QUESTION: I could use some advice. I had four placements with a client last year. One was terminated after 6 months. I don’t know all the details. Another one of my placements with them, 6 months on the job, currently calls me very frustrated and has started interviewing elsewhere because she does not feel that she is doing what she was hired to do and is now under a new manager, etc. Anyway, the original hiring manager is using another firm to backfill the employee who was let go. He will not use me because he has a bad taste in his mouth over the employee he terminated. I am worried that if the second one resigns, they will blame me, and I will lose the client. I have 2 new job orders in progress right now. Do I have a confidential call with my HR contact at the company who I work well with to let her know one of the new placements is frustrated? I feel like if I say nothing and she resigns, I will lose them as a client. I don’t want my HR manager blindsided and want to keep the relationship with this client. They are growing, great to work with, and pay fees on time without issue. Mike, what are your thoughts and ideas?
Building Strong Relationships with HR and Hiring Managers
There is a lot in there. It sounds like you have built a great relationship with HR. I have always found that that is a key component in spreading yourself wide and deep in a company. I would call the HR person and have an off-the-record conversation. They can then approach the candidate without feeling like you broached anything.
We must remember the client pays us, and our loyalty always lies with them. If they said, “Look, this is off the record; you can’t repeat this,” that would be my caveat. But if they did not, it is almost like when you buy a home, anything you say to the realtor because even though the realtor is showing you the house, the person who pays them is the seller, and you are free to pass that information on.
Establishing Yourself as a Trusted Adviser in Recruitment
I would call the client because this is part of becoming a trusted adviser. I would call the HR person and say, “I had this conversation. Here is what they are frustrated with. Here are the specific areas they do not feel aligned with. Keep me out of this so I have the ability to continue to get this information to help you through this.” That will have you go deeper with HR regardless of what happened.
Handling Sensitive Situations with Human Resources
In the second conversation I would have with that HR person, I would say: Hey, Mr./Ms. HR, I need your help. Mary Smith, the hiring manager, this person left after 6 months. They do not want to use me on the replacement because it has a bad taste in their mouth. The first question is: What are your thoughts on that based on my role and responsibility? And are you frustrated at all with me with the person that you terminated?
I want to get her feelings because it will be whether she is or not. We all know, but it is a very delicate balance, our job is we are the finding and identifying authorities, and they are the hiring authorities. There is nothing we could have done in their onboarding process, training process, bonding process with their manager, company culture, etc., that could impact that retention other than staying in touch with them as you did with this other candidate.
Avoiding Defensive Reactions and Focusing on Solutions
You want to avoid a defensive statement regarding the second situation because, again, we are going to assume one or two things. The HR person is frustrated with you or is not frustrated with you and that candidate, and the source of the frustration is that you are the cause of the problem.
The conversations I used to have with the hiring manager were like, “Well, you know, we hired this person, and they are now working out like I thought they would.” And I would say, “I presented a portfolio of three people. What specifically could I have done and seen that you did not see in the interview process, based on your wants, needs, and desires, that would have prevented this situation from happening?”
There is nothing. There is nothing. They interviewed them. It is not like you interviewed them, you assessed them, you placed them, and they had no choice. In a couple of situations, I had a conversation with a hiring manager, and they were frustrated with somebody. I had actually warned them about that individual, not warning them not to hire, but here are some challenges I am seeing with them based on how they are working with me in the interview process. You hired this person in spite of that.
Assessing Your Role in Placement Success and Client Satisfaction
The main question in this situation with HR, and even going back to the hiring manager, reading between the lines here, is that you feel some form of accountability for them hiring the wrong person, especially with the second person being frustrated. What is it in you that could have prevented or minimized that? If you reveal everything to them, good, bad, and ugly, about them in the interview process, once they start with that other company, 99% of it is out of our hands.
I would go back to the hiring manager and say, “What was it in me that caused that person to fail? What was it about me, my process, the people I presented, what was it in me that caused that process to fail?” I want them to conclude that a recruiter finds and identifies talent and does not force-feed it to the client. It is a matter of their ability to screen, reference check, and then successfully onboard.
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