I guess I’m the only one here who, when looking for Sales and customer facing/interfacing staff, saw a CV that described James Bond, sat with a candidate, who interviewed like Daniel Craig then sadly had to work with Johnny English for years when they hit the payroll.
The recruiter I was working with regularly threw CV’s over the wall with the comforting phrase “I don’t think this is for you, but I thought you might like a look!”.
It felt like they were softening me up to lower my standards to someone they could find. They needn’t have bothered.
My standards were dropping every time I had to do the work of “The new person” as well as my own.
It wasn’t their fault, it was mine. I didn’t prepare well enough. I know LinkedIn is known for knocking the recruiting profession, but this is often unfair. When I was able to give a well prepared hiring template to my recruiting partners, the magic started to happen.
You wouldn’t build a house without thorough planning and preparation, so why hire without preparing?
You think Stephen King's Clown is scary?
A bad hire can cost 5-10 times a years salary (often more). That’s more than a house! Now that's scary.
I mean, would you propose marriage based on a good one hour date and a nice letter from their Mum?
A bad hire can take a company to the brink of disaster, sometimes over that brink.
Planning for hiring and giving the recruiter the best chance of success is critical.
Don't be like me and put someone else's Clown on your payroll.
A"job spec" alone doesn’t cut it.
Have you got the attributes for success in this role identified?
How will they fit in with other members of staff?
How do you test for this?
How do you do this without wasting time? What does that wasted time cost you?
I wish someone could have guided me on this before I dropped some real clangers.
Fortunately I now know better, I have the scars of the journey to remind me.
Some companies now invite me in to work with them on hiring "The Sandler Way".
I wont let them make the mistakes I made.
They like to know they have a proven repeatable system for all new hires.
The other companies, won’t have read this far. They’ll just like the picture.
Cartoon credit to Simon Chubb @Scartoons1
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