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“God, I hate recruiters!”

It was Sunday, so I was not in work mode at all. In fact I was watching my son trial for a Sydney Representative cricket team, and my mind was on him bowling fast and batting straight.

On the side of the field, the mums and dads congregated, and the usual banter was flying fast and furious, when one of the guys turned to me and said,

“I thought of you this week.”

The dad in question is well known to me. We have sat on sporting sidelines watching our sons for years, so I was expecting a joke or maybe even an oblique compliment.

But when I asked why, he looked at me steely-eyed and said “God, I hate recruiters”.

There it was. What every recruiter suspects, but does not really want or expect to hear.

It seems my friend had recently resigned his senior IT job and was seeking out a new role. That brought him into sharp and intimate contact with a wide range of Sydney IT recruiters, and what he had to tell me about the experience made me want to hide in shame.

What he said is not new. We have heard it before. But this was from a friend. And it was recent and raw because it happened to him in the last few days. At a vulnerable time.  And so it was so much more real than some esoteric Boardroom conversations about “candidate care”. And clearly, as a recruiter, I was caught up in his perception of our industry.

In short, he had this to say:

  • Recruiters don’t listen. They assume they know what you can do and what you want to do. They are arrogant and ride roughshod over your dreams, fears and questions.
  • Many recruiters are technically deficient. They recruit in areas they don’t understand and they are not even ashamed when its obvious that they don’t understand
.
  • “The bastards don’t return your calls.” Verbatim. Enough said.
  • They tell you lies. They lie about the jobs they have, and they lie about what stage your application is at with the client.
  • They provide no feedback, or scant feedback on the process, on interviews and on client opinions.

He went on to say one more thing, which I was hesitant to repeat here. But regular ‘Savage Truth‘ readers know I will always tell it as it is, so here goes. 
He said, and I quote,

“As soon as I hear the recruiter has an English accent, I won’t deal with them.”

Now, let’s dig into that.

Firstly I don’t share that generalisation, obviously. There are great English recruiters, and there are duds. Same as any nationality.

But secondly, I do understand his attitude. Because it is true that Australia has seen an influx of UK trained recruiters, many of who have a poor reputation for service. Recruiters who call candidates ‘punters’ and placements ‘deals’. The point is his experiences were bad enough for him to simply refuse to work with them. Probably reducing his chances of getting a job, but he is prepared to take that risk.

But that is all a distraction. The primary point is that candidate service is getting no better in Australia – or elsewhere in my opinion. Why are we so blind as a profession? So shortsighted? We know accessing talent is where the real battle in our business will be fought, yet we continue with this shoddy behaviour.

It’s a training issue for sure. It’s a leadership issue definitely.  It’s also a problem with the fundamental model of our industry, the fact that most work is contingent and in competition. That means recruiters fill only a small fraction of the jobs they work on. That drives speed over quality. And all that is compounded by the way we pay people. Telling them to provide service, but rewarding them only for financial outcomes

And guess who loses. Candidates.

The only good thing that came out of that sideline chat? The fact that there is clearly an opportunity for forward-thinking recruiters to differentiate.

To go against the tide.

To stand out as a beacon of service in a sea of mediocrity.

Please consider subscribing to The Savage Truth for regular, news, opinion and updates.

