In the course of the staffing portion of our business, occasionally we are asked to be part of a VMS (vendor management system) program. While we normally decline the business at that point, for a variety of reasons we have chosen to be part of a few of these over the years. Nearly every time I regret being convinced that this next account will be different. Now I will say, with my finance background, I get the logic that managing rogue spend is important and a system can be a good way to do this, no issue here. My beef is simple – if you think that anyone involved in the process will have an improved experience or that you will get any better process or quality out of doing a standard VMS system – you are sorely mistaken. That is not to say that it cannot be done, I just have yet to see any of the big players or the system based programs do this, ever. It is all about the perceived money savings, period, the end.

Here’s a little playback from a recent experience:

Them: you haven’t submitted candidates to the last 8 jobs we sent you….please sign this stating that you know that you got “0″ points for this period and that is bad….we will be reviewing vendors for high scores (submittals for jobs)

Me: we stopped submitting to jobs that we do not have a direct relationship with the hiring manager because any time we did, it was a complete waste of time, we never got any feedback, never, nothing, nada…and the jobs are actually already filled by the time you give it to us thru the system anyway.

Them: Well [hmph]…1st – you are NOT allowed to have direct contact with hiring managers…EVER; 2nd they are not filled when we send them, why would you possibly think that?

Me: “Perhaps 2 reasons: a) because that is what we do to you with those we have the relationship with e.g. the hiring managers reach out directly and we work closely with them to fill the position, then they post the job to the system…to which we submit the final candidates and they make the selection which was already determined… and b) as a result, the other jobs you send us are closed within about 24 hours of you sending them out (an impossibility if client wants to review, phone and f2f interview, etc using the system….) to us.”

Them: um, I was not ready to discuss specific jobs and have not reviewed them, but I am sure that is not the case……I’ll have to check on that and get back with you….

Me: “you do that…..I am sure I’ll be getting a call back real soon” {cut to crickets chirping}

Now, I may be a little harsh in my view, but is there honestly anyone (with a brain) that believes that you can do high quality recruiting with only a (usually terrible) boiler plate job description? No ability to ask questions, discuss the team, the environment, what makes someone successful in the role, and not what aspects are most important, etc. A whole world of information that is relevant both to making the best match and selling candidates on why this opportunity may be worth their time.

Second – the experience for the hiring managers is just as bad! they have to, ahem, do their normal process…. and then put the job into another system, supposedly review resumes, put in the right pay (which is usually terribly hard for some reason) and start day and time. Of all of our clients over the years…I have yet to meet a hiring manager that EVER thought this gave them higher quality talent or improved their speed to hire…..NOT.EVEN.ONE.

That is not so say that there are not companies that have been able to merge the best of high touch and a system (we are working with one Fortune 50 now that has), but the number is staggeringly small in comparison to how many put the systems in horribly. Why is it that these companies cannot get it right, or even be in the right ball park?