Companies are seeking new ways to find more talent these days. That’s because the unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in 40 years and there is a shortage of qualified employees due to an increase in hiring. In fact, 40% of global employers report talent shortages.
The state of the current employment market is why more employers are turning to talent recruiting firms like Blackstone Talent Group to aid their existing recruitment efforts.
It is how these partnerships are utilized that can really make or break employers’ ability to hire quality talent in today’s challenging market. The three questions we want to ask in this blog and ask each party to think about are:
- As a recruitment firm, do you treat or view your client as a valued partner or as a commoditization?
- As an employer, do you treat or view your recruitment firm as a commoditization or as a valued partner?
- In either scenario, how is this affecting your business’s success and profitability?
Let’s first take a look at the characteristics of recruitment firms that commoditize its services, and in-turn, its clients:
- Price is the leading factor
- They talk more than they listen
- There is little to no effort in learning about what makes their client’s business unique, what differentiates their client’s business and culture from its competitors
- Inability to see beyond a job description
- No discovery process is used to learn about their client’s business and the business need behind the open position(s)
- Provide no talent market analysis or education for their clients
- Consistently pressure clients to fit a square peg into a round hole
Now let’s take a look at the characteristics of employers that commoditize its recruitment firms, and in-turn, its candidates:
- Price is the leading factor
- Provide no insight or put little importance into the recruiting firm learning about their business, company culture, team dynamics and structure
- Inflexibility on job requirements, salaries and pay rates vs what the candidate market is yielding
- Lack of understanding that recruitment firms provide an upfront service free of charge until and if the client hires one of their candidates (recruiting firms provide total, pay for performance services)
- Hold a philosophy or view that recruiting is, ‘easy.’ Just go out and find what I need, don’t ask questions (it’s almost as though these clients think they are ordering a pencil)
- Provide the recruitment firm with candidate resume feedback or candidate interview feedback 1-2 weeks later or sometimes even ‘ghosting’ the firm and its candidates
- Extend candidates offers 2-4 weeks post final interview
When both recruitment firms and employers reciprocate commoditized characteristics, behaviors and views of each other, this ultimately affects the success and profitability of their businesses because positions either go unfilled or poor hires are made.
This effect is even more profound in a market where the unemployment rate is historically low and the competition for talent is fiercer than ever. In fact, Glassdoor estimates there are 263,586 unfilled jobs just in the tech industry that add up to $20.1 billion in economic loss and according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the price of a bad hire is at least 30 percent of the employee’s first-year earnings.
Employers, your recruitment firm can serve as a highly valuable resource to your business and contribute to your company’s success and profitability—treat and view them as a partner and as an extension of your company, and you will reap the rewards.
Recruitment Firms, value your clients, treat them as a partner and view your service as an extension of your client’s business, and you will have created a long lasting and mutually beneficial partnership.
Blackstone Talent Group looks for clients who want to break the traditional staffing/client relationship. Our clients are our partners and we are fully engaged in their success in hiring top talent. To understand why we’re different, contact us today.