  • Posted by Greg Savage
  • On March 2, 2011
  • 116 Comments

116 Comments

Tracey Montgomery
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Well said Greg. I have spent 15 years in the Industry and I'm quite passionate about it. I find it disheartening that the industry can be tarnished and I once heard someone liken us to "used car salepeople". With no disrespect to used cars sales I admit I was offended. I agree that a large portion of the problem lies within poor leadership. I own and operate my own agency and I'm not suggesting we are perfect but I don't KPI my staff on client visits or marketing calls but rather "Have you returned every call today?". Unless they have (or an attempt made) then they simply don't leave the office until this task is completed. Obviously they don't always get on to the candidate but a message left or a text is sent to confirm the attempt. Simple. I do think however that it is time that our industry is some how regulated and I wonder if this is the first step in managing some of the issues you have pointed out.
Brian Huntley
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Very interesting.... True in many ways. I belong to a LinkedIN group where a discussion has been going on about recruiters for a very long time. They now have over 12,000 comments from group members about recruiters...A very hot topic..... I wonder if as a recruiter we can talk about some candidates and HR departments we deal with from time to time? I guess that would be career suicide....so bite the tongue...LOL
Heath Brennan
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Greg, you are normally right with your blogs, this one is even MORE right! Can I come to your training?
George
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Interesting scenario Greg, and a good one for what I take is a senior level candidate He's resigned without a role to go to , and sounds like he expected alot easier ride than he is getting Whilst I'm all for great candidate service, the candidate also needs to listen to the recruiter as well - it is like dancing, both sides need to participate equally Of course if there is an instant red flag on a particular recruiter, of course step away - but if someone says something you don't want to hear - don't shoot the messenger. That person should be commended for providing some insight into what is going on, not reacted to because the message is not what you want. On the whole I have also found senior people somewhat tough to deal with with they resign and all of a sudden they find things not quite how they expect them to be Just one persons thoughts of course
Aaron Dodd
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Nothing new there Greg. Your experience reminds me of the the St George Bank TV advert...only replace the term "banker" with "recruiter. There is a massive shortage of top notch recruiters in Australia. I believe his comments about English recruiters are more a reflection of a number of certain large recruitment companies (we all know who they are) who swell their consultant ranks with masses of 457 Visa or under 30 age Working Visas as they can't find the talent they need locally. The candidate care issues are a more likley to be a reflection of their employers' culture and values than their individual attitudes (although it will be in some cases). I know Firebrand has a different approach to engaging with candidates. I'd like to think my company, Mindset also takes a different stance. Unfortunately the market is dominated by the big 'uns and unless they change their ways the whole industry will be tarred with their attitude.
Alexis Siermans
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
It still amazes me that candidates are experiencing this level of service in our industry - This candidates experience tarnishes ALL our client and candidate relationships. As a response it would be great to hear from anyone who has had a AWESOME level of service delivery . I am proud to say that my team at Career Team in Auckland strive to deliver exceptional experiences in the recruitment process. Thank you Greg for highlighting a training issue we should all focus on every moment of every day.
Catherine Grant
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
I couldn't agree more with this post Greg. I came to recruitment after 15 years in advertising agencies, and there are more times than I would care to mention being ashamed of the industry. Your comment about pay being structured around results but expecting service is so very true! Let me know when the training is on!!!!
Nathan Reese
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Our industry is in a sad light from a candidate point of view and not to mention clients also. I would love to think we can turn it around, however I hold grave concerns as its become a dog eat dog industry.
Mark
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
So let me get this straight… This racist and generally prejudiced friend of yours was stupid enough to resign from his job without one to go to? And, after presumably a long career in I.T., he has not developed any relationships with recruiters in his industry that he trusts enough to go to directly for help and guidance. In fact, he only came to you to complain and you know the guy well! I’ve heard this BS all my career. I gave up successfully defending recruitment years ago – give yourself a break Greg. You should have smacked him on the ass with your son’s cricket bat and told him to grow up and sew a pair on. :)
Christina Blais
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Thanks for sharing Greg. As someone who has been in the industry for quite some time, my philosophy is simple...my candidate can one day be my client and my client can one day be my candidate. Simple. I treat both with the same respect and professionalism since without one or the other, how would we be able to succeed in this challenging industry?
Helen
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Previous comments have already covered the key points, and again reinforce that the good consultant will ultimately win out. However, more importantly in this day and age is the fact that I don't feel we should be making that marked distinction between clients and candidates (esp. at the more senior levels) - they are all key stakeholders and our reputation is reinforced, spread or killed by each and every touchpoint - regardless of how your database "codes" them. For every bad comment you acually hear - as in Greg's tale, there will be thousands more blogs, posts, conversations and so forth that you may or may not be aware of. The upside is, these channels help spread a great reputation and referrals. In reality we only ever get to place a tiny fraction of the people we meet, but if we make an effort so that they each take something away from that meeting that helps them on their journey, that leaves them with a positive impression of our brand, then that will prove invaluable. By the way, I am British (and Canadian!).
