two weeks, all the while, you send a follow up email consistently.
3 weeks later, George finally gets back to responding to you and wants to move forward with the next steps in the interview process. Being the recruiter you are, you have let George know on day 1, day 5, 7, 12 and 18 that these candidates are actively interviewing and their skill set is in high demand. But, George seems unfazed. You get back in touch with your candidates and two of the three are in the final stages of interviews with competing companies and 1 has an offer on the table. We are facing an uphill battle but we get 2 candidates onsite. The day of the interview, George has to cancel for a scheduling conflict.
Cue. The. Rage.
This story has played out time and time again across every type of industry, across every sized organization. Companies are losing out on fantastic talent because of the break down in (read lack of) communication from hiring teams to the recruiters.
Hiring managers, you have to be the most invested person in filling your positions. Here is what every recruiter wishes you know and what you would do:
Provide us with timely feedback. Two days tops. In today’s market where there is a greater need for talent than candidates who are qualified with that skillset, availability can change very quickly. If you are going to be out of the office or on a project, either explain that to us on the front end, or delegate someone on your team who can make these decisions on your behalf.
Provide us with substantial feedback and be transparent with constructive feedback. Just saying, “not interested.” doesn’t qualified as substantial. Telling us the candidate doesn’t have the right skills set because they are too junior in specific areas (tell us what those are) will help us refine our process, ask better questions and ensure you are getting the right candidates.
If you are overwhelmed with options or other items on your plate- we understand! But tell us and let us help come up with a game plan. Is there someone on your team who can delegate this or something else too? Is there someone who can do a preliminary phone interviews? We are here to help you get creative.
Don’t be afraid to pull the trigger. When you find what you are looking for, stop looking. I once had a hiring manager string an extremely qualified candidate along for 90 days after an interview because “What if” someone else comes along who they will like better. Please don’t be that manager. The candidate was amazing and we ultimately made her an offer
The hardest days in a recruiter’s career is when you see talent go to work for a competitor. It should also be the saddest day in the hiring managers career, too. Engage with your talent acquisition team and take action on top talent. If you don’t, your competitor will.
Christine Coriaggio-Carter is the Managing Partner of Liberty Partners HR- a women own HR Consultant Company and search firm. She is a firm believer in finding the silver lining in all things.