Disclaimer: If you’re looking for a generic definition, then just leave this article and check the Wikipedia explanation.
If not, then let’s immediately get down to the brass tacks.
Have you ever hired someone with an amazing resume only for them to severely underperform your expectations?
Have you ever hired an brilliant human being only for them to quit without explanation after a few months of doing great work?
Have you ever been employed by an extremely promising company only to discover you’ve joined just about the most toxic work environment you could imagine?
Recruitment is about making sure above doesn’t happen to you.
Professional Recruitment vs. SHS
SHS means Simply Hiring Someone. I just made it up.
At any given moment, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people looking for remote work opportunities online. Ranging from young people with no experience and eagerness to learn all the way up to hardcore industry professionals with engineering PhDs.
You can put a free job post up on LinkedIn and get 50+ applications within minutes if you write an honest and transparent job description.
So, why is the recruitment industry thriving then? Why is the employee turnover (see examples in the introduction) so high?
With so many companies going fully remote, it was never easier to quit. If an employee is not satisfied, they just move onto the next company. It doesn’t even have to be a case of dissatisfaction – they can get a better offer financially and leave. Why wouldn’t they? There is almost no change in their work routine, and no change in their commuting routine because it’s non-existent.
This was not the case in the old world. Finding work was much more complicated and you got more attached to people you’re working with and your office.
This is where expert recruitment comes into play.
1. Recruiters or Psychologists?
The process doesn’t simply include finding a person with a certain skill set to fill a certain role. It’s much more complicated. Professional recruiters need to be able to discern things about the job candidate that they don’t even know themselves.
Is this person going to quit in a few months? Are they going to be happy with our clients’ company? Will this person be able to adapt to a remote work environment?
If you look at top level recruitment agencies as well as in-house recruitment departments within successful companies, you’ll notice a trend. Most of these people have bachelor degrees in psychology or even psychotherapy. Either that, or a natural knack for understanding other people – which is more rare.
In both cases, it’s obvious that not anyone can do this job. You either have to possess a natural talent for it or have formal academic qualifications.
How else could you expect from a recruiter to be able to find out so much about a job candidate in a couple of interviews? Not even meeting in person – but via video calls.
There’s more to recruitment than sifting through job applications on a job board and picking your favorite. If the employer misjudges the employee, there will be dire consequences financially. I’m not even talking about wasting money on a job board, wasting time to train and integrate a person into your team only for them to leave can be a devastating blow for any small or mid-sized company.
2. Understanding Your Hiring Needs
On the other end, recruitment consultants work directly with a company looking to hire. They need to be able to understand what kind of candidates they are looking for. For example, a client might say they are looking for a senior web developer, but at the same time they offer a salary range that’s more suitable for a junior role.
Will you be able to explain this discrepancy to them? Will you be able to qualify an employee with an adequate level of experience that would be happy with the proposed salary range? Can you guarantee these two will stay together?
To be able to answer these questions and navigate such tricky situations a recruitment consultant needs to have a boatload of business experience. Not much to do with HR. The person needs to have been around the block a few times and then some more. Only then will they be able to understand the needs and processes of their clients.
These people are few and far between. If a recruitment agency possesses such an expert, they are either a startup in which company founders roll up their sleeves and actively participate in the hiring process, or a giant company that can afford getting real businessmen to consult for them.
The hard truth here is that most recruitment agencies or recruitment specialists working solo are not able to help their clients with such detail.
3. The (Actually) Never-ending Process
Alright, we got the perfect person to fill a role. They are happy with the position. The company is happy with them. Everyone got what they wanted in a short amount of time. On to the next client, right?
No.
Proper recruitment goes beyond the initial stage of introducing an ideal candidate to the employer. For the first few months, you should check with both the client and the candidate to see how they are doing.
Does the candidate need some additional training that you could help with? Would the company appreciate some more advice from you regarding their employee(s)? Are they truly satisfied with your work to the point where they are being pleasantly annoyed by your checking up on them?
If yes, only then you can consider the job done.
The point here is that recruitment is not simply connecting two people and basically forcing them into a work relationship. It’s about making people happy. The employee, their new colleagues, and the company. After you’re done with them, they should all feel better about their work than they were before.
That’s real recruitment.
No need for a formal conclusion.
Alex Popovic
Alex has a decade of experience working for cutting edge digital marketing and finance companies spearheading multiple remote teams. SEO is his specialty, but he is also a cryptocurrency veteran. He spends too much of his time playing FPL and fancies himself a writer, although his first novel is yet to be published.
