Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Kimberley Chesney. Kimberley is the owner of Prime Management Group in Canada, with offices in London and Kitchener (Ontario). Kimberley is a long-time volunteer for NPAworldwide, currently serving as Immediate Past Chair of our Board of Directors.
In the world of contingency recruiting, nothing is more frustrating than working so hard to find excellent candidates and then having your client go silent. Anyone reading this that has done third-party contingency recruiting will understand what I am talking about.
Here’s the scenario. You have done business with this client for many, many years. You have watched people come and go and you have always been able to defend some of their misguided reputation by explaining to candidates that they are going to change.
You have put up with “hurry up and wait” and have had candidates in holding patterns only to find that they accepted other opportunities because they too got frustrated about the so-called “opportunity of a lifetime.” You have listened to your contacts within the company complain about things and yet you remain patient, concerned and devoted to this long-time client.
Then it happens…You lose out on one, two, three or more placements because of delays.
You don’t receive any response after submitting a resume. You don’t receive the long-awaited feedback after an interview you arranged (after receiving the request less than 12 hours before the proposed interview time). You receive excuses (finally after trying to contact your client numerous times) about the delay. However, you do not receive any valuable information to share with your candidate in order to keep them in a holding pattern.
Finally, you have had enough and you remember that YOU are in control of what you will or will not put up with. You can make the decision to either wait it out or speak up.
Don’t misinterpret what I am saying here… no one wants to “fire” a client so you really have to assess the overall risk before you make that call.
One of the things you should NEVER compromise is YOUR own reputation and that of the recruitment company you work for. If you are enduring long bouts of silence regarding your work and this isn’t justified, candidates start questioning YOUR integrity – especially when you are the one who has to make excuses for your client.
When you finally make this difficult, yet powerful, decision you will have NOTHING to lose and everything to gain.
Many times, clients just don’t “get” what we do. They don’t have to, because they pay our fees to “put up” with their inconsistency. However it is up to you to educate them and explain that their silence and non-committal actions are causing their reputation to suffer. In addition, you need to explain that you will not have your own reputation suffer because of their lack of consideration.
Recently, we “fired” a client. It had a profound affect. The client simply didn’t understand what all the fuss was about and ended up apologizing and, more importantly, stopped the bottle neck and proceeded to interview and prepare offers for two different positions!
Talk about a win-win-win… Candidate happy, client happy and most importantly we were happy!
Take a look at what you are wasting your time on and see if you should be firing your “best” client.
Good Luck!
