Who is the Client in Search & Selection?

Attention Talent Hunters, The Candidate is your True Client. The Company is your Partner.

Companies have only fairly lately realized the impact of that their behavior has in their bottom line and only fewer have further managed to fit their policies to cover the needs of their diversified workforce such as women, mothers, young, aging, special abilities and minorities. However, it is a hard truth that the way employees are treated mandates how the end customer is treated and ultimately the company’s social image. The fact that as HR Community have not as managed to convince the corporate world is yet another indication of where we stand in attaining a quantifiable corporate growth.

After-all your brand today is by large the way you treat your people.

Employees are part of your society and also your prospective end consumers. And there is no other area than Executive Search that this matters the most. Especially in areas like Finance, Software and Engineering where there is a high and continuous skills shortage, understanding soon enough that your candidate is your client is a simple must.

I am just an occupational psychologist who loves search and selection and need to state clearly to all talent hunters the bellow:

• Candidates are our Clients. Treat them like adults. The Candidates do know what they like and dislike; what has hurt them in the past and what they wish to avoid. Their fears, defenses and crucial problems. They are also aware of both their positive and negative experiences that are deeply rooted or sometimes have buried them on purpose to forget them. And they are also positive people who do know their learning mechanisms, their learning needs, skills sets, and do know what resourcefulness they may need to proceed. Treat them like adults.

• Companies are our Partners. Select them wisely and keep them updated. As a professional you are paid for a service. But first you need to select them wisely. Your name is also attached to their behavior. Thus, companies need to become your trusted partners. Avoid those who show disrespect towards their employees, who show no trust towards their people or just treat them as human resources and not human beings. Selecting your partners along a strong ethical measure is a must. Your Partner pays for a professional representative towards your clients (i.e. the candidates) and the partner should be ethical. If they are not and you are representing them this will give an unethical personal branding to your clients. There are no shortages on that. On the other hand, you need to honor your promises towards your partners. Clarify the agenda and keep a coherent and frequent communication. Periodically check with them that you are on the same page.

To put it in simple math it if A+B = Matching then you are successful.

Each of us need to be a professional coach with our clients, the candidates. We are indeed paid to represent a trusted partner to build trust with our clients/candidates in order to open up and see if they match with the environment that we represent – the target company, our partner. We need to effort the efforts of our candidates to understand the culture of our partners.

If we wish to have a good match we should work with our clients to build a clear understanding of the culture, the values, challenges and expectations of our partner. And of course to inform our partners of how much penetration their current values and work conditions (i.e the work climate have in the market). We are now well into the marketing era of the people processes. Thus, we are part of our partners’ employer branding

Have a clear value-added proposition of your partner.

If this does not fit your client’s (i.e. the candidate’s) needs, do not try to make it fit. Inform the client, allow for short term coaching and nurturing and allow him to move ahead. Do not make matching compromises. Our candidates are our clients who do know well in which environment they would wish to work and invest a big proportion of their live.

We need to understand that the smartest companies out there trust our skills to provide their prospective candidates a unique tailored made experience to match their needs. Making the candidates feel unique is the key here. Matching the total person with the target company is a big part of what employer branding is. That is the reason that companies are still willing to pay extra for this service of talent hunting. Most of them still falsely call for recruitment or trust many of its operations to entry level people in HR and without proper, close guidance.

If you wish to be a leader in this game you need to avoid shortcuts in your quality. And if you wish to be a trusted coach any understanding or guidance on the technical skills will not give you a head’s start but your attentive listening and active presence will.

Further to the fact that now there are established systems that help you build a great feedback mechanism, personalized letters and tailormade experiences for your clients in HumanI we follow these simple rules and thought to share them with you which are winners:

