Ponder these 7 facts, please.

Fact 1: Over the last 10 years I have had more than 1,000 people report to me, directly or indirectly. Over my working life, who knows how high that number is?

Fact 2: 90% of those people are recruiters or recruiting managers.

Fact 3: Just about the biggest issue owners and managers of recruitment companies bleat about, is finding and retaining recruiters.

Fact 4: Our industry has an appalling record of hiring, retaining, and getting productivity from its recruiters.

Fact 5: A critical part of any hiring process is the reference checking of candidates to assess cultural fit, check facts, and uncover hidden strengths and weaknesses.

Fact 6: I am available for reference checking on any person who ever worked for me. And I take it seriously, giving considered feedback. And I will spend as long as it takes. And I am easy to find, and easy to contact. And I will return your call or email if you leave a message saying you want to take a reference.

Fact 7: In the last 5 years I have taken, at most, three such reference check calls. Probably less.

How can this be so? Why does our industry make these key decisions in such a cavalier way? Regularly, I hear of someone who worked for me being hired, and I know they have hired a dud. I know it won’t last three months. And I know why. But no one asks me.

Equally, I hear of an ex-employee who is turned down somewhere, and I smile ruefully at the missed opportunity for the company concerned. Because I know this person is a winner. I would hire them back myself if circumstances were different. But, no phone call asking my opinion.

Even recently, I had a very senior ex-employee hired into very senior role, a month after he left us. It’s all good and it will be all good, I think, but wouldn’t you make the 10 minute call before you made a 200k hiring decision? Staggers me.

Are we so desperate to hire anyone who looks to have any kind of industry record, that we don’t care enough to check if they are any good? Are our own processes so sloppy, even though the impact on us could be so catastrophic?

What does it say about the robustness of the process we go through for our clients? Are we just too arrogant to think  ‘another recruiter’ could help us? Or is that we don’t believe we would get an honest appraisal?

Tell me, please, dear ‘Savage Truth’ readers. What is this craziness? It makes no sense to me at all.

Is this our dirty little secret? Recruiters simply… cannot recruit?

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