Samantha Begg
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Hi Greg. Thank you for verbalising the most frustrating issue I have as a Senior Recruiter. I continously meet with disgruntled and disheartened candidates from all industries and levels that relay their "horror" experiences with transactional recrutiers who lack the ability to truly consult. I agree with Tracey that this mentality is often a flow on effect of Management in how best to bring in the money. As a result consultant KPI's are based purely on monetary expectations and not quality of service, integrity and being present to the specific needs of each individual candidate. This is also a result of the cut throat and highly competitive, not to mention highly flooded recruitment market we work in. I actively choose to make a difference to my candidate's recruitment industry experience everyday. I am extremely fortunate in that, having worked for several global recruitment companies over the years, I am now working for a local privately owned organisation, Careerlink, where management holds integrity, innovation, honesty and being my word as THE most important objective. Through truly living this everyday, we have a very successful organisation where a large majority of our business comes from positive referral and reputation in the market. What the large powerhouse agency's often fail to see is that if you deliver on the expectations of your candidate and truly consult, the financial reward will follow. If only those rogue consultants would try stepping out of the "used car sales" mentality and stand for being thier word in every sense.
Claire
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
After watching "The King's Speech" I was amazed to learn that there was actually a rivalry between Brits and Australians. I can barely tell the difference in accents. But this was a great article and I agree. Candidate care should be number one. As a person in the U.S. who occasionally gets requests through Linked In from recruiters, I have had great experiences but my own personal experience with a recruiter for a job was awful.
Neil Bolton
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Brilliant post, Greg. Again. I also am passionate about recruitment. I believe that recruitment done well is one of the most honourable and humanly rewarding professions in the world. But recruitment done badly is horrible. And now, even though I still consider myself a recruiter, I'm trying - and sometimes succeeding - to raise the performance of the recruitment industry by providing a piece of software that if the recruiter follows the path of least resistance they do a quality job. (And that sounds like an ad, and it probably is, and I apologise for that, but it puts it into perspective.) I built one of the most successful recruitment branches in Australia in a little over three years by following a few simple rules: First, I very rarely employed an experienced recruiter - only two, as I recall. I didn't want to inherit bad habits. Then I trained them, over and over and over, using Tony Byrnes tapes. Then I hammered: Keep The Candidates Informed, and Take a Complete Job Order At All Times And it worked. And every time that Greg gets through to a recruiter and they start doing the job ethically and well, the productivity of the entire recruitment industry goes up, and more clients will use more recruiters, and candidates will be happier and will use recruiters more. But is it is so easy to make good money doing a crap job that sometimes I despair of the industry becoming professional.
Lisa
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Greg, obviously your friend needs to connect with the right person in the right consultancy and he will find that respect and consideration that he deserves. I understand that IT recruitment is extraordinarily competitive so it doesn't surprise me that a lack of candidate care is missing in the mix. However - we also have to remember that we are not social workers. We are not there to fix someone's life or solve their issues for them. It is a terrible thing when 20% of your candidate base demand 80% of your time because they think you 'owe' them something. Candidates do not pay us a cent and we are not engaged to pat them on the head and salve their ego. We should treat them all with respect, honesty and give them realistic expectations of what they should expect in the market but they need to realise that half the time consultants spend valuable time trying to work out how to gently let them know that they are just not right for the position in question. I think that your friend has left his job expecting to find opportunities falling all over him. Because so many consultants write generic, dishwater ads, he reads a job advert and thinks instinctively that he can do the job only to be confused and shocked when he receives an immediate email rejection with no specific feedback. I can only assume that because he is not getting through to consultants, or is not getting calls back is because there is something lacking in his resume OR that there are no jobs at his level in the market. And the real issue is that nobody is taking the time to sit down with him and really listen to him and THEN giving him a reality check of what needs to happen for him to get his ideal next role. I dont even tell people that I work in recruitment - I am sick of half cut idiots in the pub thinking that I am at all interested in what happened to them in 1989 when they went to see Agency X and never had their calls returned. Mostly I just end up looking at these bozo's and saying to myself 'I can see why they never called you back... Another quick point - agencies who create candidate care roles inevitably pay these people a lot less than the consultants out there drumming up the job opportunities. Like any industry - if you pay less you either end up employing monkeys OR someone who perhaps does not have the commercial nous to successfully promote a candidate to their colleagues. Candidate Care consultants have a hideous time convincing consultants to 'use' their candidate (esp if they have to split a fee) and it is never helped if they use terms like 'I liked him" or "He's a nice guy". Consultants are a far harder sell than a Client. To be a successful candidate care consultant you need to have been a successful client facing consultant - so that your colleagues will respect you; so that you understand client requirements and so that you have credibility with senior level candidates. And to attract a consultant like this into a care role, you need to pay them well. It will be interesting to see how many consultancies are willing to pay top dollar for non client facing consulting roles...
Jonathan Rice
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
