
After working in Human Capital for almost 25 years – and earning my strips as a Subject Matter Expert - I can’t help but feel a bit perplexed, frustrated by my most recent experiences dealing with some Human Resources professionals, and wanting a better B2B business model.
You might ask “what are you talking about,” “why are you feeling this way” or “what’s triggered your frustration.” You might even think and then say, you are “full of baloney.” And, you might think, “who cares?” My bet is on the latter point.
Nevertheless, my bold and daring nature compels me to write my lived experience on both sides of the table – so to speak. As a young professional, my first role was in journalism and communication. My second career stream was in Human Resources Management where I rose through the ranks to oversee recruitment, compensation and benefits, HR strategy, etc. to being the company top human resources executive, and finally, a chief operating officer for a global manufacturing company.
In those roles, I had accountability for many things including working with external search experts on securing talented people for important roles that my company could not do on its own. My experience, for the most part, was exceptionally good. I had great trust and enduring relationships with many external search agencies.
Then my curiosity and need for advancing my impact on business and people led me to entering the world of global human capital and business transformation consulting. I was fortunate to learn more about Human Capital Strategy and Business Strategy through mentors, thought leaders I had worked with, and the clients and countries I had the benefit of working with, and in.
Fast forward to today. Sort of; hang on. I’ll get to the point.
First, several years ago my company expanded its partnership with a leading search expert who became a partner. Then, through my connections and consulting relationship with a members-based professional association, we created a niche-based employment agency called Engineers4Hire.
Since then, the business expanded to create Talent4Hire, where Engineers4Hire is one line of business. The new business is more broad-based working with many clients in the search for human resources, financial, sales and marketing, and engineering senior roles.
Through this period, I continued my management consulting work focusing on business strategy, business modelling, leadership, leadership development, and executive coaching. By virtue of my work and executive coaching assignments, I have had and continue to have the honour and benefit of coaching and supporting many CEOs across the country.
Now, what does this all mean? Here’s my first point:
After working with hundreds of senior executives and CEOs, and with numerous HR practitioners, I can say that I have had a completely diametric experience working with CEOs versus with many HR practitioners.
Here’s the rub, or some people might call it, the “elephant on the table” that no one really wants to talk about.
Is it just me? Or is this a shared experience that other external search recruitment agencies, or recruiters, face? Then, I asked my business partner, Ken Sugar, if I was “off my rocker.” He categorically said “no.” His subsequent short response to my question was, “move on, it happens at the time. Get over it and pretend that it doesn’t matter!”
That’s when my brain went sideways! “How can this really be?”
Having been on both sides of the experience spectrum – user and serve provider – I asked myself:
· Why is this happening? Is it bad luck, our market approach, or simply bad timing?
· Why does our team feel like we’ve been jerked around, even being mistreated?
· Why do we get complaints from candidates identified in our talent search that they have been contacted by three other recruiters from different agencies?
· Why do we get frustrated when - after being engaged by and then searching for a client vacant position – mid-way through the search process, the HR practitioner pulls the plug ending our search, often with no advance warning or the courtesy of telling us why? What spanned this action?
· Why does it feel like HR is the enemy?
And, more importantly, “why does it feel like we can’t trust human resources practitioners?”
The bottom line is this. After talking to many search firm recruiters, and listening to my own team, it collectively feels like employment search agencies have been relegated to being a commoditized business in a Business-to-Business (B2B) relationship and service model.
And, for many external employment search agents, they just say, “it’s part of doing business” and move on and pretend it doesn’t matter.
Well, being a truth teller, I can tell you that “it feels like crap! Why do you ask? Here are just two recent experiences.
Experience 1: Pulling the Rug Underneath Our Feet:
A brand-new client needed a very specific type of engineer.
This companies hiring manager contacted us. As we confirmed that the client had a compelling and urgent need, we then followed our standard practices and necessary paces with the client: First, the client approved an agreement with terms and conditions of the search, and a fee structure. Next, our search resulted in over 200 candidates being identified, the top 20 candidates were interviewed and screened for technical and cultural fit with the client. We encouraged the head of Human Resources to get involved in the search process, as HR had accountability for the process and its success. This lead then worked with the engineering hiring manager.
