What Are You Actually Buying From Your Recruiter?

[00:00:00] All right everybody. The 10 Minute Talent Rant is live. I’m James Hornick, joined by Jeff Smith and we are on the clock. The 10 Minute Talent Rant is our ongoing series where we break down things that are broken in the talent acquisition and hiring space. Maybe even pitch a solution or two. Before we dig in, all of our content can be found on talentinsights.hirewell.com.
[00:00:18] Ready Jeff? I’m ready. How you feeling about this week? We’re ready to go. Nice. Yeah. I made myself look somewhat presentable, sort of comfortable. Trying to clean it up here on the 10 Minute Talent Rant these days. This week’s topic, episode 108, what are you actually buying from your recruiter? That’s a good question.
[00:00:40] I think a lot of people don’t actually know. Anyways, so the way this came up, there’s a question I get on every single call, every single, like new client I potentially talk to. It’s always where do you get your candidates? The banger. Yeah. Shout out to my dad, by the way, whose [00:01:00] main question to this day, I’ve done this for 20 years, is- he doesn’t get the job, by the way.
[00:01:07] Still. Is, did you get any new recruits lately? I am not kidding when I say that. It’s literally verbatim, like I’m sitting at the ROTC booth at like Michigan State University trying to recruit people to go. Yeah, so. I mean, it seems fair. I think it’s a perfect illustration though of like how most buyers misunderstand the value of
[00:01:29] what we do and modern recruiting in general through no fault of their own. Yeah. I think that part of it comes down to, and we’re going to explain everything we’re talking about here, so stay with us. Part of it comes down to how fast and how rapidly the function of recruiting has changed over the past 20 years, which just doesn’t seem like long, but it is pretty quick and it’s kind of intensified.
[00:01:48] Recruiting used to be about access. It used to be before LinkedIn, before ZoomInfo, before anything useful. You know, recruiters, they built their [00:02:00] own books, their networks, their ability to track down people that weren’t visible anywhere. Constant referral gathering, like I was, my first job was right when kind of LinkedIn was starting.
[00:02:09] People were kind of still in the old world. I had to get 20 referrals a day was my goal. Like, it was, it was insane that like, it was entire, just finding people was so incredibly hard back then that, that was the job. That world is gone. Today, everyone has access to the same data they have. They access to the same list, the same people, whether you’re a recruiter like us or whether you’re a hiring manager, whether you’re an internal recruiter, like every tool under the sun has mapped out
[00:02:37] all the talent that fits- almost all the talent that fits your openings, barring a few niche areas, but you get almost all of it. So Jeff, this raises the question, if the greatest value from 20 years ago is now readily available to everyone,
[00:02:50] why do recruiting firms still exist? Yeah. Before I answer that, I’m literally just now- I wonder how many times I’ve referenced a Rolodex to [00:03:00] somebody younger than me and-
[00:03:01] A lot. You say it a lot, I’ve heard you say it a lot. And they have no idea what I’m talking about. Food for thought. The answer to your question is because finding candidates is easy.
[00:03:13] It’s the easy part. Persuasion, judgment, process design, relationship building. That’s the hard part. Yes. I do think a lot of our buyers understand the difference. The hard part is understanding which firms, i.e. which recruiters you’re talking to are faking it well. Yeah. And which ones are actually thorough and
[00:03:40] don’t stop at just explaining the position to the candidate in the hopes of filling a job. Yeah. And it’s often because of how we start the conversation, us as recruiters. We don’t ask the right questions or dig into the right stuff. The real differentiator to your [00:04:00] point, isn’t who has access to these candidates.
[00:04:04] It’s who can dig into and truly vet talent, influence, and persuade these top candidates to be excited and then subsequently take your job. And then finally, and most importantly, understand you as a customer so that we can take that hiring process and that message to the market effectively. I wanna break all this down further, because I think each of a lot of the points you said there still kind of need a little more explanation.
