It’s January and the world is awash with forecasters, analysts, soothsayers, market-makers, thought leaders and opinion-formers having their say. I wonder how many of these insightful musings on the state of world politics, growth and interest rates, Bitcoin and Brexit are destined to be top-drawered along with so many new year’s resolutions and unwanted Secret Santa gifts. Because as the economists and fund managers are fond of telling us nobody really knows anything. Or rather, nobody really knows everything. There will always be something to derail someone’s beautifully constructed argument – a hurricane, a coup or a corporate scandal no one saw coming until it was too late.
Rather than adding to the forecasting noise and in an attempt to avoid making any new year’s resolutions of my own, I thought I’d make some on behalf of other people. Specifically, Clients. In my world, recruiting as I do in the specialist world of corporate communications and investor relations, this typically means Communications Leaders, IR Directors, CFOs and HR Directors. Search consultants spend a fair amount of time fantasising about a world in which clients and candidates behave impeccably, making our jobs a sheer delight from the very first phonecall to the acceptance of an offer. Here then is my recruiter’s rather utopian vision of a Client’s list of new year’s resolutions for how to work with recruiters in 2018. I should preface this by saying that I had the privilege of working with some wonderful clients in 2017 on some very exciting and challenging new communications and investor relations roles; I look forward to working with them again in 2018 as well as with many new ones.
Working with Search Consultants – A Client’s Pledge for 2018:
I will know exactly the role I’m recruiting for and the kind of individual I’m looking for. I will make sure I have all these parameters in writing and agreed by all parties internally before briefing a search consultant. If I don’t have it all in place, I will be honest about this and ask for the recruiter’s help in scoping the brief. That is part of their service after all.
I will not view the search consultant who has come on board for this assignment as a necessary evil or a last resort because we spent three months unsuccessfully trying to find someone ourselves, but as a partner who will work with me to identify the best candidate in the market for this position.
I will employ realistic time frames for a search and not wait until an incumbent has left before turning to the search consultant for help and expecting a shortlist in a week.
I will remember, before the interview process kicks off, to prepare my pitch well and to sell my organisation to candidates as honestly and compellingly as I can, just as I expect them to sell themselves to me, remembering that mine is not the only company in the world and they have many, many to choose from.
I will have the courage to fight difficult battles internally if the preferred candidate is ‘off-brief’/’too expensive’/not the ‘right’ kind of profile.
I will listen to the search consultant. When they challenge me on the brief, I will understand that they’re not doing it to be difficult or contrary, but because they are experts in their field, they know the market better than I do and they are driven by a genuine desire to complete this search successfully.
I will not hold back from challenging them in return when I feel that they are barking up the wrong tree.
I will take the time in helping them to understand my business, its strengths and its weaknesses so that they can incorporate this information into their candidate briefing packs and their shortlisting process.
I will give feedback to the search consultant promptly, honestly and in as much detail as I can.
Above all else, I will recruit the right person for the job, acknowledging that the right person is not necessarily the one with the lowest price tag or cast in the same mold has his/her predecessor, but one who will grow with the company and challenge us to do things differently.
