"The Process" Isn't Broken

My GOODNESS there is a so much dimfluencer misinformation content out there this week! Apparently Mercury is in retrograde as well; who knows.

 I am getting really tired of people that have never BEEN in recruiting making judgements about my profession and all the hard working recruiters that are carrying double or triple their usual work load right now due to THE ECONOMY, which is a complex organism that impacts EVERY business decision.

This article is not going to make a lot of job seekers happy, because it takes away assigning blame on recruiting and employers in general for ALL the frustrations of a highly unproductive and understandably frustrating job search.

The recruiting “process” itself is NOT “broken”.

The goal of the "recruiting process" is to open jobs and hire people according to an employer's KPI's. That IS happening, thus "the process" is working as intended.

There are INDIVIDUAL recruiters that are overwhelmed with work and under-resourced, but that is not “the recruiting process”; that is BUSINESS OPERATIONS, specifically BoD, C-level and SVP/VP decision makers. And I guarantee you the front line Recruiting/TA Managers and Directors are fighting for their people and doing everything they can to ease the strain as much as possible. Recruiting is a cost center (meaning there is no revenue generation; it is all “spend”),  and it is often the most slimly resourced during economic downturns.

So let’s talk about “the process”. I’ve already written about how a position is created in terms of budgeting. Keep in mind until this happens, a recruiter cannot do anything, even if the hiring manager lets them KNOW an opening is coming, except start looking for potential candidates. While we are talking about the financial aspect, it is CRITICAL to understand that the pay RANGE for a position is not necessarily the BUDGET the hiring manager has.

Once the budget for an individual job is approved, then recruiting works with the hiring manager to open it. This usually entails a detailed conversation where the recruiter drills into the specifics of that job. (Called an “intake call”). After everything is aligned, the recruiter publishes the role. If it is open internally and externally, a best practice is to open it for a time to internal candidates only to give them a chance to apply; in my experience, that is usually about a business week. Then it is generally opened externally if there are no internal candidates identified (this does not preclude internal candidates from applying after it is opened.)

Once the role is open there are a few basic candidate sources:

-Direct applicants – either from the career website or job boards

-Referrals – employee (including the hiring manager), business referrals, or 3rd party agencies*

-Sourcing: the recruiter or a sourcing partner/services proactively goes out to FIND potential talent and engages them. This can be from their own ATS/CRM, job board resume repositories, LinkedIn, and deep research (ie publications, conference speakers/attendees, layoff lists, etc.)

-Contractor conversion *in my experience, generally treated the same as an internal applicant in terms of keeping the role open just for them until they interview

*Most employers don’t accept unsolicited resumes, and will alert 3rd party recruiting agencies that they are looking and have some sort of an intake call.

How The Recruiting Lifecycle Generally Unfolds – including all the stakeholders in it

1. Candidate identification: Recruiter combs through ALL the options for the BEST, most well aligned choices. This is where candidates are declined and sent a rejection mail if they are not a fit. Often the recruiter will share the qualified candidates with the hiring manager for final yea/nay, but it may be that the recruiter will screen a candidate FIRST before sending them to the hiring team; this is almost always the case with 3rd party agency candidates.
2. Screening begins; usually there is a first conversation with a recruiter, then some sort of functional conversation with either the manager or a senior member of the team. This may also include the one-way or “async” video recorded interview, or a high level assessment (“personality test”).
3. Once the candidate is identified for final stages, workflows may differ by employer (ie a panel vs. loop style interviews). This stage may include “assignments”, or may go straight to interviews.
4. Scheduling for final interviews begins; this is usually done either by the recruiter or a recruiting coordinator. The recruiter may also offer an “interview prep call” or send the candidate detailed information about how the process looks.
5. Interviews are conducted. Interviewers provide their feedback.
6. If it is not a fit, the candidate is declined. If there is an offer, the recruiter and hiring manager have a brief conversation on the offer; this includes salary and leveling.
7. Recruiter usually has a call with candidate with a verbal offer. This is where negotiation may occur.
8. Offer letter is generated and goes through the approval chain (varies by employer, most often it is via the ATS).
9. Offer is sent to the candidate who either accepts or declines.
10. If they accept, generally there is a background check (and if there are workflows such as individual references, relocation, visa transfer, etc. they are started.)
11. Once background check comes back clear and all other processes are completed, the recruiter onboards the candidates in the ATS, which converts them to an “employee” status and feeds them into the HRIS. At that point, HR usually has a team/procedure to manage the onboarding.
12. Candidate is “hired” into the system and the role is officially closed; any outstanding applicants to the role receive an automated email that the role has been filled.

Now, can there be some individuals dropping proverbial balls along the process? Yes.

This usually occurs with something schedule related (including follow up) or in the proactive sourcing phase. Aside from these two instances, a LOT of the workflow has DEPENDENCIES on other people (detailed here.)

Those are NOT “the process”, those are INDIVIDUALS.

Some truisms:

• HIRING MANAGERS have the final say on who is qualified, NOT the recruiter.
• "Ghosting" - to an employer - does NOT include feedback after you apply for a job. It implies a R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N-S-H-I-P of some sort has been established; meaning you have had SOME form of communication from a person.
• If a recruiter reaches out to YOU – the ball is in your court. USUALLY they will ask you to formally apply to the role/s in general. This is because the recruiting process is managed from the ATS (Applicant Tracking System), and it can also be for legal reasons. Trying to manage messaging and follow up in multiple places gets really chaotic. You SHOULD have the recruiter’s email address; it is perfectly fine and even helpful if you reach out to them THAT way instead of via LinkedIn messaging, or the job board messaging system if things go quiet.
• A recruiter is NOT obligated to reply to your LinkedIn message, ESPECIALLY if you are just sending a random “Hi here is my resume what do you have for me?”
• It is perfectly reasonable for you to expect an update of some sort – but remember those dependencies? A recruiter has NO CONTROL over what a hiring manager, or interviewer, or recruiting coordinator does/not do. A best practice is ~48-72 hours after a specific activity has completed to request a follow up. Again, email is probably the best way to connect (or a text message if you have their info).  
• When a recruiter is laid off, often they have no opportunity to actually transition their work; this is true for agencies as well as internal recruiters. So before you go railing about how horrible recruiter X is, make sure they are still with their employer.
• Recruiters have ZERO, ZILCH, NADA say in how an ATS is implemented, the corporate processes for interviewing processes and giving feedback, the upper limit of pay bands, state laws regarding pay transparency bands, corporate policy about posting salary. This includes things like whether or not you need to create a separate account to apply to different employers using the same ATS vendor (Workday).
• A “referral” is NOT a guarantee of interviews or offers. You STILL need to be qualified for the role.
• If your resume does not CLEARLY show your fit for a given role, the recruiter will not move forward with you. In some cases (OFCCP) they legally CANNOT DO SO.
• Just because YOU think you are a great match for a role does not mean that the hiring manager does, or that there aren't several other better candidates in play.
• The demographic questions at the end of your application in the US is NOT viewed by recruiting/hr. The information is AGGREGATED and sent to the federal government for reporting purposes. It has 0 impact on your candidacy; that being said, you can decline to answer the questions.
• If you have a disability (ie on the autism spectrum, a learning disability like dyslexia, sight/hearing issues) – we cannot consider those factors in interviews if you don’t ask for an accommodation. The decision to do so is up to you based on your own experiences, but legally we cannot ask or assume.

There are other concepts for discussion like how the ATS works but that is too nuanced and answers are too often “it depends” to cover here. But I have dozens of articles that DO cover these subjects and there are LOTS of recruiters putting out content.