Recruiters, 5 Things To Leave In 2022

by Katrina Collier | Dec 13, 2022

Recruiters, 5 things to leave behind!

Wow, this is my last article for 2022! Ok, I could squeeze one more in but I am not to sure how many eyeballs it would receive so let’s roll with it… like we have the whole of this year!🎢

You may remember my article at the end of last year, Recruiters, 10 Things To Leave In 2021, and sadly much of that still applies specifically:

Being replaceable – I am still seeing people pleasing & ‘fears of’ stopping recruiters being truly strategic.
InMauling – now I fear you’ll all use the same ChatGPT script to make them even more dull. Glen Cathey wrote a great article about his experience testing it and we agree that it writes mediocre messages. (But the dialogue it suggested to persuade a hiring manager, made me cringe!! Few people react well to “I understand but…” 😬)
Clickbait valueless posts – may have worsened as I’ve seen much copying of other people’s content – without crediting the source. Even if the self-proclaimed marketing gurus do it, please don’t steal people’s content! It reflects badly on you so instead, in this market especially, be original and/or quote your source.

…and, appallingly, also recruiter ghosting, and companies still losing people in the process due to all the usual reasons need to be left behind.

Maybe just revisit the post and then add these…

5 Things To Leave In 2022

1. Being too busy being busy

This is for those of you who, if you admit it hand-on-heart, know your requirement load is reasonable but carry being busy like a badge of honour. And worse, it means you don’t set boundaries or carve out time for your own development, which is akin to self-sabotage. It also means you use busy as an excuse even to deliver a poor candidate experience and that only ever leads to more challenging future hiring.

Grab this book by Grace Marshall!

“This book will change what you think it takes to be productive. You’ve already tried those other, old time-management techniques, but when you’re drowning in emails, meeting requests, deadlines, competing priorities, and never-ending to-do lists – they just haven’t worked! This is a better way.”

2. Allowing hiring managers to avoid intake/job brief sessions

I’m convinced that everything that goes wrong with hiring is because too little emphasis is placed on the importance of a proper intake strategy session. Enough, already!

I realised it writing Edition 1 of The Robot-Proof Recruiter and, 3 years on writing Edition 2, that it still needed focus. Emphasised by how swiftly recruiters signed up for my upcoming webinar on Handling Hiring Managers (Even The Hectic Ones) or attended my talks on this at the Australasian Talent Conference and In-House Recruitment Live.

If you do one thing in 2023, walk away from any hiring manager that won’t give you the courtesy of a proper intake strategy session.

Because:

⏳ they are actually wasting their own time by not giving you time upfront.
⏳ they are wasting the company’s time & budget while you throw mud hoping it sticks.
⏳ they waste candidates’ time, which makes your company look bad (and you stuck in the middle) ruining candidate experience, employer brand, future hiring, and more.

Walk away until they give you proper time! Don’t feel you can? Holler at me!

3. Communicating on our terms!

Yesterday in The Collective, we had a brilliant conversation about handling a hiring manager who missed the CV-review SLA by 4 days and the impact that is having at this time of the year. Lightbulbs went off when the recruiter confessed that maybe messaging them repeatedly on Slack wasn’t the way to get this hiring manager’s attention. 😆

I challenged this TA pro in two ways:

Firstly, to ask in the job brief how the hiring manager wants to be communicated with and, importantly, what you should do if they don’t reply within the agreed timeframe.
Secondly, if it happens again and only if trust is established, to agree that if they don’t reply within the SLA, and you believe that the candidate is great, to gain permission to book the interview directly. And that it will not be canceled. Bold!

Does that make you feel uncomfortable? If it does, we need to work together in 2023.

Mobile phones, email, messaging platforms… they are all meant to make our lives easier. They haven’t. It is harder now to get someone’s attention and hold it than ever before.

Ask hiring managers (and candidates) for their preference. Meet people where they are.

4. (Controversially) Expecting others to pay for your development

I get it, your company would benefit greatly from investing in your development but not all managers understand the value in investing in their people. And any company that doesn’t want to invest in the people who bring in the people is truly crazy but… it happens.

Instead, consider the benefits of developing yourself:

💪🏻 better hiring manager relationships = more placements, less stress, better experience for all, and so on.
💪🏻 being strategic, creates better visibility = more job security
💪🏻 more likely to be promoted or receive a raise, which pays for any self-development over and over and over again.

Anyone who has worked with me knows that I have spent over 11 years working on myself. By doing so I have achieved things I never expected to like writing a book, speaking on large stages, traveling to 6 continents, and plenty more. But I have also created harmony in all the areas of my life and, almost by osmosis, helped many other people both personally and professionally.

So don’t let a lack of company budget stop you from getting out of your own way in 2023.

5. Forgetting we are all human

In my I-have-no-idea-what-I-want-to-do-with-my-life early career I worked in a bank. People said tellers would soon be a thing of the past, that ATMs would replace us all. Yet on my basic search for current title of “bank teller”, LinkedIn just revealed 95,000 results. Because even for a mundane transaction like cash, some people still like to deal with a human.

Few will be willing to hand over their career to a robot, AI or full-blown automation, but if you don’t want to be replaced, you do need to ramp up all the things that make you robot-proof. Your super human skills that AI cannot replicate. Curiosity, empathy & compassion, emotional intelligence, creativity, collaboration, interpersonal communication, adaptability, flexibility and many more “soft” skills that make us uniquely human. Use them in the intake, with your hiring managers, and with your candidates.

Also always remember that you are a perfectly-imperfect human, and that you chose a profession where you match together other perfectly-imperfect humans. Be kind. Even on the rollercoaster of the hiring process, and even when that kindness is closing a candidate by knocking them back for a job. Be kind.

If you don’t want to be kind, make 2023 the year you find a job where kindness matters less.