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I felt compelled to write this blog due to a disturbing ‘silent’ but true notion, which seems to exist within the recruitment industry. Many recruiters daren’t not speak of it, most clients daren’t not think of it, but I am about to shatter the illusion which exists within the relationship which exists between Client and Recruiter. Client’s may find this blog disturbing, and Recruiters may challenge my honest view here, however my assertions are not based upon opinion alone, but on basic ‘human nature’ principles, and the basis of ‘human survival’. Whilst I operate within the Construction, Real Estate and Property realm, generally speaking we are facing a global talent shortage. The ‘War for Talent’ can be put down to several factors, Shortages being caused namely by changing demographics, Baby Boomers ageing, an obvious decline in birthrates and global migration of talent. Then we have the very ‘deliberate’ and enterprising practices such as Global Executive Search (a flowery way of saying Head hunting), cross-border hiring, and recruitment outsourcing, which all affect the ‘movement’ of talent. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they cause ‘shortages’, as these practices may cause a shortage in one area, but they feed another area. So I opt for the word ‘movement’ for these particular practices. Naturally others crucial factors such as sophisticated technologies also come into play, as they affect ‘demand’ for human manpower, as many low-skill positions are made obsolete.
Ok so without digressing too far from the main point of this blog, I have presented macro-level reasons for talent shortages and movement, I want to take this a step further and discuss one particular strand of talent ‘movement’ reasons at micro level. Perhaps clients (and even consultants) haven’t considered the point that Recruiters play a huge part with causing movement shifts where cross-border recruiting and migration is concerned. Their actions contribute directly to candidates moving from one company/country to an another, and on a more serious level, recruiters actions can seriously distort the ‘average’ salary values in a given period, as many candidates (speaking mainly white collar workers here) are given a % increase in salary to move, or worse offered a % increase to stay, thus the artificial increase in salary can distort the given average for a region in a give period, until data is collected over a longer period of time to display an average.
Anyhow, you are probably wondering where I am going with this, but I will tie all this assertions together later in the blog, at the moment it is important to present some facts, so you have a good understanding of why I am about to make my point below.
Over the years I have had the pleasure of working with MNC’s, SME’s and Start-ups. I have personally recruited talent for some of the most iconic and ground breaking construction and infrastructure projects spanning 3 continents. I don’t want my medal just yet, but as a recruiter I have worked on ‘filling gaps for clients, which have directly impacted on my client being able to complete their projects. Without my Architect on that particular phase of the project, what would the impact have been to Mrs Client X? Without my Health & Safety Manager on that Petrochemical project, would the project have been ‘approved’ by authorities in time for completion, for Mr Client Y, and without my Commercial Manager on the Casino project for Mr Client Z, would the cost savings, final accounts and cost litigations have been completed in time for handover? I actually don’t know the answers to these questions, but what I’m trying to point out, is that Recruiters don’t just ‘fill a position’ or ‘recruit a body’ or ‘find someone a job’. These are the ‘superficial’ solutions a recruiter is involved with, and is often the level which ‘Clients’ operate at. What I mean is, too many client’s view Recruiters as a necessary evil because they believe Recruiters perform the aforementioned ‘superficial’ tasks, for what they believe is an inflated fee. I totally disagree with these viewpoints.
For me a Recruiter is engaged to ‘fix problems’ caused by talent shortages. When I’m given a brief from a client, I ask them what the ‘cost’ to their business will be if they ‘do not’ find this person in a month, 3 months, a year etc. I ask them to describe the problem caused (if it is not already present), if they are to not fill their man power requirement on time? Usually the answer is a hybrid of the ‘project will fall behind schedule’ and this will directly ‘impact the cost’. Readers please note, the construction projects I work on are multi-million dollar projects, just one day delay on a projects of this scales results in thousands of dollars of loss, straight off the bottom line! This makes my recruitment fee look like a puny ‘raisin’ as far as costs are concerned.
It’s a simple shift in mind-set, too many clients focus on the ‘cost’ of the recruitment fee, instead of the ‘cost’ impact to their project if they don’t find this person. Usually the people thinking like this, are HR professionals, or middle management, who can’t ‘see past’ the recruitment fee. However scarily enough, some Directors and MD’s also operate on the superficial levels when engaging a Recruiter. That said however, many Directors, MD’s, Business owners have a more strategic view of a business than middle management, they are more likely to appreciate the ‘cost’ to their business if a project falls behind schedule, or if they can’t ‘win’ a tender due to shortages of man-power. Then and only then does the recruitment fee become irrelevant, as the cost of NOT having that person on board, is far greater than the cost of hiring them in the first place. It is these supply/demand dynamics which has made Recruitment a multi billion dollar industry worldwide.
