Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership
Recruiters are your best friend during hiring, but most disappear after you accept. But “extended recruiting” changes that.
Ending The Recruiting Process Early Is A Costly Mistake
Before the recruiting process even begins, everyone involved needs to realize that this process shouldn’t end when the new hire starts their new job. Instead, the recruiting process needs to be extended for at least a month.
There are three basic reasons for that extension: first, to ensure the new hire doesn’t abruptly quit; second, to help the new hire quickly reach their maximum productivity level; and third, to gather all the information needed to improve your process in the future.
All three of these strategic goals are more likely to be reached if the recruiter stays involved with the new hire until at least their first performance appraisal is completed. I call this approach “extended recruiting.”
Yes, Recruiters Frequently Abandon New-Hires
Yes, it’s true that when the new hire was classified as a finalist, their recruiter responded quickly and stuck with them like glue.
But by the time the new hire’s starting day came around, their recruiter either became distant or they completely disappeared. Many recruiters become so disengaged that they fail to even welcome the new hire on their first day.
I call this all-too-common practice of suddenly ending recruiter contact once a new hire starts “dropping them over the wall” and forgetting about them. This recommended “extended recruiting” approach differs from the related “extended onboarding process.” The former involves only the recruiter, and its scope is strictly limited to issues directly impacting recruiting.
The Many Benefits of Recruiters Staying in Touch Under Extended Recruiting
Recruiting leaders and hiring managers aren’t very likely to agree on the need to extend the recruiting process until they fully understand the benefits (and cost savings) that come from having the recruiter remain in touch for at least the new hire’s first month on the job. Those benefits from staying in touch include:
It will build the recruiter’s morale – after a recruiter has witnessed the new-hire’s success on the job. It will add to their self-confidence and validate their feeling of accomplishment. And that boost will energize the recruiter during their next recruiting assignment.
It will minimize starting day no-shows – the continued recruiter contact and higher engagement during the 2-week notice period will help to limit new-hire ghosting. And increase the chances that your finalist will actually show up for work on their first day.
The continued contact will reduce costly early turnover – the continued involvement of the recruiter may help “seal the deal” with the new-hire. And that closure may be necessary because one survey found that 33% of new hires quit during their first 90 days. So, this added recruiter involvement may lead to the spotting of more potential turnover issues. In addition, this recruiter is the single employee who has the longest relationship with the hire. The new-hire may be more willing to share their problems and concerns with this recruiter than their manager. And with this added focus on identifying potential retention issues. The likelihood of new-hire turnover will be reduced. This, in turn, means that the costly and time-consuming probability of immediately recruiting again for the position will be significantly reduced.
The recruiter’s help will reduce the new-hire’s time to productivity – with the continuing guidance and support of the recruiter. The new hire will likely become more confident (up to 40%). And the recruiter’s support will also likely help them build their network much faster. And taken together. The support in these two areas will likely reduce the time it takes for the new hire to reach their initial productivity goals.
The recruiter may be able to provide some self-development guidance – because the recruiter would be aware of any lingering concerns that the hiring manager had about the capabilities of the new-hire. This recruiter may be able to provide some guidance and direction to the new employee as to where they should focus their initial self-development.
When the new-hire is not a great fit for this job, the recruiter can suggest a transfer– in cases when the new-hire is highly skilled. However, the new manager determines they are not a great fit for this team, manager, and job. The recruiter, because they know this new-hire and the organization so well. May be able to suggest an internal transfer that will be a win-win solution for everyone involved.
The recruiter can continue to receive information and feedback from the new-hire – when a new-hire maintains a continuous relationship with their recruiter. The new hire will build an increased level of trust in them. And that additional level of confidence will likely make a new hire much more willing to provide valuable information to the recruiter. About their perceptions of their experiences in these important areas:
- After they have mentally decided to stay, the new hire will be more willing to provide quality employee referrals from among their best former colleagues.
- After they are completely settled in their new job, their respect for the recruiter will allow them to honestly reveal which sources of recruiting information piqued their interest and which sources finally convinced them to apply. The new-hire will now be more willing to reveal which of this job’s many “attraction factors” they find most compelling.
- With their increased level of confidence, when asked, the new hire will be more forthcoming in revealing their perception of “what worked and what didn’t” in each step of the recruiting process.
- Also, after they gain more trust, the new hire will be more likely to reveal their actual assessment of their candidate experience and whether the overall picture of the job and company that was painted by the recruiting team was misleading in any way (61% report that they were misled).
- If the recruiter stays in touch until after their initial performance appraisal, the recruiter, along with the hiring manager, will be better able to more accurately judge whether this hire was a quality one. In addition, the recruiter will also be able to determine which interviewers produced the most accurate assessment of the candidate. Finally, the recruiter will also be able to validate the accuracy of their own candidate assessment.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, little has changed since I first wrote about this problem in 1998, and in fact, the problem may now have gotten worse. As a result of today’s current combination of Talent Acquisition budget cuts and recruiter layoffs, today’s recruiters are incredibly busy.
Before your executives, hiring managers, and recruiters will even consider extended recruiting, you will need to make a compelling business case covering why a recruiter should stay in touch for all critical jobs.
Your economic argument will need to cover the value received from minimizing early turnover and from improving new-hire performance. It must also show the value of gathering recruiting process data that will be used to continually improve your recruiting results.
Fortunately, there is no need to worry about the potential strength of your business case, because extended recruiting for priority jobs almost always produces a high ROI. The only added costs are a few hours of a recruiter’s time.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Note for the reader
This is the latest article from Dr. Sullivan, who was called “the Michael Jordan of Hiring” by Fast Company. And please help spread his ideas by sharing this with your team/network and by posting it on your favorite social media.
