Hope is a strong emotion and one that can carry us through many difficult situations in life. Sometimes it is the only thing that can keep us going and, when we don’t know the outcome, “we hope for the best”.
I’ve relied on hope and I do hope for the best, but when it comes to Recruiting hope is an emotional roller coaster that can drive you insane very quickly.
If you’re relying on hope now, STOP! It will make you a dreadful Recruiter. Here are the top 5 reasons Recruiters rely on hope and how to overcome them:
1. You don’t have a strong enough relationship with your candidate.
If you are building this relationship throughout the process, your candidates will be open and honest with you. You will know somewhere within the process whether that candidate will take the job you are presenting, take a counter offer, or take a competing offer they have. Establish rapport from the beginning, and be open and honest throughout the entire process.
2. You didn’t ask direct enough questions to the candidate.
I see this all the time where people are afraid to ask the tough questions and be direct. If you ask more specific and detailed questions, you will likely get the answers. Don’t rely on vague information to figure out if your candidate will take the job. If you ask direct questions it will save you a lot of heartache in the end.
Some direct and pointed questions to ask include:
- Which companies are you currently interviewing with and how do those rank against the job I had you interview for?
- If offered this position, what do you need to accept?
3. You don’t have enough candidates in process.
This is one that always gets Recruiters. They have one candidate in process and they rely on hope that the deal will close (I hope they don’t take a counteroffer, I hope no one has a better job to offer them, I hope their spouse is ok with this). Having multiple candidates in the process will increase your odds of filling the job and decrease your reliance on any singular candidate to fill the job. Consistently be looking for additional candidates. We recently ran some analytics that found when a job has 3 candidates interviewing, it is 3x more likely to be filled by DAVIS.
4. You didn’t ask direct enough questions to the customer.
It’s one thing to ask the candidate all the questions but if you are not asking the customer similar questions, you will get burned!!! Ask your customer direct questions.
- For Example:
- How many candidates do you have in process?
- Where does this candidate rank against the others you are interviewing?
- Will you be offering this candidate the position and what will your offer be?
5. You’re not being honest with yourself.
Be honest with yourself. If you are doing your due diligence and asking the right questions, you will have a better understanding of the process. You will know whether the candidate is going to accept the job or if the customer is going to offer it. Be honest and if you are feeling like it isn’t going to happen, you are probably right. I’ve rarely seen a “back burner” candidate get the offer.
Relying on hope will stop you from seeing turndowns, counter offers and lost deals coming. Hope as a strategy does not work. We need to be honest with ourselves, ask the right questions and be candid with our customers and candidates with the information we have.
