Hire, buy or sell?

I always expect a lot of questions from candidates about the prospective client before they meet: how many are they seeing; where do I rank; what are they really looking for; what do you think I need to emphasise?  That sort of thing.

Do you know, only once have I ever been asked the same thing by a client, I wonder why that is?

The point here is that recruitment is a two-way process, especially head-hunting.  OK, there’s an argument that when someone responds to an advert they are already buying, but search is all about finding exactly the right person for a role, referencing them both formally and informally and selling them the role.   It’s true.

When someone is in a role with a good career path we always have to sell them a new job elsewhere.  Why should they risk a change?  I talk about the push-factor and pull-factor of jobs; if the pull-factor of a new role is not greater than the push-factor of an existing role then it is dangerous to move – for all parties.  Our job is to work out whether the candidate will be well served by moving – and that isn’t always the case, sometimes we have to tell candidates that too.

The next critical phase is introducing clients and candidates, and this has a number of bear traps.  There are some golden rules here so that the candidate gets the right impression, because they will certainly get AN impression:-

• diary management, set the interview process out up front and stick to it
• allow enough time and a  convenient time.  Make time.  Don’t chop and change
• do give notice of things like dress code
• treat people well – first impressions count both ways – these are successful business men and women; they are just as important
• don’t assume a candidate is desperate for the job – they are still in “buying mode”.

All first interviews are a two-way process and the hiring company must sell, just as much as the candidate.

So good hiring managers will think about how many other clients a candidate is seeing; where the client might rank; what a candidate is really looking for in a company; and that way work out what they really need to emphasise.

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