Every recruiter wants more job orders. However, NOT all job orders are created equal.
You should work some job orders, while you should pass up others . . . namely because they will be a colossal waste of time, energy, money, brain cells, etc. The trick is figuring out which orders fall into the first category and which ones fall into the second.
We’ve discussed the importance of the job order in recent blog posts. Specifically, we’ve addressed how the quality of the job order is one of the main factors that contributes directly to a recruiter’s revenue. We also revealed the number-one question that recruiters should ask a hiring manager when discussing a job order.
So now we’re going to pivot from the number-one question that a recruiter should ask a hiring manager to questions that a recruiters should ask themselves. Of course, these are also recruitment questions that you can ask a hiring manager, especially if you don’t know the answers. That’s because if you don’t, then you’re setting yourself up for quite possibly a “wild goose chase.” And at the end of that chase, you won’t have a placement. Or a placement fee. Or any wild geese, for that matter.
Recruitment questions to ask yourself
When a client calls with a job order, it’s tempting to just jump on the order and run. However, as stated earlier, NOT all job orders are created equal. With that in mind, below are three recruitment questions for taking a job order:
#1—Is the company or organization looking at internal candidates?
If the answer to this question is “Yes,” then you have to believe there’s more than a slight chance that the company will hire from within. (In fact, one could arge that the company might prefer to hire from within.) This decreases the chances that you’ll successfully make the placement. As a result, it also reduces the quality of the job order.
#2—Am I the only recruiter working this job order?
If the answer to this question is “No,” then this also decreases the chances that you’ll successfully make the placement. Some hiring managers mistakenly think that if there are more recruiters working the job order, then there will be more candidates from which to choose. While we’ll leave that misnomer for another blog post, this also reduces the quality of the job order.
#3—If I find a dead-on candidate, am I 100% sure that the company will hire them?
The answer to this question should most definitely be “Yes!” If it’s not, then why are you taking the job order in the first place? The answer is that you should not be taking it. If you present a dead-on candidate for an open job order and your client does not hire that candidate, then there is obviously a problem somewhere. And the person most likely to pay for that problem is YOU.
Recruiting questions for more success
What a recruiter does not want to do is focus on bad job orders. You could have 10 job orders, generate a lot of activity (and work), and then not make any placements. What good is that? This is definitely a situation where quality is more important than quantity. One A-level job order is worth 10 C-level orders.
The problem is that if a recruiter only has C-level job orders, then they’re only going to work those orders. A recruiter that has no job orders is not going to turn down a C-level order. (That would be like cousin Eddie from the Vacation movie franchise turning down job offers because he’s holding out for a management position.)
So the key is to create options for yourself, so that you have the leverage and the flexibility to walk away from job orders. If you’re already working three A-level job orders and a client throws a C-level order at you, then it’s a lot easier to throw that order right back. That’s because there’s no way you should take time, energy, and effort away from working an A-level order to work a C-level order. In a word, that’s insane.
That’s why these recruiter questions are so important. They help you to qualify the job order so you know which ones to work and which ones to not work.
But in order to walk away from inferior job orders, you must have order volume. That’s because job order volume is what gives you the leverage and flexibility you need. And the number-one factor in generating order volume is client development. More clients mean more job orders, which means more job orders from which you can choose.
And when you have more job orders from which to choose, you can choose the right ones.
Do you ask these three recruitment questions before accepting a job order? Will you be asking these questions—of yourself and also the hiring manager—the next time you’re presented with a job order?