[00:04:34] The first thing is recruiting services themselves are kind of misunderstood. So like, where do you find your candidates is a question? That’s basically asking what- the question behind the question, which I think when companies ask that, they’re trying to understand, are you just blasting resumes or you’re doing real work? But it’s not the right question to get to that proper answer.
[00:04:52] You know, I think everyone’s- it’s wild to think how many, rightfully, how many potential customers think that we have [00:05:00] this database of active candidates that we can submit right away. It’s patently false for anybody that’s like listening. Yeah. If a firm only delivers resume, that’s sourcing, that’s not recruiting.
[00:05:12] Do you need a recruiting firm? No one needs a sourcing firm anymore. You know? AI and technology can find people. All the tools I mentioned, you know, LinkedIn and the million clones it has out there, but they, again, they can’t convince me to take your job. These resume mills, these recruiting firms, do they still exist?
[00:05:27] But the confusing part is they still charge the same amount on the backend that real recruiters do. And that’s the problem. A lot of times when you purchase other items, other things in your life, you can look at the sticker tag. You know, the price tag and you kinda understand, well, this is higher, so it must be better in some way.
[00:05:42] But the problem is, is like the worst recruiting firms still overcharge as if they’re doing real work, which makes it harder for people to kind of, that’s one of the big filters that humans use when they’re trying to determine what to buy. Doesn’t really work when you’re kind of evaluate recruiters.
[00:05:55] Yeah. The pricing is definitely misaligned. Number two, on this [00:06:00] list is the illusion of tech enabled recruiting, i.e. the HR tech matrix that we’ve talked about this, in past episodes. It’s all exploded and there’s all these tools, you know, promising automation just like every other sector, by the way.
[00:06:16] . That they can get these passive candidates up to the top of your funnel and ready to go. I want to be very clear, they are glorified data scrapers with slick UIs. You right now have access to the exact same data that’s being visualized on that fancy dashboard. Yeah. I am so confident of that,
[00:06:40] I’m willing, hill to die on type stuff. And number two, again, none of these tools replace us, vetting it, humans vetting it. Positioning the role, closing the role. Nothing is going to replace that. Yeah. So don’t pay someone to use a tool for you when the tool [00:07:00] isn’t even that great or anything you can’t already have yourself.
[00:07:02] Okay. Bingo. Next thing I want to get into is, ’cause this is where I think it really matters, is the different business models that are out there. You got contingent, you got retained, you got RPO, you got do it yourself. And kind of breaking all these on individually, when you’re talking to contingent any the contingent model, it’s a resume race.
[00:07:21] There’s very little process. There is very little skin in the game. Firms that continue to work on a contingent basis, there’s a reason why they aren’t expecting any kind of commitment for you upfront. And we’ll kind of get into that maybe more when we kind of talk about retained firms. So it’s Charlie Brown and Linus in the big trench coat.
[00:07:37] It’s two kids positioning themselves as an adult to play an adult game. It’s nonsense. Now on the flip side, retained. And granted, not every retain firm is great, but what I’m saying is there’s- the intention there is there’s an actual partnership. There’s a higher level process. There’s deep alignment.
[00:07:55] There’s someone actually charging you for their time because it’s actually valuable. No [00:08:00] firm goes the extra mile that does real work for free. Like ask yourself, whatever you’re listening to, whatever your company sells, software, marketing service, tech consulting, whatever. Do you start a scope of work,
[00:08:13] create a software without any kind of buy-in or commitment for a client? No, you don’t. I guarantee that you don’t. But now ask yourself the flip side of that is like a firm like yours, maybe a competitor of yours who would actually start a scope of work like that, creating custom software or whatever it is, without any kind of upfront commitment.
[00:08:32] Is that a good firm? Is that kind of a shitty firm? There’s no difference here. Yeah. Any company that is putting forth like a free weeks of service, that is requiring zero human lift on the backend, none. It’s a completely automated process. Third- third way in which recruiting firms go to market is RPO.
