At a convention recently attended, there was a comment by a self touting industry leader who stated that Success of recruiters could be measured by the Quantity Not Quality of the employees hired. I noticed many heads nodding up and down in agreement.

Wow, there was a moment of total shock, and then trepidation when I realized that many of these people didn’t have a true understanding of the cost of a poor hire.

Your comments on how to guage a recruiters quality reminds me so much of a comment a client made to me after I had complained about how long they took to make a hire. ‘Don’t you realize how expensive this is to your company, your taking so long’ I remarked, and then went on to give them the wonderful statistics I had put togethor to make my case.

The H.R manager was very nice, listened, and then quietly made a comment that from that day on resounds in my head — ‘Karen,’ she said, indeed all you you say is true, but the cost of a Poor Hire is indeed more expensive than it does taking the time to hire right.. so we must make sure we get do it well the first time’

Yes, of course, my being the one for facts and figures decided to research this, and yes indeed, it does cost more to hire a poor hire and replace that person, than it does to get it right the first time.

It is a duty of the recruiter to find the best, the square peg for the square hole, instead of the round peg, shaved to fit the square hole.

In the past 10+ years, More than 3/4 of my placements are still working w/in the organizations I placed them in. This means my clients are saving money in excessive training, lost sales, replacement issues, workmans comp and of course many factors. Many don’t realize that an average hire costs a company about 60k just to bring them up to speed.

There is also a pride as a recruiter to claim that a job was well done and the clients appreciate the effort which can be seen in the savings each quarter.

Results indeed do matter.. Results are the Savings that a company makes because the recruiter took the time to get the best candidate in the door from the start. No worries about trial and error.

Hopefully along the way, the companies will find the solutions internally on how to keep those quality candidates happy by implementing internal structures w/in the organization so that the employees won’t want to leave.
Thanks so much for a wonderful article.

However, you hit the nail on the head with your statement about ‘Gurus’.

I too, find very little, useful, or ‘actionable’ information from such events. What differentiates the ‘GURU’ from the guy actually ‘DOING THE PLACMENTS AND HIRING but NOT TALKING UP ON STAGE’ is the ‘entertainment factor’.

As one conference I attended in Dallas put it:

Its about ‘E-D-U-T-A-I-N-M-E-N-T’ an interesting term which has been coined recently.

In many cases what captivates people wanting to sit for hours is not the ‘educational’ part but the ‘entertainment’ portion.

An actualy survey in Fortune Magazine found most of the
pundit predictions during elections are no better than 50/50%. Same goes for stock analysts.

These indviduals (which I am occasionally lumped in with) bring a unique personality, opinion, spark, humor, etc. Nothing wrong with bringing an entertaining approach to learning … I happen to love watching Jim Cramer’s antics on CNBC myself.

I guarantee … if anyone wants to take me on a challenge, that any of the GURUS’ would send my company IRES into banktruptcy within 90 days If I walked away and handed them my office and keys.

While I have great respect for Dr. John Sullivan, Kevin Wheeler and the likes (mainly because I could never survive in a stodgy academic environment) … conversely … they would fail at providing the rapid, prompt, consistently reliable hires our clients demand week in and week out.

Especially if such individuals are out attending conferences while millions of dollars of client’s orders are being ignored.

Again, I could not work at Academia … it would BORE ME TO DEATH to the point of wanting to bang my head on masonry walls.

If anyone thinks I’m wrong … I’m ready to hand the keysto IRES, Inc. over … a company which took me 19 years to build to its current presence … including all computer passcodes, and allow you to take me up my challenge.

Keep in mind our clients expect candidates in 7-10 days flat. Consistently, week in and week out.

And you must place and get hired no less than one each week. No ‘ifs’, ‘ands’ or ‘buts’.

However you will have to sign a contract reimbursing me for what will quickly amount to hundreds of thousands in lost fees if you fail.

Anyone up for this challenge? Let’s see if there’s a Guru willing to put their money where their mouth is.
- Frank Risalvato