I hope you’ve had the opportunity to participate in the discussion that Dave has been facilitating on WorkPuzzle over the last two weeks concerning the best practices of high-performing recruiters (1,2,3,4).  We’ve had a lot of great feedback on this issue, so it seems to be an area that many of us are striving to improve.

I'd like to add to the discussion by pointing out a mindset that we’ve noticed among many of the highly productive recruiters and hiring managers with whom we’ve worked over the last few years.  This mindset is one of working a pipeline of candidates over time.

My attention to this topic was prompted by a recent errand I was running to drop my son off at a sports practice.  On the way back, I was flipping though the radio channels and ran across a call-in program that was offering financial advice.

The caller was asking the host whether he should replace his older car that had transmission problems with a newer model that was less likely to break down.  To purchase the newer model, the caller would have to take out a car loan.  The host’s ultimate advice to the caller was to pay the repair bill and stick with the car he had (which he owned free and clear).

What caught my attention was not the host’s answer, but how he delivered the information.  He did a great job of articulating what a pain and hassle it is to have a car that breaks down frequently. Secondly, he spent some time reminding the caller of the long-term objective—healthy finances down the line.  With those two issues setting the tone, he was able to deliver the answer the caller needed to hear.

The host summed up the discussion by saying:

“Most of the financial strategies that I teach are 'crock pot' strategies.  They take a long time to mature, but they do work if you have the discipline to stick to them.  There are a whole bunch of banks, financial services companies, and others, who want to sell you 'microwave' strategies.  These strategies are basically designed to alleviate short-term pain.  While they are sometimes effective at accomplishing this objective, they undermine your prospects for long-term financial success.”

Hopefully, you’re seeing the connection already.  Most good recruiting organizations resemble crock pots.  The individuals who work for these companies are willing to treat the hiring process from a long-term perspective, and put up with the hassles that this type of perspective, and ensuing process, entails.

Quite often, we have companies approach us with the hope that we can help them find some microwave strategies for hiring.  They have the short-term pain of diminished revenues and want recruiting efforts to fix this quickly.  While there are some methodologies for making that happen (it typically involves buying a “book of business” or offering commission splits that are unsustainable without very favorable market conditions), the research on this topic shows that the long-term success rate of such approaches is typically below 20%.

Good recruiting companies won’t play these odds.  Instead, they’ll develop a pipeline of candidates who have a high probability of success.  And then they’ll maintain the discipline of proactively working that pipeline with near religious consistency.  The results?  It works every time… 

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.