1. Your clients trust you with their CV, their stories of life and dreams. Do not betray them. Keep these data safe and ask them to trust you to keep it in your records. If they do not, delete and destroy the files. Avoid showing the complete CV of your client to your partner unless you have informed the client on the name of your partner and has trusted you to send the CV to your partner. In fact, be aware that if you show the CV there may be a strong possibility that the partner may select on the basis of the CV looks. True professionals offer a profile with specific crucial competencies assessed for the role.
2. Support your partner to build a short and concise Job Spec. A long wish list of technical competence, training and degrees is not really the substance of the game. The basics needed is the name of the game. So ask them a simple question: Of the long wish list which are the 5 basics that you would need? Of the 5 basics which 4 are the absolute musts. Help your partner narrow down their wish lists.
3. Support you clients on building their branding. Most time it is true that you will not have the skills or time to deal with their CVs but may need to suggest them to go through a professional CV and or career coach if you do not have the skills or the time to invest. Again listing all the possible technical skills or seminars and training in a CV is rather useless. Guide them only to put those that they know well and are mentioned as the basic minimum in the job advert. Or go up to those ones that are  nice to have. If the persons are technical masters, request them to build an up to date portfolio of their work and projects. Those should not be put on the CV but rather on Github or personal mini site if they are developers or have them on a separate document. They can also use the link of the mini site to put it on the CV or send it to other talent hunters and or companies. Teach them to work smartly and they will never forget you. Try not to compromise this step. A sloppy CV or portfolio may cause them losing good chances now and in the future. Explain them also the importance of having a strong Linkedin profile. Again, remember you are not an expert and you can refer them further to professionals.
4. Try to coach them before going to the interview. Professional Headhunters or People Specialists are aware that the interview is very much situational related. We have two people aiming to check if they match by using questions and being vigilant to body language. This is surprisingly very much like flirting. Personally I have been a trained Occupational Psychologist and can understand my own limitations but most recruiters are not and much more are entry level HR people with limited practical and theoretical knowledge. Aim to help your clients explain their CVs in 15 minutes. Help them to rephrase their words to pass the right message but do not change the meaning of their sentences; do not paraphrase their spirit. Do not steal their voice. Do not make them be something that are not in their everyday life. Help them build a communication strategy and some tactics to pass it through. This will support them to stay focused during the process.
5. Prepare your client for the interview only on the precondition that you are sure that your client is a good match to your partner. Be sincere, clear and concise with your clients if you think it would not fit with your partner. An attitude or a value that may prove counterproductive at a later stage during work needs to be addressed early in the process. If there is a mismatch do not proceed further unless you are sure that the gap can be somehow filled. Be sincere with your client; s/he is an adult and deserves to know the mismatch. Of course, you should never hurt or shatter your client. But you should not also aim to lie and let the client believe that it was a simple mismatch. If you know what the exact reasons of the mismatch was you need to inform them. Sometimes it is a hurting truth but your job is to pass the message professionally.
6. Respect your client and do not allow any partner to abuse its power. You are the medium. Keeping a client warm does not mean to lie to the client. You need to be professional with the client that the partner is not sure yet that they wish to proceed. Even if you do not understand the exact reason you need to keep the relationship warm by simply admitting that you do not know. But do not keep the client warm by lying. The simple reply that the company has not decided yet is not working wel also for your own image as a headhunter. Be an ethical headhunter. You need to avoid lying as the person understands it. Speak the truth.
7. Respond promptly to your clients’ requests for feedback. Provide professional feedback on each stage of the selection. This will keep your client satisfied but not necessarily happy. A rejection does not usually make one happy but feedback properly given keeps the client satisfied. And of course a satisfied client will make the case for positive branding. There is a professional way to provide feedback. If you have not followed specific training in providing feedback it is time to invest in your own development. This is a social science field, you need to keep building your soft skills.
8. Listen carefully, be responsive and attentive to your clients needs and your partners demands. Treat all stakeholders with respect and make sure that you have put your boundaries. Aim to get at least trained in basic psychological defensive mechanisms. Denial and projection of one’s unconscious qualities onto others is a common process in everyday life. So be prepared to be blamed from a rejected candidate. A short training in basic psychoanalytic defenses will help you a lot to understand and build your resilience
9. It is OK to put psychometrics or technical tests. In fact, for some positions you should never avoid them. But remember to have a trained person to provide feedback to your clients. If you think that giving feedback is dangerous. Leaving them in complete darkness provides for sure a negative reputation for your partner.
10. Be prepared for large attrition rates if you make the process too technical, too elaborate and/or too long. Inform your Partner that you will need to move fast. This does not mean to sacrifice the quality. To the contrary you need to increase your efficiency and quality. So, use technological solutions to increase your efficiency. For instance, nowadays, most tests do have an automatic feedback report for the candidate. Use online rather than paper and pencil ones.  

Remember always to view the things along the lines that the Clients are your candidates and the companies are your Partners. And you are a medium paid by your partner to do a successful matching. The more you will invest in your own training the better chances you may stand to achieve outstanding matches.

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