Saturday, January 12, 2008

Are Third Party Recruiters Doing An End Run Around Recruiting?

In a recent discussion on ERE, a corporate recruiter posted an interesting scenario:

"At our company, we have a contract with 3rd part recruiters that states they will not contact the hiring manager to present candidates. If they do so, they are breaching their contract. Once corporate HR finds out that a 3rd party recruiter is doing what you are describing, that recruiter/vendor could lose orders or referrals in the future, period. They see this as being sneaky and corrupting the partnership that the corporate recruiter and hiring manager have created. Corporate recruiters need to follow compliance guidelines with OFCCP, therefore, they are going to follow a process when submitting candidates to the hiring manager. "Please don't here what I write as disagreement. It is the paradox.
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In Jack & Suzy Welsh's column in the current issue of Businessweek, they answer the question, "How do you take on the bureaucracy that damages so many organizations?" by starting off:

"Damages? How about deadens? That's a better word to describe what what bureaucracy does; it sucks the life out of a business. it turns normal people, granted a smidgen of authority, into rule-bound technocrats and twists candid conversation about real issues into jargon-laden gobbledygook. In short, bureaucracy gums up the works. It's a competitiveness killer."

I'll pick up from here.

OFCCP compliance is necessary. No argument.

What else is?

Why is talking directly to a manager to decipher a bureaucratic job description without nuance so horrible? The answer offered is that it stands between the user and HR's relationship.

Again, respectfully, what stands in the way of it is poor information communicated in job descriptions.

Most TPR recruiters are trying to do what our institutional customers are asking us to do--help them fill requirements. They receive job specs that are flipped to them like the kitchen crew does with burgers at White Castle. The specs say little (we want 3-6 years experience with X,Y,Z) and fail to mention that X is required Y & Z are preferences and that knowledge of A,B, and C are really critical. Or that the manager hired his last 6 people from these two companies.

Where process interferes with substance and the institution is too process bound to appreciate how what it is doing is standing in the way of getting what it says it wants (a person to fill a particular job), most TPRs, those people who you offer the privilege (and it is a privilege) of recruiting for you try to solve the problem by getting the information they need.

If their line of questioning is incompetent or stupid, maybe you're working with the wrong recruiter or recruiting firm. If the manager is fielding too many of these calls, the agencies are telling you they aren't getting the info they need to do anything more than shotgun resumes and you're saying "Tough."

Doesn't make sense, especially if you are asking those people to work for free until they deliver someone.

One more thing, and again, said with respect.

Tell me one retained search firm that works under those conditions and gets targeted success.

None will accept the assignment under those conditions because they are there to deliver outcomes.

Third party recruiters are there to do the same thing. Instead of tying their arms behind their backs and expecting them to make phone calls that yield quick efficient success, see if you can set up a 15 minute call with the hiring manager where several of them can ask questions.

If there are subsequent questions, then get the answers for them.

Open up the doors and get better results, yet still deliver OFCCP compliance.

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Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
 Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

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