[00:08:54] It’s very simple. It’s a volume driven play. It’s less consultative. And can be very [00:09:00] useful in the right use cases. You think, you know, in high turnover, manufacturing, you know, floor type settings, these solutions work. There’s a lot of turnover. You need new bodies that can weld.
[00:09:15] No, no offense. Welders, you’re great, but gets the next set of welders in, right. Fourth, what we kind of are zeroing into, the automation, do it yourself. It’s really, really good for entry level sourcing. It’s useless for closing anything really kind of above and beyond that, especially in like senior management, executive level roles.
[00:09:39] The point is, you get what you pay for. If you are pressing a button, hoping that it will solve all of your ills in recruiting and paying a $400, you know, shopping cart price tag. It’s not gonna work. Now, let me get into, let me pivot a little bit here. Why most recruiting firms [00:10:00] will die. This is the bold part.
[00:10:03] And this is not hyperbole. The last two years have been difficult for recruiting firms. Hiring’s been down. It’s been challenging. It’s been tough for us but tough for everybody. We’re getting it done. We’re fine. We’ve had a pretty solid march, you know what I mean? Like things are looking up.
[00:10:17] Things picked up halfway through last year. And the best recruiter, as I know, the best other firms, not just us. Like there’s other firms. They’re getting by. They’re doing just fine. But I know a lot that have gone out of business.There’s a lot of places out of business, there’s a lot of places about to go out of business and it’s directly correlated with how good they are.
[00:10:34] And there’s a lot of good recruiters who are exiting the business, which means there’s lot of us. Yeah. Sourcing. So kind of with that, like as we’ve mentioned a million times, sourcing’s been kind of commoditized by AI. The recruiting firms that are going to actually make it through this patch are the ones that influence outcomes.
[00:10:52] The ones that actually help design interview processes. The ones that actually know how to align stakeholders within the process, the ones that can manage [00:11:00] timelines, the ones that can deliver actual hiring results. The real work these days and bad recruiters are going to be placed by tech. Good recruiters are going to be a premium and be scarce.
[00:11:09] Like that’s actually happening in real time right now. It couldn’t be more firm on that, so. Yep. A lot of this is all predicated to upon what access points recruiters have within the organization that they serve. And hiring manager access is paramount to success.
[00:11:32] If your recruiter doesn’t speak with the hiring manager and learn his or her language, your search is already broken.
[00:11:40] One good intake conversation can make or break a project, namely because the hiring manager becomes whatever X more invested into the partnership and feels like the recruiter’s the real deal. That’s part of this equation. Blocking recruiter access [00:12:00] isn’t protecting human resources. It’s literally sabotaging the outcomes.
[00:12:05] Too long didn’t read, great recruiting is a partnership, not a transaction, and that’s never going to change. Yeah. Now takeaways. Gone a little bit long this week. That’s fine. Again, what are you actually buying? You’re not buying data, you’re not buying names, you’re not buying access. You’re buying judgment, nuance, influence, relationship building, storytelling, the ability to evaluate a fit.
[00:12:27] Someone who can manage the process and questions you need to ask in the buying process or understanding the firms you’re working with, can they do those things? Do you trust them to do those things? Yeah. Do you trust them to be able the right kind of partner internally and represent you externally? If you don’t get a sense of like business aptitude when you talk with someone, just ’cause- like they’re not the real deal.
[00:12:49] Yeah. If you’re only paying, you know, or want recruiting to access resumes- final thought, buy our pipeline tool. We have thought of that. We do want [00:13:00] to monetize it and turn into a service offering. Or like you said, James, just do it yourself. The data’s out there. It’s really not that complicated.
[00:13:10] Yeah. We’re short on clock. It’s a wrap for this week, another one in the bag, Jeff. Thanks for tuning in the 10 Minute Talent Rant, part of the Talent Insights series, which is always available for replay on talentinsights.hirewell.com, as well as YouTube, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and Amazon. Jeff, thanks again as always. Everyone out there, see you soon.