Recruitment and the Blame Game

Recruitment and the Blame Game


LinkedIn appears to have turned into a bit of a war zone of late. Candidates airing frustrations over inadequate customer service from both hiring managers and recruiters, and recruiters berating unprofessional behaviour from candidates. What then ensues in the comments is a slanging match between all parties which I have to say, reminds me a bit of when I tell my kids off and get the response “yes but he did it first”.

What is notable is that there appears to be a real inability to take ownership of the issues across the board.

The list of complaints is long but there are a few complaints that keep coming up:


·        Recruiters who spam candidates with pointless and irrelevant jobs

·        Recruiters who don’t give feedback following CV submission or interview

·        Recruiters who speak to candidates purely to get information and leads from them

·        Candidates who do not turn up to an interview and don’t inform the recruiter

·        Candidates withholding key information from recruiters about other processes they are in

·        Hiring businesses who give little or no feedback whatsoever to unsuccessful candidates who have attended interview

To my mind these are symptoms of unrest caused by two things. Lack of communication and a lack of ownership.

First of all I would like to address what we recruiters can do differently to reduce the steady stream of negativity facing our industry:

1)     Stop complaining about candidates on LinkedIn. Every time I read a post by a recruiter moaning that one of their candidates hasn’t shown up to an interview I cringe inwardly. Don’t get me wrong, it IS unprofessional to not show up for an interview, but is it any less unprofessional to post about it on LinkedIn? This is our job, and a massive part of the role is about relationship building (or it should be). If you have candidates repeatedly not turning up for interview the first person you should be looking at in terms of what could be done differently, is you. If it’s a once-in-a-while occurrence, then chalk it up to one of those things – occasionally you will get the odd no-show. It’s par for the course and certainly not something you should be plastering all over social media. 

2)     Build relationships and TRUST. The suspicion from candidates that recruiters only want to speak to them in order to mine them for information is justified if that is the way you make them feel. To my mind, if you take time to get to know your candidates, and offer them a service from which they will benefit, then candidates in return are, in the main, happy to offer you information, without them feeling violated and in some sort of inquisition hot-seat.  By building relationships and gaining trust, your candidate is also much more likely to be forthcoming and honest in where your opportunity sits in terms of their interest levels against other roles they are in process with, allowing you to manage your desk more efficiently. This is not something that can be manufactured and you really must want to understand your candidates and be authentic in your desire to give high levels of customer service. If this isn’t the case then people will see right through you, and frankly, you are in the wrong job.

3)     Have Empathy. It is really important that recruiters understand where your candidates are coming from. Whether someone is looking to progress in their career, or is out of work and looking to get back into employment, job seeking is a really stressful and life changing process to go through. It is hardly surprising then, that candidates can become emotional and frustrated. We are talking about their livelihoods after all. As their recruitment CONSULTANT, we should be there to do exactly that. Advise candidates if you feel their actions could be limiting their potential to find their ideal role. Don’t berate them.

4)     Do what you say you are going to do.  It sounds really simple, but when you are running a busy desk, is so easy to get wrong. If you have promised a candidate feedback, ensure you deliver it to them, if you haven’t received feedback from your client, pass that info on to your candidate.

5)     Don’t fall foul of technology. If you are having a bad month and are under pressure to bill, it is tempting to make use of the mailshot system and scattergun a load of CV’s / job opportunities. Whilst it may get you a quick fee in the short term, the long-term effect it has on your reputation is just not worth it.

There are also things candidates can do differently to help themselves get that next role:

1)     Be selective.  Treat your CV as the sensitive document it is. Ensure you know who has visibility of it and be careful not to saturate the market with it as this will only serve to reduce your appeal to businesses looking to hire. By selecting a few trusted recruiters, you will stay in control of where your CV goes and who has visibility of it, which will hopefully reduce the number of unwanted spam approaches you get.

2)     Understand the role of a recruiter. Empathy works both ways, and whilst I think that recruiters can do a lot better at understanding the needs of candidates, I also think that if candidates sought to understand what the role of a recruiter actually is, then it may help reduce your frustration. There is no excuse for a recruiter not giving feedback if you have been to an interview, but do give them a bit of a break. Recruitment is not an easy job, it involves spinning many plates at the same time and it can be easy to forget to make a call when you have just had a hiring manager call you to say someone hasn’t turned up for interview or a candidate sends you an email to reject an offer for a job he is supposed to start tomorrow. I always encourage my candidates to drop me a line if they haven’t heard from me by a certain day. I am not perfect and sometimes need a bit of a reminder. 

3)     Stay professional. When you’re feeling frustrated because you haven’t had feedback from your interview or you have received 10 emails from the same recruiter about irrelevant roles, it is easy to explode and voice your exasperation on social media. I am not saying don’t do this, but do be careful how you go about it. Remember that as a candidate you are your own ambassador and social media is a perfect platform to showcase your ability and professionalism.  I have read soooo many responses to recruiter status’s recently with comments like “it’s no wonder he didn’t turn up for interview with the way that recruiters never get back to you with feedback”, or “why should I bother doing X when recruiters don’t bother doing Y?” Well you should bother because ultimately, if you act in an unprofessional manner, no matter what the justification, it will only reflect badly on you. 

Finally Hiring Businesses – please remember that everyone who engages with your business is a potential ambassador. By not giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates you are turning a potentially positive experience of your business into a negative one.  Recruitment processes are a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the calibre of your business to external professionals. Does giving no feedback to these professionals project the right image of your company?


Overall, the crux of the matter to me is all about communication and relationship building. Through taking the time to build relationships with each other, and allowing trust to manifest, then much of the frustrations felt by everyone in a recruitment process can be overcome. It is up to every one of us to take ownership and accountability for our own part in the process. If we do this and stop the blame game, I think we would be heading in the right direction to take the pain out of recruitment.


This is one in a series of blogs aimed at improving the way in which we recruit. For more please visit our website www.jps-supplychain.co.uk/blog

Suresh Kumar S

Group Delivery Manager in MNC

7y

Nice article. People speak a lot about communication but they miss the basic thing , that is being responsive. If both the Candidates and Recruiters show responsiveness it will create a healthy relationship right from the beginning. A Professional will always ensure he values and respects the time of others.

Susan Nease, SHRM-CP

Talent Acquisition Coordinator, Piedmont Healthcare of Atlanta

7y

Great article! Brings both sides to the proverbial table and gives clear indications of what is and is not good practice for recruiters and their candidates.

Reshma Chowdhry

Alliances Operations, Clinical research, Life sciences & Healthcare

7y

Good one! To the point...!

Tamer Marshoud

Customer Success | Customer Experience | Operations | Strategy | Process Excellence | Performance Excellence | Contact Centers | Telesales | Lead Generation

7y

Nicely written Jennifer, I wish other recruiters are sharing the same beliefs as you do. It is all about being transparent, building trust and communication. As I always tell and train my teams "Don't over promise and under achieve", it is about balance. On the other hand, companies should be more realistic in setting their job requirements and they are complaining about lack of talents. Sadly, talents are there in the market but proposed packages don't value these talents which leaves recruiters in a dilemma.

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