I was one of those English recruiters in Sydney hired on a 457 visa by Hays. I now do rec-to-rec in NZ and I did see some poor behaviour from recruiters, but I'd love more recruitment candidates with the level of drive, energy and passion a lot of the English recruiters had. I also recruited in Newcastle and was one of two English recruiters in an office of 12. Both of us had recruitment standards and candidate care levels in excess of our Australian colleagues. It is the behaviour of a shoddy few that gives recruitment a bad name. The same happens in rec-to-rec where a few cowboy operators make most recruitment comapnies think we are all like that. The irony is hilarious. Recruiters need to take accountability for their own actions. If the industry gets a bad name then it is an opportunity for individual recruiters to buck the trend and really stand out and shine. I bought a second hand car in December too, and the salesman was excellent.
John Milce
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
I have to say that I can't disagree with his comments about English recruiters (the ones out here on 457 visas). Unfortunately though, I have an English accent myself - even though I've lived in Oz for almost 40 years, and have been in recruitment here for almost 20 years, and runninmg Sherborne for the past 14 years. I sincerely hope that I don't get tarred with the same brush ;-)
Joanne Mckay
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
All recruiters should read " How to win friends and influence people " but only the boutique independants will bother I would say .................The generalist recruiters will do what they have always done and get away with it and the little business takes the flack, lets get the clients to think abit harder about who they are going to use rather than that supposedly easier higher profile brand that is top of mind awareness from the past. Its hard work to keep everyone happy but I know I do my best to make a difference with candidate care and often thanked..........these young bunnies don't know the
Maxine Groves
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
As someone who has been a Recruiter now for 10 years and is truly passionate about treating candidates as human beings with ethics, honesty and integrity this article does not surprise me one bit, I have both managed and worked alongside many of these types of Recruiters, in my opinion the industry is getting it wrong from 2 perspectives: 1. They are hiring the wrong type of people to work for their agency 2. There is a massive lack of DECENT training to become a successful Consultant/Recruiter. I was very fortunate that I started my career at the tender age of 20 with a boutique Sydney agency run by one of the most dedicated and passionate women in the industry, I had the best grounding possible in candidate care (really and truly) and also client care and management, it helped me be successful wherever I worked (even if I was working for a bad agency) I am so fed up of the lack of standards in this great industry that last October I launched my own company, I offer resume and cover letter services as well as interview coaching to job seekers and very unique recruitment packages at about a third of the cost of a traditional agency, yet my clients get MORE service and better results, I had to do something about making a difference - Maxine Groves, Director, Emerge Career Services, Sydney
Maxine Groves
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Correction to last post, make that 20 years in this great industry, let's bring back the honesty, the ethics and for goodness sake - the CARE factor!
Martin John
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
As someone who is going thru this experience now your article is on the money! Generally I feel recruiters have very little understanding of my skills and career achievement and matching that with the role on offer. As you said technically deficient, clearly fishing and little interest in the candidate beyong booking a deal to get paid. As a professional I expect recruiter to act professional which doesn't happen often. My experience here is in Hong Kong.
Nicole Underwood
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Yes it is very frustrating running a recruitment business where so many other recruiters in the market still insist on being 'client centric' ie: the candidates will come as long as we have the job. I think this is ultimately a leadership issue - it comes from the top. If you want to change the industry and this perception and treatment, the leaders need to train and reward candidate centric behaviour. For example, we have candidate ownership here and fees are split based on candidate and client ownership. We have found that the candidate has a much better experience and gets looked after by 1 consultant. I too have friends who have low opinions of Consultants and I cringe everytime they attempt to tell me how much they think Recruiters are the lowest of the low (even after I have placed this person twice in 10 years in senior HR roles!). Slowly slowly Greg - but at the end of the day some Recruiters will continue under this model - maybe the positive being making the rest of us shine!
Vincenzo
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
This is one of the best and worst things I've read on this blog. Before I write about them, I've heard the exact same thing said about used car salesmen, real estate agents, lawyers and politicians. OK... The worst: our industry has enough morons for candidates to have negative expectations when dealing with recruiters. The best: since our industry is so saturated with halfwits, there should be very little competition for any recruiter wishing to be better than average. The more incompetent my competitors are, the happier I am.
Mr X.
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Greg, Candidates want service, but they actually call you because they want a job. You lose talent when you can't find the talent any work, quickly. That's what good service is. Getting me a good job, quickly. No-one ever winges about a recuruiter who placed them, only those who can't. Your cricket dad has skills, but he can't find a recruiter who can sell him. He wants an Agent, not a Customer Service Rep, we all do. Get a reputation as the Agency that can place anyone from Grads to Execs and the Talent will be pounding at your door. Regards, Mr Don't-Tell-My-Boss-I'm-Looking-For-Work
Connor Hughes
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Greg, I have a colleague in Sydney that I believe would give your friend the time and service he deserves if your friend is still looking for a new position?
    Greg Savage
    • Mar 2 2011
    • Reply
    Yes indeed Connor, and I am sure he would appreciate the assistance. My email address is on this blog or you can DM me on Twitter. Thanks! Greg
Rod Hore
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Well done Greg. This, and the article in Recruiter Daily on 1st March, bring into sharp focus how much the industry has still to achieve. Has everyone forgotten it is a candidate short market? Keep fighting, keep differentiating.