We then screened all candidates down to three contenders. The client interviewed all three candidates. The client preferred to interview more candidates before deciding to proceed with any candidate.
Through this search process, the HR practitioner representing the employer kept on rejecting highly qualified candidates because they “weren’t sure of the candidates” or “that the candidate didn’t have a professional designation”, although it was forthcoming”, or “they needed more time to make a decision”, or “they liked a candidate but needed the top executive approval”. In this search experience, we also heard from candidates that the company has also engaged two other search firms to do the same search. Imagine our surprise, the feeling of being screwed over, and of being duped. No one from the client company including the HR practitioner or the hiring manager said anything to us about engaging other firms.
Imagine our horror and frustration when candidates we contacted told us that different search firms were looking for the same talent? We decided to talk to the hiring manager and HR presentative who informed us that a recruitment firm they had hired before was still looking for candidates without the company’s consent. Not only did we experience frustration with the client, but we were also in a “cat and mouse” game initiated by or condoned by the client. The cat that caught the mouse won it all.
Imagine what these candidates thought of us, and the hiring company, its leadership, and its business practices?
In this real story - it’s a loose-loose-loose situation. The hiring company looses out. The search firms involved loose because they compete with other firms. Potential candidates loose out, and we lose out too because of the client pulling the assignment.
Serving companies that pull out of the assignment at the last-minute means that we have wasted precious time serving those companies. When these companies pull out, we whammy.
And, making matters worse, we loose other client business and revenue by serving companies that aren’t really serious. Now that it a triple whammy!
Experience 2 - Turf Warfare, and Being Misinformed and Misled
This is a worse case scenario than example one: but it happens more than others think.
Without going into a lot of detail and risk exposing the employer, I won’t go into details. Rather, I’ll lay out the experience, the impact of this company’s behavior, and what it means going forward.
This is the experience. Short and simple. An existing client relationship with a CEO from a different company moved over to a top executive position in another larger organization. This opportunity with the new company for the existing client was immense. Few people get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make profound change.
Months in, and several frustrating experiences with cultural and turf barriers, this client contacted me and my team to support them in managing the search for hundreds of new employees to meet a politically charged and competitive project with billions. Part of this client’s challenge with HR’s ability and focus on getting the hundreds of new employees for this client executive.
After several meetings with this top executive and their top leaders, a verbal deal was struck between this leadership and my team. All we had to do was to prepare a comprehensive proposal and present it to the sponsoring executive. The top executive then indicated the need to get approval from the President and CEO.
After the proposal submission, and waiting several patient weeks, we contacted the sponsoring client who thus informed us that the proposal was “not approved” by the President and CEO because HR “put a stop to it”! HR owned recruitment: therefore, HR was the steward, the process owner, and the power broker within this company.
There was no other word from this company nor any contact from HR despite numerous attempts to reach the top HR executive. Months following, there was a crack in the company veneer. We secured a meeting with the company’s head of recruitment. Good news, or so we thought.
Contacting the top executive who was the search sponsor, this executive shared their excitement and then informed us that the central HR leadership had no control over HR in this large division’s area of accountability.
So, in good faith, we prepared to meet with the central HR senior managers and the head of recruitment, to highlight our capability and capacity to help them. We even offered up many impactful opportunities for the HR function to remain in control, be the pacesetter, and “owned” the process and outcome. The top HR executive supported and encouraged us to prepare a proposal.
We followed through quickly.
Weeks later, the top executive sponsoring this talent search campaign informed us that the project was a “no-go”! Despite our numerous efforts to find out why we didn’t get the work, the sole answer to our questions and dilemma was that “HR didn’t like it; therefore, it was a non-starter.”
Imagine our confusion and disappointment. Two large proposals developed, several meetings held with HR, the sponsoring executive, and other stakeholders, and annoying mixed messages from within the company, we were no further ahead. In fact, we lost other opportunities preparing for this large project and we lost a significant amount of time.
Talk about being misinformed and misled; and being led down the garden path. Trust again - hell no!
There’s Gotta be a Better Way
Short of being on the “end of a battering ram,” we’ve learned a hard lesson.
We’ve also come up with a solution that companies, their HR leadership, and search firms can play in the same sandbox, and play nice. This way, everyone wins.
Watch out for Part 2, A New Day, a Better Business Model in an upcoming article.
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