Recruiter Gone Wrong

How working with the wrong recruiter can actually double the work of HR

Here’s the story…

Recently, management reached out and asked me to handle hiring for several mid-level positions in our company. The new year is always especially challenging as the holiday’s aftermath and time off from work seems to make mountains of work for the HR department. To save time, resources, and my sanity I enlisted the help of a recruiter.

I found the recruiter via a Facebook group for HR professionals and I passed on the task of hiring to him. The great thing about the internet is that you can network and find freelance workers all over the world, but it can come at a price. To make a long story short, the recruiter I found was just out of university, completely inexperienced and talking a big game to cover his shortcomings. In the end, I spent more time managing him than I ever dreamed of, and the entire experience just added to my work and drained our company’s resources.

Although this recruiter had prescreened applicants he still sent me unqualified candidates. The recruiter did not effectively communicate salary expectations with candidates which left me to navigate that with them, and finally- some candidates were unresponsive and overall lackluster. I honestly could have done better posting to a job board.

What I learned

I realized that quality and trustworthy recruiters are indeed out there, but there are better ways to go about it. A peer recommended I check out Recruiters LineUp which essentially serves as a (free) matchmaker between HR professionals like myself and qualified professional recruiters, headhunters, and staffing agencies.

Moving forward

On the Recruiters LineUp website, I entered in a little info about the open position (area, industry) and my contact information. I was soon contacted by their team for some follow up questions, and then quickly sent a list of the most relevant and specialized candidates for my specific search.

What a difference! This time I was able to pass along the position into the hands of a talented and qualified recruiter, complete with references and a vast network of contacts. This recruiter handled initial screening and interviews and in the end, we were left with a small pool of highly qualified candidates.

In short, recruiters can make all the difference in the life of HR. Working with a qualified recruiter saved me an enormous amount of time, energy, and ultimately resources for our company. We’ve hired from what the recruiter found and will definitely be back in the future as our company continues to expand and grow.