Josh Geller
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Whilst I work very closely with my candidates and have been fortunate to place a number of them more than once across their career (generally with a number of years in between) , it important to remember the difference between customer service and candidate service. Networking is very important in this industry and I am always keen to invest my time in someone that wants to share his/her contacts and expertise with me, even where there is no immediate return. I must admit to having to ask a candidate that confused the issue and was complaining about my customer service the following. Which part of the entirely free service that my firm is providing you are you unhappy with ?? It was the "not being selected for short listing issue" Whilst I appreciate that candidates are hugely important in our industry, its the candidates that I am able to place in roles that my long term clients have engaged me on that require and deserve my focus. Candidates need to remember that Recruiters are commercial people that have been engaged by another party to perform a search and selection function. They operate in a very competitive time sensitive market place and need to deliver to their customers. Accordingly if Candidates interact with recruiters in the same way they would with a potential employer they will find the whole process a little easier. All the above holding true, Its still very important to have a frank honest and efficient communication with candidates... which is certainly a focus for me
Vincenzo
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
@Lisa, You wrote this: "they need to realise that half the time consultants spend valuable time trying to work out how to gently let them know that they are just not right for the position in question.". Any consultant who expends lots of "valuable time" to "gently" let a candidate know they're not right for the role is a fool. It takes one minute maximum to tell someone they aren't suitable. They don't have to like what we say but if it's done in the right tone of voice they won't hate you for it.
Ross Clennett
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Lots of great points and much to agree with. To pick up on what a couple of people have said; what effort did this candidate make to build relationship(s) with relevant recruiters BEFORE they were an active candidate? From my experience the senior candidates who complain the loudest tend to be those that were the least interested in working in partnership with a recruiter when they were in the position of 'client'. This is not to minimise our industy's many customer service issues that Greg has rightly pointed out, but it's important to keep candidate complaints in perspective.
Arthur
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Having recently gone through the process of looking and looking, my gripe with recruiters is that they will only ever call you back if you arr going to move to the next stage for them, otherwise they keep you hanging on. If a recruiter does not call you back within a day or max 2, job is 99% lost. move on. I had a case 2 weeks ago when a recruiter kept me hanging in for a job when she new full well that another candidate was better placed than me for it. I had two opps running at the same time and she kept asking me which of the 2 I would choose and why hers was better when she knew I wasn't likely to get it. It was all about giving her client options. Whilst I appreciate that her cleint is the employer, the lesson I have learned is to give the recruiter less and keep them hanging and never knowing exaclty what I am thinking.
Lawrie
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
This discussion has certainly hit a "recruiter" nerve and just goes to highlight our collective dilemma. In a perfect world a client would contact the consultant they had built a trusted and professional relationship with when seeking a person for that key role Ditto when the candidate wants to move to another job for whatever reason. But more than likely, the client is in touch with half a dozen "agencies" as does the candidate and the waters get severely muddied. We need to improve our professional standards and educate both our clients and candidates as we;ll as our own people
David
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Wow, you’ve stirred the hornets nest with this one Greg – many great replies & many more to come I’m sure. I was in the industry for over 10 years before making the shift to more specialised HR and now that I am on the “other side of the fence” as HR Director, I am mortified by some of the phone calls & emails I receive from agencies seeking to do business. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, dodgy sales campaigns, forceful tactics to the point of showing up in my reception area & refusing to leave until they saw me ! As one of the above posters said, when recruitment is done well it is tremendous, but when done badly, it is atrocious and embarrassing. There was a time in my own career whereby I was embarrassed to tell people I was in recruitment. I used to tell people I was a Consultant due to the bad connotations being in recruitment created. Yes, dodgy car salesman, yes being questioned if I came from the UK, yes being told the same old joke about seagulls (recruiters) circling a hot chip (a good candidate) and on it went….. Is the criticism deserved – maybe, maybe not, can it be changed across the industry – I don’t think so. There will be people like yourself Greg who run a smart & respectful operation who trains there staff in how to treat customers/candidates/clients, but what about all the small recruitment firms out there, who employee a handful of consultants and when the month is getting near an end, and targets are looking like not being met, the skulduggery comes out and the perceptions will become reality’s again. I was on your side of the fence once upon a time, but now that I am on a clients side dealing with recruiters, I’m afraid recruiters are simply not welcome to deal with us & we will do it all ourselves in house. Yes every now & then I enjoy dealing with a recruiter who is trying their best to describe why we should use them & I sympathise with that as I’ve sat in that chair too, but the bad totally outweigh the good I’m afraid. Sorry, I’ve gone a bit off topic from talking about a candidates perspective, but I think a clients perspective may share that opinion in some cases.
Ben Jones - Accountancy Appointments Sydney
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Ross just whacked the nail on the head. I agree completely with that comment. The best candidates were often the best clients of the recruiter. A recruiter always pulls out all stops to assist those who have previously displayed loyalty. This has happened to me in the last fortnight.
Surya
