Turnover
So, while sat at their desk week after week, there may be the occasional time a recruiter looks up from their computer to engage with the guy across the desk only to notice he is no longer there. They take a good look around the office and notice more unfamiliar faces.
There is a pretty good chance they were not able to manage the recruitment numbers.
At DS Recruit, we do our best to map the Tokyo recruitment market, and we see a constant churn of people changing companies or leaving the industry altogether
What happened?
In Japan many people come into recruitment because they do not have so many other choices. They like the idea of doing recruitment to help people in their career (and the chance to make good money) without realizing how much of a sales role it actually is.
Many of the challenges people face in recruiting are sales related, and if the recruiter doesn’t first have a sales mindset, it is quite likely they will dislike the role and move into something different.
It’s a KPI driven role
It’s very important in in recruiting to know your stats and ratios.
As recruiter’s know, to make a placement they have to have a certain number of submittals for each role. For people who are at the top of their game, this may only be one introduction per placement.
In order to present the right candidate for a placement, the recruiter has to make a certain number of approaches and calls.
These numbers vary among company to company, team to team, and person to person. Generally, the larger the company, the more the KPIs are more relevant.
Each recruiter should track their numbers and know what it takes for them to make that placement. Unfortunately,there are a lot of people that do not seem to have a clue about these numbers, and are driven by (or maybe forced into) hitting the numbers required by the company they work for, as opposed to doing the quality work they need to do in order to be successful
Since the livelihood of recruiters relies on placements, it sometimes means recruiters are not able to coach and advise some candidates as much they would like because they may not be right for the clients. There is the need to keep an eye on the placement and stay on track.
Ouch that hurt – Rejection
….and lots of it, a daily dosage is normal. Just like in any sales role, there is a chance the recruiter will face rejection each time they pick up the phone to dial a potential candidate or client
People will hang up the phone. They will moan at this being the 5th call today. They will not have time now so call back in a year or so. This does not sound so bad but when it is day after day, and the company is pushing for more calls, it can get to anyone.
These are pretty standard expectations in recruiting in Tokyo and it is simple to say, but the recruiter must be able to hang up that phone and dial the next number.
The candidate
What just happened? I have presented a job which the candidate bought in to. I met them, and have done interview prep and 30 minutes before they cancel on me as they have made some weak excuse about not having enough time now.
In recruitment, it is normal to find out quite quickly people can be unreliable, they will miss job interviews, or they decide they are no longer interested once they reach final stages. All of a sudden, they have another offer that has come from no-where. Sometimes, the candidate is not always totally truthful about expectations and desires, assuming that they just need to tell the recruiter certain things in order to get in front of the hiring manager.
On the other side of the fence, hiring managers can also change their mind, or simply decide not to interview that stellar candidate, with no explanation provided. Hiring managers sometimes hide the fact that they have an internal candidate who will likely be hired for the roll, only disclosing this fact after the recruiter has spent hours and days identifying three qualified candidates for the position.
The Placement
There is no better feeling as a recruiter than making a placement. However, these can be far and few between for some.
The recruiting role is not an easy job and it’s not for everyone. The above are probably just a few reasons why there is so much turnover at recruitment companies. It is a challenging sales role and many people are not cut out for recruitment, and are not successful in overcoming its numerous obstacles.For those who can handle and overcome the obstacles, recruitment is an extremely rewarding role. It is all about keeping up the quality activity