Have you been recruiting for more than 30 seconds? If you have, then you probably know the truth of recruiting.

It’s this: Every req (also called “rec,” or the job requisition) that hits your desk is the most important one in the world.

In our industry, we face the unrelenting pressure to produce that only sales people will ever fully understand. In the course of your day-to-day work, you undoubtedly speak to hiring managers, operations professionals that ask you where are the candidates while they wonder what it is we do all day.

OK, you know that part — so what do you do about it?

Yes, it’s all about making tradeoffs

Step 1: Don’t panic. But really, if you made it to this point we are already past what Step 1 should have been.

Step 1 should really be qualifying your req. Qualification of your req shouldn’t be just about avoiding a wild goose chase; it should be your time to educate the hiring manager about the market and how long it will take to fill the job.

If you read my last post about adding value then you will understand the next suggestion. When it comes to project management there are three things that the business wants to know. If you take a class on project management you will learn about the project management triangle. There is a trade off between good, fast and cheap.

If you remember my article about Amazon, the reason investors were willing to wait so long for Amazon to turn a profit is that investors wanted a good product that was inexpensive so they understood that if they want those two things they are going to have to wait.

Yes, in project management you only can get two of the three.

The value add for recruiters? It’s delivering someone “good”

What your hiring manager really wants to know is this: How long is it going to take to get someone good, and what is it going to cost me? There is a baseline assumption that the hiring manager wants to hire someone who is quantifiably “good.”

So that is why the hire is the value add for the recruiter. You delivered something that is really “good.”

The place to save yourself some stress is by quantifying how long it will take and what it will cost. This is the reason for the three main metrics of recruiting:

  1. Number of hires (good);
  2. Time to fill (time); and,
  3. Cost per hire (cheap).

The thing we fail to understand is that what we produce is a product the same as any systems implementation that the software engineers are paid to produce. If you want to think of your hiring managers as clients, and yourself as a consultant, then you need to understand that it is bad customer service to make your customer have to ask you for an update on the delivery of your product.

Final advice when filling a req? Don’t panic!

Something else you can do to save yourself some time is to take a lesson from software developers and hold a daily scrum.

You don’t have to call your hiring manager every day for a scrum, but you should email them on a daily basis and keep them informed about what is going on, what your plan for the day is, and what you need from them.

This simple email that takes two minutes to write will build you credibility and keep the critical conversations from ever happening.

So my advice is this: Understand that every req is the most important one, and if you want if you want to focus on filling the role, then do what you need to so your hiring managers don’t panic.

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Mike Wolford

As the Talent Intelligence Titan with over 15 years of progressive experience, I've dedicated my career to revolutionizing the talent acquisition landscape. My journey, marked by leadership roles at esteemed organizations like Claro Analytics and Twitter, has equipped me with a deep understanding of recruiting, sourcing, and analytics. I've seamlessly integrated advanced AI technologies into talent acquisition, positioning myself at the vanguard of recruitment innovation.