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Here in India, the situation is very different from the one mentioned. Candidates are more open to Recruiters if they are on the look out for jobs. Of course, as the case is, passive candidates are more difficult to break the ice with. And in my company in particular, we always advocate making "conversations" with candidates instead of "calls". Makes the whole experience more fulfilling and less monotonous for the recruiter too.
Carroll-Anne Pollock
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
I have the following typed up an in a frame on each "Recruiters" desk .... this is to ensure that we don't forget what our job is about ... This is an Employment Office The people, who come here, do so beacause they have hopes and needs. Hopes that their lives can be enhanced, needs that their lot in life can be improved Their aspirations have gone beyond dreaming to the point that they are prepared to come to this office and expose their souls, their pasts and their aspirations to total strangers, They come here, rather than elsewhere, becasuse they believe we may be best able to understand and help them to achieve their aims. Each of them, however humble their potential or achievements have given us something entirely personal: their trust, their views of themselves and their hopes. This deserves our respect, our honesty and if we can reasonably provide it, our help. Without them, we would not exist.
Mark
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Hi guys, Hate to interrupt all this defensive back patting but most 'candidates' that I know find you pretty woeful. And before calling yourselves a 'profession' you might want to look at the definition of a profession..eg "'A disciplined group of individuals who adhere to high ethical standards and uphold themselves to, and are accepted by, the public as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised, organised body of learning derived from education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to exercise this knowledge and these skills in the interest of others.".And as for the difference between an IT recruiter and a Used Car salesman - at least the latter knows when he is lying...In the 15 years that I have dealt with your ilk I, like many,many others, have been grossly underwhelmed. The ironic thing is that ,for a fraction of the money paid to your organisations most mid-large enterprises could insource for the same/better result.
Tim Stafford
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
As someone who has been doing this for over 13 years, I have witnessed my fair share of bad recruiters. Recruiters who don't really know how to recruit, poor customer service, and truly tarnish this industry. There are many reasons why this trend has happened. Technology (Job boards) in many ways has made us lazy, I also believe poor leadership and greed, lack of training, and the robust economy coupled with the ease of making a buck (placement) makes it seem like this is an easy profession to fall into. It is quite the opposite actually. Think about what we do for a living for a minute. We have all seen that list, you know, the one that lists the top 10 most stressful life events. Right there on the list, is job change. Yeah, that is what we do, we try and change jobs for people, and we work with people with their own minds, their own thoughts, their own feelings. This can be a brutal business, with a lot of ups and downs. A good recruiter, a seasoned one knows how to ride this roller coaster, and knows how to talk to applicants, give them feedback, and give great customer service. Lastly, this topic is very one sided, in defense of recruiters, what about bad applicants? Many applicants shun us, say we are garbage, don't return our calls, and have preconceived notions about recruiters in general. Most of this is just a function of lack of interest, but what we offer in most cases is knowledge, and a good recruiter offers a unique opportunity for a special individual to gain in their career. A good recruiter like myself, never forgets that this is a two way street. That is why applicants remember me, they call me, people look to me as a knowledge expert, we provide a service, and that service is career placement and growth, not just a new job. Remember that the next time you are trying to "recruit" your next placement.
Jacob
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
How about an open web site with a name and shame for you guys let the companies have access before they use your companies where they can see comments from both companies and candidates. Myself I have never had a position from recruiters so I must be bad value or so you guys would make me feel.Yet I have driven companies that were Sydney based to National within two years and International within five. My feelings are I would always give the guy that pounds the pavement knocking on doors with his resume a better chance of finding a job then hitting a recruitment company to do the job for him you guys dont care in fact to you his is just another beer in the pub if you can place him. All well and good when there is a shortage of good candidates and a surplus of positions available. But like now when it is hard to find one good person then all these little people that think they are so wonderful will as usual fall in a heap and go back to what they can do like telemarketing or bar work rather then lording over some poor person that thought every job they places on seek was real or that they realy knew what they were talking about. Am I bitter dam right I got a phone call from a young guys mother last sunday night he commited suicide in the states he was relying on you guys he did the rounds listened to you B/S about how you would have the ideal job for him which was crap and eventualy was so despondant he shot himself. Now saying this there are people I know in the industry who realy are fantastic Greg Tanna Tanna Partners who I have known for over 24 years and a few others I have met over the past month or so as I will be seeking a new position soon. Most of you I would not even use as toilet paper but for a tiny % you are great I would refere business to you even if you did not place me and why would I do this simple you took a genuine interest in me and you did not promise me anything. As I said a name and shame site with good and bad comments to let those that pay your way decide to use you you or not. Remember people create relationships with clients and if you guys did this then you would not be competing for the right to place a candidate with a client simply because the client knows how good you are and would be loyal to you and you alone. Most of you remind me of cockroaches living of the misery of others and then every now and then somone great like Greg Tanna steps in sets a shining example of what recruiters should be like. Guys do yourself a favour go and ask him if you can spend a week learning how and what a recruiter should be like
