"Recruiting Is Sales" - Now There’s a Scary Thought!

"Recruiting is Sales"? I know it’s a popular idea and it’s generating a lot of press - but just think about it.  Right now:

• 46% of all new US hires fail in the first 18 months on the job--- because of bad hiring decisions  (according to Leadership IQ)

• A bad hire costs companies at least 2 times annual salary (according to Right Management)

And pundits in our field are publishing articles and posting blogs right and left telling us that "recruiting IS sales," and that the primary job of recruiters is to “sell” the candidates to hiring managers. So what happens when hiring managers have concerns about a candidate’s...

• technical skills

• relevant experience

• interpersonal skills

• leadership abilities

• or fit with the work environment?

According to these guys, the recruiter simply needs to shift into intense sales mode - “overcome objections” and “defend your candidate” - because chances are the hiring manager is just being cranky or has “weak assessment skills."  And remember that "you win!" when you sell the candidate to the hiring manager!

Let's face a basic fact:  we have a major candidate quality problem. Way too many "loser" candidates are being hired, only to be almost immediately flushed out of the system - because the selection system is badly broken and nobody will admit it or do anything about it.  But we must fix it – and soon!

I don’t mean to be too rough on recruiters, who after all are trying to do their jobs as currently defined, or the pundits who are simply trying to help them be more successful. But I strongly believe we have been defining success and the relationship between recruiter and hiring manager in a counterproductive way.  They need to be business partners – each with a stake in the candidate’s success for a year or more. 

We should begin looking at the recruiting/hiring process not as a sales transaction, but as an ongoing long term commitment - analogous to what happens when an insurance underwriter writes a piece of business: there is always a “tail.” Success is measured not when the business is written but on how it turns out later.  And the only thing worse than not writing business is writing BAD business.

We clearly need new and better tools and techniques for telling good candidates from bad ones, and for assessing the "quality of hire" in the mid- and long-term.  We must do whatever it takes to ensure that the "revolving talent door" stops spinning and that our corporations stop bleeding billions... over a preventable problem!