A recent edition of Your Mileage May Vary: Better Recruitment for Employers with Agency

I’m sure everyone’s had that disastrous first date, where that exciting first encounter quickly fizzled out into the disappointment of it only being about them, them, them.

Unless they are spectacularly hot (halo bias, such as those companies you are desperate to work for without any objectivity), how often do those turn into second dates, let alone a partnership to introduce to your loved ones?

While if you look at any virtuous relationship, whether romantic, in business, or in life – typically there’s a balance between what you get and what you give.

This balance doesn’t have a goal in mind, but we might say it’s part of a process that serves an outcome.

In relationships, the outcome might be marriage, children and or happy retirement, but unless things are going wrong, such a fundamental aspect of a relationship as reciprocity will rarely be touched on.

After all, if the experience is good, what reason is there to understand the mechanics of that relationship? That’s a rhetorical question – of course, there’s every reason.

While, if things turn sour, well I hope you’d at least look at talking to a relationship counsellor who can help you reach a constructive plan. What will they say about the imbalance of your relationship and the breakdown in trust that ensued?

Of course, this is a newsletter about better recruitment and here reciprocity holds even more importance, given there are many transactional relationships in any one vacancy.

Relationships between you and your agencies, you and your candidates, and you and your community of potential candidates.

Let’s look at the classic symptoms of a recruitment process where reciprocity is unequal.

Who here has experienced:

• Ghosting
• Candidates not attending an interview
• Candidates declining job offers
• Candidates accepting counteroffers
• Candidates not starting
• CVs not meeting your expectations
• Agencies not delivering the goods?

Look at any issue in recruitment and I can tell you that there are at least two root causes that you have control over – imbalanced reciprocity and a lack of accountability (a subject of a future edition).

Two questions.

1. Would you like to know how often I suffer from any of the list above? Hit reply and I’ll answer.
2. What does good reciprocity look like in recruitment?

Much like in dating, a good relationship stems from firstly making those first conversations about ‘them’ and secondly making sure there is both a good spark (cultural fit) and suitably complementary personalities, values and goals (attitude, behaviours, capability, skills and aspiration).

Without these points, while it’s entirely possible you find a match, how often do those matches become permanent? I don’t just mean a successful hire for now, but one for 2 years time too.

Reciprocity comes from giving without expectation, and seeing a return in kind built on trust and mutual interest:

1. Clear and representative job descriptions
2. Adverts written for your ideal audience
3. Detailed agency briefs and mutually agreed processes
4. Making conversations about candidates, not about you
5. Managing candidate expectations
6. Providing feedback
7. And so on…

Funnily enough, these are all things that lead to a good candidate experience, as described in my earlier newsletter.

They also lead to simpler and better outcomes for your recruitment, such as for someone like me who doesn’t suffer from any of that earlier list above (oops, gave the game away, but you can still hit reply if you want to chat about reciprocity).

Two other points about reciprocity, before I let you go.

The first is that I ask a lot from the employers I partner - I do this to enable me to provide my best service with the outcome of filling difficult vacancies. I give just as much in return.

The second is that this newsletter is an example of reciprocity. I give my knowledge and insight freely, and you can apply much of this content at no cost to you. However, I have already had two enquiries about recruitment from subscribers - knowing what to do is different from always being able to do it, and I am here to help, should you need it and our values align.

The following newsletter isn’t about accountability. It will be about the critical path – a project management concept that enables you to run your interview process in the most efficient way.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Greg