Alconcalcia
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
As I tweeted as recently as yesterday, I heard someone say 'candidates aren't customers'. No, they're more than that, they're every recruiters lifeblood. Any recruiter that doesn't grasp that simple concept probably doesn't deserve to be in the job. They certainly won't be in it for very long.
John Bennewith
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Hi Greg Just to stoke the fire a little, but I feel that your mate at cricket is exactly why recruiters get a bad name. I have recently been called by 2 senior candidates in my market sector who have wasted 30 minutes of my time. They both called and said I know you are a great recruiter in this industry and I would like to know what opportunities you currently have that fit my skills. They then follow this up with I have been on the websites of company 1 through 10 and sent my CV directly to the CEO, Sales Director or jobs@ email address and then i thought I would call you!!! The scenario of this is basically this candidate is not workable, because if I now call any of the companies 1 through 10 they now have their CV on file and all I have done is made them aware of the candidates availability and with no way of being able to engineer a fee! So Mr or Mrs candidate in my opinion you cant have your cake and eat it and then go bleating about how "I hate recruiters". Good candidates will always get hired. Bad candidates WONT!
Pete
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
- Mark, so if we are that terrible and that useless. Why don't they insource it then? And why have you persisted in using "our ilk" for the past 15 years? :-))
lavanya
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Excellent article Greg...
Mike Westcott
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Wow.... can of worms this one. Thank you for the initial post, nice to hear what so many people say repeated by a recruiter. However I'm going to steer clear from getting into the rest of the debate because this sort of thing can just take so much time, when I already seem to be spending so much time on finding some more work myself. Time I guess which is also hard to find for a recruiter. I wanted to add this comment though as a reflection of what it is that makes so many of us hate the recruiting process, and perhaps what makes the recruiters the target of this angst. Time. Time to get back to candidate, time to get back to clients, time to write applications, job descriptions, general correspondence, whatever.... At a 'time' when, as you say, we are vulnerable. This is what makes 'dishonesty' and a lack of integrity that much more noticeable. But, it's time to find some work, gotta go....
Nelson
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
I agree with you Greg and in my opinion, the biggest problem with the agency world (having worked both internally and externally) is that the whole industry is driven by contingent (fee per placement) business models. The main incentive and motivator for agency recruiters is billing...period. I feel for the good agency recruiters out there who are often forced (like I was) to engage in high volume (numbers game), low quality approaches to the recruitment game. The bottom line is for the industry to evolve there needs to be a different approach to the whole service offering. Currently, everything is structured to lend itself to poor service, to both the candidate and the client. There are "rules" in place in the industry that promote poor service like who sent the CV first, candidate ownership timeframes and of course charging a fee based on the % of one's salary for services which to be honest, I've never understood the link between that fee structure and the work performed to source a candidate. It is also worth noting that it is probably the most saturated market in the professional services industry. It doesn't help that there is an over abundance of recruiters in Australia...we need more engineers and skills short disciplines, not more recruiters! This environment only encourages behaviour conducive to poor service as it becomes a race to shoot that CV over. I have struggled to see any recruitment agency to offer a legitimate point of difference in their service offerings. When you cut through all the sales crap (synonymous with a saturated market), you find they are offering the same service as the last recruiter that stalked me on my mobile...
Aaron Dodd
  • Mar 2 2011
  • Reply
Reading through these comments there seems to be a general undercurrent from candidates that it's the recruiter's role to find them a job. Therefore if a recruiter is not successful in placing them they must be rubbish. Nonsense. Candidates, be under no illusions, a recruiter is working for a client to fill their vacancies. Not you. Candidates are not paying them, the employing company is. If candidates were paying recruiters to place them and weren't being placed then they may have some call back on them, but to the best of my knowledge this is not a common practice in Australia (or NZ). This does not mean however that candidates should not be treated by recruiters with respect and informed of their status in the recruitment process in a timely and polite manner. Candidates need to also undertand that for every role there may be 50 or more applicants, and that their failure to win a particular role is usually not reflective of the recruiter's ability "to sell them" but more a reflection of the quality of the applicant pool. Perhaps someone else was just better suited than them for the role??
Alex
  • Mar 3 2011
  • Reply
Greg, I've enjoyed this post, and the variety of responses to it. I'd like to add a couple of things into the mix if that is OK? First up though, I do agree that your friend has highlighted common complaints against recruiters - this happens, its not good service, good business or a good reflection on our industry. That said, I do wonder if it would be worthwhile for this individual to consider how he has interacted with recruiters in the long term as well as giving some thought to why he finds himself in his current predicament. Could/ should he be taking more responsibility for where he is at right now? Resigning without a job to go to? I'm not an expert in the Australian market (I'm in the UK, more on that in a bit...) however unless recovery has turned into the most bullish market in history, resigning without a job to go to is hardly sensible, especially at an exec level. If he has done this, then this hardly a well thought out move. If he thought the world would be waiting to offer him 3/4/5 new jobs for him to carefully consider then he was always going to be disappointed. When you're disappointed its easy to take a swipe at the people that appear to be the "blockers." Perhaps investing some time in a decent relationship or two with people in the market every day before he was in dire need could have paid a dividend here. Given his