The Top 4 Reasons People Stopped Using Recruiters
(And Why They Should Start Again)
Every recruiter has at least a few stories about times they’ve called a potential new client and been told “We don’t use recruiters any more”. The most important words in that sentence are the last two.
I’ve spoken to a few recruiters who see that as a reason to cut their losses, end the call, and get on to someone who might be more receptive, but I don’t think time taken talking to these people is wasted. In fact, I think it can be a huge benefit. Here’s someone who can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, what not to do. You might already know a version of their story, but why turn down the chance to find out?
I’ve never had a potential client be unwilling to talk about what went wrong, if they’re only asked. It always boils down to some kind of bad service – the kind of thing that gives the rest of us a bad name.
I thought it might be fun to take a look at these four mistakes sloppy recruiters make, and to give you my personal promise as Head of Practice that you won’t ever experience these at IT Works Recruitment Germany.
Stalking
We like to keep in close contact with our clients, but there’s a limit. If, as a client, you see a recruiter’s number come up on your caller display every hour, you have emails coming in so fast you start saving them up and replying to three or four at once, and you’re spending as much time managing your recruiter as you’d be take to handle the process yourself, you’re not going to be happy.
My team and I aim to find that happy balance where our clients never feel pressured but there’s always information or updates there when they want them.
False Promises
Too many recruiters operate on a ‘say yes and figure it out later’ model. That might work in some industries, but in a niche market like ours it’s a recipe for disaster. We work to be the expert in our market, and we can be clear on what we can and can’t do. Making false promises and just generally telling customers what they want to hear even when it isn’t true?
That’s a recipe for a failed deal and a client who doesn’t want to deal with recruiters ever again.
Instead, we remember that our market knowledge and our reputation are our two biggest assets. We don’t do anything that would compromise either.
Sending CVs Without Permission
There’s nothing worse for a client-recruiter relationship than giving the client a perfect CV and then turning around later and saying “Actually, you can’t have them”. And that’s a risk recruiters run whenever they put a client forward without checking. On top of that, if you don’t check, you don’t have an opportunity to confirm their skills are exactly as they seemed.
CVs should only be sent when the client’s wishes are known, the candidate has been pre-qualified, and the candidate has given the go-ahead. At that point you can be confident that the candidate is both willing and right for the role.
Bending the Truth
I think the single most tragic example I’ve heard of a recruiter wrecking their relationship with a client was when a client was told the candidate they were looking at had immediate availability. In actual fact they opened up in three weeks, and they would have been perfect for the role; unfortunately the project couldn’t wait three weeks.
Needless to say, the recruiter was not trusted to offer any other ‘immediate availability’ candidates!
There’s no substitute for honesty in these situations. That candidate was never going to be able to fill that role, however good their skills; the recruiter got their hopes and the client’s hopes up without confirming that the issue was fixable. It would have been better to be open from the start and to offer some immediate start candidates, perhaps also mentioning (in case there was some flexibility) that a great candidate would be available in three more weeks.
If you’ve given up on recruitment as a whole because of behaviour like this, it’s hard to blame you; all the same, I know there are good recruiters out there – I head up a team of the best – and I do believe that abandoning recruiters altogether is not in your best interest.
Why not book a call with me to discuss?
