Gaps in the time space continuum….

I was talking to my friend Rob M Wright the other day and he was telling me that he was struggling to find the time to complete his recruitment tasks. Well, he can have some of mine!

From my point of view, somewhere near me there must be a gap in the legendary time space continuum wall where time is pouring into my world like there’s no tomorrow. Literally.

Clients ask me to let them have CVs and then fail to read them for 4 weeks, or ask to meet someone and then fail to give feedback or even respond to messages. Even where I have good interaction with the client then their board will introduce delay into any given project. Government projects are not tied down sufficiently and anyone working with them will know that it is difficult to predict a plan. Pick a reason, any reason will do, for delay.

One client had a date 3 weeks hence to issue an offer letter (for no apparent reasons except that this was the date in his plan). Appeals to “get a move on” worked though and we progressed.

Why is it that clients never seem to understand that any delay introduced into a recruitment project always results in an uphill struggle to switch a candidate back on to them?

And that’s if they’re still around and haven’t been placed elsewhere by another agent………

Comment by Christopher Lyon on November 30, 2011 at 8:50am: Steve,

I feel your frustration. I work very closely with government clients in the DC region and I tell them upfront I will only work with them if they give me feedback within 48-72 hours and the project currently has funding. I typically don't like dealing with HR directors unless I can also directly speak with the PM on the project. To answer your question most clients of the Government nature already have 3-5 other agencies working the same requirement you are. There mentality is probably along the lines of "well if you won't fill it someone else will." My suggestion would be to try and get to speak to the hiring manager and tell him you can get him the right candidate the first time quickly if you give him prompt feedback. PMs will usually appreciate that

A. You are not wasting their time by sending every resume that remotely matches up to the job description.

B. You took the initiative over other agencies by getting to know the client more in depth.

Comment by Tim Spagnola on November 30, 2011 at 10:34am: Steve - I feel your pain as well. The physician recruiting cycle is known to be very long and often encounter many of these same issues. I think Christopher shared some good insights on how you might tackle this from your end. As they say- time kills all deals? Too bad not all clients recognize this. Hopefully your continued persistence will turn into a when it rains it pours win for your efforts.

Comment by Steve Williams on December 2, 2011 at 5:56am: My thanks to both Chris and Tim for your comments. In all the cases I was thinking about it was the hiring manager that I was working with, at senior level too, MD, Sales Director, etc. I try and cultivate good relations with all my contacts in whatever role they're in and work hard not become annoying in style. Also, my candidates are a very close match to their requirements. I think that the issue is related to the economics of the day, in that all senior guys in the UK FM market are having to work extremely hard to stay afloat themselves and they will get around to doing something at their own pace (which is far slower than the ideal pace of a recruiter who knows that time is the enemy).