Clarity in New York

Why do we over-complicate recruitment?

I am just back from a retained assignment in New York which reminded me how simple recruitment really should be.

The hiring company is recruiting an ED Director.  We initially spent a full day meeting employees at all levels and discussing in great detail exactly what the company needed both in terms of technical and cultural fit.  Employees were very open about the difficulties facing the organisation and spoke in very clear terms about the negatives as well as the positives enabling us to gain an excellent understanding of the reality.

Following these meetings we utilised our network to identify the very best candidates and after initial phone interviews flew out to the US for face to face meetings before submitting an excellent shortlist of jobseekers to the hiring manager.

If only all recruitment assignments could be so straightforward.  In previous blogs I have ranted about the ridiculous nature of contingency recruitment, but with serious recruitment (ie, retained) I think the key point is the briefing phase.  When the recruiter has a really clear view of what is needed and a genuinely clear grasp of the details, then we can easily go out to our niche market and quickly identify and recruit the right people.

Have you ever gone to an interview unsure if the role/organisation was actually for you and then left the meeting enthused?  Or even not bothered to attend an interview as you really weren't convinced and the recruiter didn't excite you about the opportunity?  Trust me: when a recruiter has been properly briefed and believes in the opportunity they should be able to enthuse you as we believe in it so passionately.

Reading what I have written above it all seems so simple and obvious, but then recruitment should be, shouldn't it?