Recruitment as a Sales Process
Recruitment, if properly performed, is one of the most challenging jobs in the industry. It is somewhat like the role of two Salespersons rolled into one. On one side, the recruiters are ‘selling’ the organization and its role to the candidates, on the other end they have to ‘sell’ the candidates’ profile to the organization clearly highlighting why they fit the bill. Therefore, one way to look at recruiters’ role is to consider them as market-makers connecting the supply and demand of talent.
Recruiters’ Dilemma
The most challenging aspect of recruiters’ role is to manage the fiduciary and moral responsibilities that their role as ‘market-maker’ of talent demands. The recruiters or their employers are usually paid a percentage of the salary that is offered to the successful candidate by the organization seeking candidates. Hence, recruiters have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure they present the company in a good light and defend the reputation of their client organizations and their employees. Also, they need to ensure they present the best possible candidates to their clients. A challenge though is that usually multiple companies are looking for candidates with similar skillset and sometimes even the same recruiters might be supporting multiple clients with similar requirements. Since recruiters are also advisors to the candidates in the latter’s career plans, they tend to face a moral dilemma regarding recommending specific companies. This advisory nature of their role creates a conflict between the fiduciary and moral responsibilities.
An added complexity comes up when the pay scales in different organisations are not at par for candidates with similar skillsets as is often the case in India. In this scenario, the highest paymaster’s requirement is most likely going to be the first one that the recruiters want to fill in order to maximize their revenue. Oftentimes, in such scenario, recruiters will try to oversell the company and the job role to relevant candidates as well as oversell the candidate’s skillset to the organization. Since candidates have limited knowledge about various organizations primarily gathered through Google searches, the information provided by the recruiters becomes important. Overselling in this context can lead to misleading the candidates. The other case of overselling candidate profile to the organization may not be such a major issue as evaluating the candidate’s fitment for the role usually falls under the purview of the company hiring the person. Moreover, misrepresentation of candidates’ profiles can also impact the trust placed in the recruiter.
What is the best course of action for the recruiters?
From an ethics standpoint, the recruiters should not misrepresent or oversell either parties. But we are all humans and are guided by various thought and emotions that impact our judgments. The best course of action for recruiters when faced with such situations is to only present the objective facts that have been shared by either party without trying to oversell. Though, as anyone who has worked in sales would concur, it is quite difficult to not push the case that favours your pay cheque.
Some tips from the best practices of Sales for the recruiters:
· Avoid offering too much information to either parties. Stick to the relevant information provided by either party while answering specific questions or providing inputs
· Push your case but don’t be ‘pushy’. Pushing your case too hard tends to turn off people
· Be aware of the demand and supply conditions. Share the market information (not just hunches) with the party which is at a disadvantage. Not only will you be able to close the position, you will also end up building a trusted relationship for future.
