Hiring season is in full swing with recruiting agencies circling employers like sharks.  Today's climate in the staffing world reminds me of the staffing spike in 2006.  Back then, submitting the right candidate to a prospective client got you in the door and ensured, fast-track placements.  This time around, it may get you in the door but it doesn't take long before getting lost into the abyss of corporate recruiting dysfunction...even when you represent a rock star!

Why does customer acquisition feel more like a dating cycle on tinder?  

The reality is that even best-in-class recruiting process doesn't guarantee success. If you are a recruiting agent, you think you influence a hire but in reality, corporate teams often marginalize your efforts. You might feel like you are powerless with certain clients. Is it suppose to be like that?   

In the following, I will examine four corporate obstacles impacting your success as a third-party recruiting agency.

4 Customer Challenges Blocking your Recruiting Agency...

1. Infrastructure 

Lets start with the most important one.  

Is the corporate recruiting department you support integrated in terms of tools, technology, process, and business partners?  

Before you ever have a chance at making a placement with your client, you need to ensure you are working with a customer who has solved the problems  listed in this article and understands what it's like to be in your shoes. Do they arm you with the right knowledge and respond to your needs? 

Perhaps you sense a deeper problem rooted within your client's corporate recruiting department?  How do you know if you are an agent working with a broken corporate recruiting system?  

Lets outline the symptoms:

• No transparency
• No information on changing requirements
• No projections on future projects, staffing requirement
• No collaboration 
• No contact from hiring managers (unless policy doesn't allow)
• No relationship with the internal team
• No relationship outside of the office
• No time to build relationships
• No time to listen to you
• No respect
• No constructive criticism requests
• No promises kept
• No callbacks
• No interviews after quality submissions
• No hires
• No details
• No idea about changing priorities
• No relationship
• No transparency
• No praising
• No reporting
• No benchmarking
• No improvements
• No scorecarding
• No engagement
• No recognition of faults
• No hiring targets
• No loyalty
• No performance reviews
• No creativity
• No exceptions

I see a pattern?  Do you?  If this looks like your client, it's time to move on.  

2. Key knowledge about job orders

This one is on you, recruiting agency.  Do not work on a role you don't understand.  How do you know?  Well...

• Can you manage a conversation with a practitioner you are trying to recruit?
• Do you know what challenges your candidate is facing?
• Does your candidate accept your LinkedIn request?
• Do you have credibility in their eyes?
• Do you understand their lingo?
• Have you conducted any research on the skill-set you are hiring for? 

Discovery, research, and examination are key to engaging candidates.

3. Leadership

Let's face it, department managers and executives who make hiring decisions haven't had a lot of training in recruitment nor do they really care about what it takes for a recruiting program to source, qualify, and hire talent successfully.  Relationship management is a concept far off in the distance.  Beyond understanding how best to interview, offer, and onboard talent, corporate leadership just wants you to do your job as a recruiter even if they don't know what that is.  Many don't even understand why performance-based interviewing and key performance indicators are essential to hiring.

4. Communication Chaos

Is there a consistent and reliable format that your internal contacts have established to communicate with you individually and as a group within your agency program?  Yes, it's okay to congregate together as agencies.  How else can you all align to the strategic goals of the recruiting department?  

• Is there a set structure for the agenda?  
• Are they holding you accountable periodically with set metrics and goals that they value? 
•  Do they return your calls?

If you can relate to any of these problems, you might want to reallocate your efforts toward another customer.

Learn about SourcingTalent.Cloud - Contractor Job Marketplace for Recruiting, HR, and Sourcing Projects

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

James Chmielinski is a second generation recruiting veteran, former baseball player, and founder of Veruca.io, the first ever recruiting innovations lab. His company is built from two generations of sales and recruiting experience resting on the backbone of post-millennial technology. 

Last year, Veruca.io: Find (Mr. Chmielinski's inaugural software) attracted 178 active users in 114 cities from 17 countries.

This year, James created largest recruiting community on slack called "Recruiting Innovators", a hub-spot for recruiting jobs, networking, news, and best practices. 

His latest project, SourcingTalent.Cloud (http://sourcingtalent.cloud), is scheduled for a pilot program release within the quarter. Sign up for the pilot by emailing info@sourcingtalent.cloud. 

James aims to make life easier for sourcing and recruiting teams and hopes to achieve this by developing an innovation lab where teams convert the best ideas into products.