Filled within 10 days – a reminder of the value of a good recruiter

I was thrilled to deliver an offer to a HR Advisor this morning. It really is one of the best parts of the job, to deliver that great news to someone, as they land their dream job.

I also love to solve problems for hiring businesses. I love the consultancy.

And in this instance, I was able to rescue a piece of recruitment that the hiring business had been struggling with for a while, filling the role within 10 days. Its all part of the service, but when I took back and reflected on it, I thought it was a good example of the benefit a good recruiter can bring to a vacancy.

So how did I turn this around for my client?

Interest was not a problem, in fact they had taken lots of applications prior to calling me. The business, role and team are great. Reward is good, in line with the market. They had interviewed 10 people, but without success – so what was wrong? Why had they not hired?

Well, the role was not attracting the right skills set. As with a lot of recruitment exercises, the spec and advertising alone was not painting a full and accurate picture. It wasn’t delivering what the stakeholders wanted, and needed to hire.

In my consultation discussions, I discovered a few things.

1. a) First of all, the JD and previous advertising was accurate (in the short term) and well written. But crucially, it lacked wider context and did not talk about the longer term needs and development of the team and the business. When engaging with stakeholders, it became clear that the longer-term direction of the role that was very important in terms of experience required. The shorter-term duties listed in the spec were not as important, as many aspects of the role would be handed to other team members in the future. Therefore, the market was mis interpreting the role and applications were coming with focused specialist skills set which didn’t match the longer-term fit. This needed managing, to be explained to the market and to be positioned correctly. At the same time, the shorter team duties needed to be delivered to aswell. So, we needed a long term match who could also deliver to short term.
2. b) Furthermore, it had a slightly mis leading job title, which is sometimes seen when international businesses are hiring to UK based roles. Job titles vary across departments and continents, and the title in this instance was conducing for the UK audience– again something that needed managing to attract the right people.
3. c) Also, the nature of the role as advertised was typically found in very large businesses. This employer was small and developing rapidly. In their business, people need to be able to can swim through ambiguity and work with limited structure, resources, and direction. Applications were coming from corporate giants, where skills had been gained from established, specialist silos. The role therefore needed to be taken to the right people and carefully explained for everyone to have an accurate picture.

With careful positioning in advertising and through thorough short listing and briefing communications, I was able to deliver a short list of 4 within 24 hours, 2 went through to second interviews and one was offered and accepted the role after 10 working days. And the best bit, it was the positioning of our marketing and the explanation of the context, journey, and wider factors, that brought those 4 people into the process. They all would probably have not applied to the role based only on the spec.

It was great to make someone’s day and it is the dream job for the successful applicant.

And it was a lovely reminder of just how valuable my service can be.

Yes it saved the hiring business a lot of time.

But also, clarity of the market positioning, the stakeholder management, the market knowledge, the accurate short listing, and the championing of the position to the right people who would not have otherwise been reached ………

This is the value that a trusted recruitment partner can bring!

If you are looking for help to hire to your hr vacancy, do not hesitate to get in touch.