It’s ALL in the Details – From a Recruiter’s perspective

What do we recruiters need to know to help find that perfect candidate for our clients?  Is more information or less information better? Is just a job description enough?  Well for me, a recruiter at a contract research recruiting firm, partnering with our clients is almost as if we work at their site.  We are actually an extension of their recruitment team and sharing the right information is key to our success. 

Sure, job descriptions are important and yes, all the technical requirements are a must have to find the right candidates, but honestly it’s not enough. Clients need to provide details such as:

-why the positions are open
-team or department structure
-details on hiring manager (his/her management style)
-expectations
-what the team lacks
-how long positions are open
- challenges as to why they have not been able to fill the position on their own to date

I can go on and on; you get my drift, right?  Details!!!  Speaking to a hiring manager is also a bonus; his/her version of the position and ideal candidate provides incredible insight.  Sharing their knowledge, what he/she really is looking for, what the must haves are for this candidate, what he/she is willing to bend on or be flexible on is very valuable.  This type of information can’t be picked up from a job description alone. So yes, hiring managers on intake calls should be a RULE.

Additionally, information on the history of the team, the company culture and environment, the growth pathway for this hire and of course the company sell, is what helps us to sell the potential candidates on the company.  Knowing where the client has found hires in the past, what companies would have the best talent, helps us hone in on what target companies would be best to go after.  Again, partnership is key.

So, we get the details we feel are sufficient to start our search process and after testing the waters a bit and submitting a few possible candidates to our client (which usually is a HR contact/Recruiter), the feedback we now get, is golden to how we continue our search.  Sometimes we hear responses such as “forwarded to hiring manager, but we will pass”.  Sometimes we get nothing; sometimes we get “we are moving forward with this candidate”.  These are the typical responses. But they are not sufficient.  We need Details!  The hiring manager needs Details.  Why pass on this one and move another one on to the next phase of the hiring process?  Feedback is crucial: we, the client, passed because he did not have the years of management we seek or we passed because the technical expertise has only been in the last 6 months and we seek more years or he did not know how to carry on a phone conversation.  Providing feedback as soon as possible helps us, the recruiters, to narrow in on what is vital to the role.  As we have more conversations with candidates and screen them, we can be more efficient in our process and send the quality candidates our clients seek.

So remember, using a contract research recruiting firm can be very valuable, but it has to be a partnership; a partnership from beginning to end. We understand the client may have 30 open requisitions on their desk and may not have the time to give attention to details, but it is the details we need.  More is better than less. We can take the criticism, we can take the feedback as to why this person was not right for your role, but what we can’t take and what makes for an unsuccessful search is lack of details!!! So bring it on HR, throw it back to us, we can take it, we are all on the same team!

SSB
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 5:10 am and is filed under Candidate Development, Candidates, Clients, Executive Recruiting, Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.