To me (and other professional recruiters), it is hugely disappointing when a Client can’t see the value to be added by a Recruiter, not just with recruiting talent, but with providing overall market advice (often for free). A professional Recruiter (note I use the word professional, as our industry is full of people who give our industry a bad name and I can’t call those individuals ‘professional’) can seriously ‘add value’ in many different ways. As I tell my good clients, I am the ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground, as to what the localized market is doing, I can advise on salary movements, recruitment drives/campaigns, and market shifts, perhaps more interestingly though I’m able to provide competitor analysis (for very good clients only), and give clients ‘exclusivity’ on candidates, again this is reserved for the premier clients only. None of these ‘Consultative’ approaches cost anything extra by the way, it’s just ‘human nature’ that you look after the people who look after you. I have no qualms with going the extra mile for clients who value our service and treat us with the same respect we give them. Now how about the clients who don’t operate on a win/win basis?
Perhaps now is a good time to refer back to the title of this blog ‘Don’t make an enemy out of a Recruiter’ . When I first started out in recruitment, I recall making a routine call to a client, regarding an upcoming residential project they were running. I clearly caught this Director at a ‘BAAAAD’ time, as just as I had got my name and company out of my mouth, and he proceeded into a huge shouting spiel, littered with the four letter word, coughing out expletives about how he ‘hates Recruiters’, how we are the ‘Scum of the earth’, ‘Shit at our jobs’ bla bla bla bla, then he put the phone down on me. Naturally I was speechless, but actually on a more ‘humane’ level, I was actually quite hurt. In those inexperienced days, I took rejections personally, and aggressive stances such as this clients comments, could move me to tears. I’m pleased to say I handle such situations far better these days, but it took me a while to shift my mindset.
My change of mindset is directly related to the title of this blog. It took me a while to understand that I actually didn’t ‘need’ to work with everyone. In fact I began to understand, and respect my own role as a Recruiter far more. I began to appreciate that there are generally three broad types of clients, Client A) you work hard on and take on their problems as your own, and then there is Client B) whom you utilize for finding talent for your Client A, and lastly there is Client C) whom you haven’t discovered yet, or is unaware of your services.
The interesting thing about these groupings is that they are dynamic, Client A could become Client B and vice versa, nothing is fixed and nothing is given. Now for the interesting part, Client B is usually a client who has been given the opportunity to work with you, but doesn’t wish to, or is a typically a client who favours another consultancy, or is a client who has annoyed the Recruiter at some stage in the past. The problem that all the Client B’s have is that could be in danger of becoming prime targets for having their people head hunted by Recruiters. After all they probably haven’t given time of day to the Recruiter, so the Recruiter inevitably has no loyalty or regard for the client.
Becoming a prime ‘hunting’ ground for a Recruiter is bad news for a company. Recruiters have the power and influence to target candidates and offer them alternative employment with competitors or on projects overseas. Putting it bluntly, they could potentially ‘rip’ the heart out of an organization by targeting key star players.
Indeed I know one such Recruiter who had no shame in admitting that a particular Contractor had been dishonest with him, and taken on a candidate through another agency, despite him being the ‘introducing’ agent. From that point onwards, this particular recruiter mapped out this Clients entire office in terms of staff names. Over the next 3 years, he set out targeting the employees of this firm with alternative options. He even boasted that so far he had a 60% ‘success rate’ of recruiting people from this client, and luring them away with better opportunities. Did the client know why his staff were leaving? Did the client realise who was behind his staff attrition rates? Did the client realise that his company was delibrately being targeted so aggressively by one individual? And lastly if the client was aware of all of the above, did he/she realise that this situation was caused by his dishonesty in the first place?
Now I’m not suggesting that this is the right or wrong way to go about things, however in the bloody world of business, I feel we must be careful, fully aware and totally accountable for our actions. Humans are fragile creatures by nature, and all sorts of feelings are conjured when one feels ‘hard done by’. Whilst I can appreciate (but not understand) that some Clients don’t feel Recruiters add value to operations, a Client has to be careful how they portray this message. Said in the wrong way, to the wrong person, on the wrong day, and you could end up being moved into the ‘Client B’ pile, and before you know it, you could be shedding staff quicker than Paris Hilton’s strip tease.
This topic is by no means over, I will continue with more damning examples from the recruitment industry in a separate blog. For now I wanted to lay the foundations for a debate on this topic. I know Clients will have their stance and many ‘honest’ Recruiters will agree with my assertions. The overall message I’m trying to put across is that in today’s day and age, where there is a very real global talent shortage, causing a ‘war for talent’, shouldn’t Client’s be rallying their allies? A Recruiter can be an very important ally to a business, whether you recruit through them or not. Make an enemy out of a Recruiter however, and you could find your business being plagued by a ‘silent disease’, causing you to loose your star players. If you are smart you will find out the cause of this problem and remedy it before the problem causes irreversible damage.
All comments are welcome
Current Location: Singapore
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