The Good, the Bad and the Unqualified

As a 360 degrees desk recruiter, I am involved in all phases of recruitment. From meeting with the client and understanding their staffing needs to finding the right candidate and completing the contract.

Last week I had to terminate a contract prematurely.

The Good:

I was really amazed with my candidate's reaction when I called to inform him of the sudden ending of his contract. That day was to be his final day of work. His attitude was very positive. He told me (with a smile)"this happens in contract business and that life goes on!"

The Bad:

The early termination of the contract was not based on poor performance, on the contrary, my candidate's deliverables were outstanding. The project was far ahead of schedule in great part because of his contribution. He was able to accomplish in a week what was forecast to take eight weeks.

The Unqualified:

Even though performance was not an issue, I had to terminate a contract of a very good candidate. On far too many ocassions companies are not able to retain excellent human assets because of lack of planning. Considerable time and effortwas put into this hiring process, finding the right candidate, qualifying, interviews, preparation, locking down the price, for just a week of work.

The challenge would be not only finding the right candidate for the right job, but also qualifying the client's scope and duration of projects.

Comment by Jodi on May 4, 2010 at 6:01pm: Lorena:

Thank goodness your client had such a positive attitude and open mind to the cancellation. As a firm believer in karma and all that it encompasses I trust something prositive will come out of this for him. You are so right about the lack of planning by client's. Unfortunately it makes our jobs difficult when lack of planning on their part creates an emergency on ours when they do get ready again.

Good luck!

Jodi

Comment by Linda Ferrante on May 5, 2010 at 12:04pm: It also may cause that hiring manager/client to re-evaluate how they came with that time frame, who did the calculations, why it went much quicker, etc. There could be some openings with that client pretty soon that may end up working well for both you and the employee!