seniority, he must have crossed paths with recruiters hiring on his behalf over a period of years. Did he not value any of them or is staff turnover so high that he couldn't keep up? Not having someone he could trust to discuss decision to resign before doing it is a failing here. Correct me if I'm wrong but I dont know any recruiter worth their salt who would advise a resignation without a job to go to. How many years in senior management does this person have? Did noone invest any time with him as a recruiting client, or was he dismissive of 3rd party recruiters? Another scenario would be if the individual was made redundant or "let go." Obviously not a set of circumstances he (or anyone?) would choose however, much of the point above still applies. Does he have established relationships with people in the market he trusts to advise him? Doesn't sound like it. I would struggle to believe that no recruiter would see the commercial benefit of working closely with a senior tech manager. If he has recently moved geographically then that would clearly hinder him - unless of course he has ties with one of the larger firms (maybe one of the ones full of English accents, ah I suspect not...) I think a lot of the time that recruitment is a business of rejection. For every person placed there are stacks of disappointed people that applied to web ads, got briefed by recruiters, went to interviews and then didn't get the job. Some of the best people I have worked with manage that very, very well. The proof of the pudding is when someone that has been placed by a competitor, or self placed (hey if this guy hates recruiters so much I wonder how his direct approaches are going?) that they return for both recruitment services and, importantly in this instance, advice. For this to work there is respect on both sides of the table - and when there is both parties get a big win. Its not difficult to deliver the good news and get the candidate to think we're great. Its those who can manage and indeed develop relationships thru the numerous knocks in an active job search. Even if you've got the best consultant in history doing this, unless the candidate/ client is interested in opening up sensible dialogue and developing the relationship, then you're still going to struggle to get anywhere. OK. I've never worked in Australia. I do however a variety of people that have made Australia their home and recruitment their career there. One or two have gone on to build some pretty sensible businesses too. There are obviously poor consultants in any market, and I'm in no way suggesting that all the Brits in Australia are the cream of the crop - I would however have to say that a good or bad consultant comes down to that individual first and foremost, it really doesn't matter what their accent is. I respect the fact that you included the specific prejudice your friend carries in your post. I really do wonder if the prejudice had been aimed at a different ethnic group if we'd all react in the same manner. I genuinely hope this person escapes whatever the Australian version of daytime tv and gets into a good, new role. On the way there, I hope that a top quality, experienced consultant, manager, director, md, owner, whoever spends an hour or so with him on how best he markets himself now, and how he builds a network around himself once he has landed in his new role to help him avoid the predicament he is in at the moment. For me that is more important in terms of this guy's relationship with our industry than calling him up and trying to get him into the next job that comes up. If he gets that job then great, if he doesn't then its rejection again.
David Inzlicht
  • Mar 3 2011
  • Reply
Recruiters get abused far too often. The problem is that most job seekers don't understand what recruiters do. They think that the recruiter will help them get a job. Helping a job seeker get a job is a by product of the recruiters trying to help companies fill their positions. As you stated the economics of the situation makes this the way it is. When recruiters spend the time to explain to job seekers how things work and adjust the job seekers expectations to match with the reality of the situation, everybody walks away happier. This is something that I have been doing for some time and it has produced a much more pleasant experience for the job seeker. In fact when polled 5 weeks after the initial visit this positive experience, for most job seekers, remains intact regardless if we end up finding them a job or not. David Inzlicht http://proforce.ca
Philip Dartnell
  • Mar 3 2011
  • Reply
Hi Greg, As per your other commenters, yes, wholeheartedly agree. This is as much about personal development as it is about traning recruiters to return calls, follow up and provide service. A recruiter who understands their need to build a personal brand that's of high value and quality to both clients and candidates is a rare beast. One who understands that they need to lead the candidate through a process with candour, empathy, understanding and professionalism is even rarer. But this problem isn't just in recruitment, it's in all facets of person to person relationships in business (go see the new documentary film "Inside Job" if you want to see the worst of human nature on display in a way that almost brought the entire world to its knees; it's essential viewing). It seems though that recreuitment attracts far more than the normal share of shonky smooth tongued villains (or just plain inept buffoons) who care little about their candidates and are mostly out for themselves. The "not returning calls", "not listening" and a dozen other things are just the outward display of an inner misunderstanding as to what a recruiter's relationship with a candidate AND client is truly all about.
Glen
  • Mar 3 2011
  • Reply
Good call Greg... Being "Different" is a great thing in the Recruiting world. It is amazing and sad that all we have to do to be great is "Do what we say we will do". Just telling the truth is an amazing thing not just for life but for Recruiting. All My Best, Glen Phares
Michael Hayes
  • Mar 3 2011
  • Reply
In the US we have to be real careful of what we tell anyone because you can get sued for saying anything...so you say nothing. Companies also will just turn down a candidate for no reason..because they have been burned before. I tell candidates...all the protections you have in the work place come at a cost of getting sometimes treated like cattle. Unfortunately, these policies will only get more vague.
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Greg is the founder of leading recruitment companies Firebrand Talent Search, People2People and Recruitment Solutions, and a current shareholder and director of several others, including Consult Recruitment. He is a regular keynote speaker worldwide and provides specialised advice for Recruitment, Professional Services & Social Media companies.





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