There is No Free Lunch

Financial leaders, there is no free lunch.

Particularly relating to CONTINGENCY recruiting solutions, which hiring managers often believe will drive results since they “pay only for performance.”  Let’s bust this myth with an example:

Let’s say you get a recruiter call about an open role.  But you have so much going on:

🗻You’re climbing a mountain to pivot your company due to COVID-19.
🏡You’re still adjusting operations to accommodate #WFH and social distancing.
💥You’re spending your days in one-on-ones, coaching your team through disruption and social unrest.

I get it. It’s a lot.

So you let the recruiter take a quick, drive-by search, taking all of…30 minutes to get the basic specs. It feels like a FREE and EASY solution to get more exposure. Things move quickly. You make a hire. Pay the invoice.  

6 months later, you realize, this person has the competencies, but their values and management style don’t fit. A classic square peg, round hole. It’s so bad, key talent underneath them are leaving. You have to let this person go and start over.

In the end, this solution wasn’t free. Definitely not easy.  

Sound familiar?

This happens because there is no real commitment to a successful outcome.

On either side.

I know, this may be how you’ve always hired financial recruiters.

It may feel free and easy at first.

But a mis-hire costs potentially 5x to 27x salary (Brad Smart, Topgrading) and makes life stressful when you’re stepping in to put out fires and re-fill the role.

3 tips to avoid this result:

💡 If you must choose contingency, commit to ONE firm so they can invest in the search and outcome.

💡 Know what you’re getting; understand how the recruiter will tell your story, how many people they’ll contact, if they’ll research the market or rely on a database, etc.

💡 If you can’t afford a mis-hire, consider higher level search. You may need to put skin 💰 in the game, but engaged and retained firms 70-80% and 96% of their searches, respectively and offer the highest commitment to the outcome, vs. 50% for exclusive contingency and 18% for non-exclusive.

I could say more, so if you’d like to discuss which type of search you should choose, book a call with me!