Like any other
professional service that deals with the public, recruiters
continuously struggle with the issue of control. The same way
doctors wrestle with “patient control” and lawyers boast about
“client control,” so recruiters agonize over “candidate
control.”
If you look at recruiting
realistically, you’ll recognize that you can no more “control”
the actions of another person than you can control a speeding
vehicle that’s hydroplaning down the interstate at 70 miles an
hour in a driving rainstorm. That is, the force of momentum
will to a greater or lesser degree affect the direction your
candidate takes, just like it will a 3,000-pound car.
The best you can hope for
is that you’ve selected the right vehicle for the trip and
that your preparation, training and reflexes will guide you
safely towards your destination. Your degree of control, in
other words, is relative to a variety of external factors, the
most important of which is the candidate’s true motivation for
change.
Revealing the Source of Discontent
I’ve found
that people experience dissatisfaction with their employment
situation due to one or more of the following
reasons:
• Personal. The
candidate’s relationships with those at work are unfulfilling.
Perhaps the peers and/or supervisors are incompatible with the
candidate, or they have different goals. Or maybe there are
vast differences in political, religious, socioeconomic or
educational backgrounds. Or the overall corporate culture
seems out of synch to the candidate, or the “feel” or “look”
of the company’s surroundings leaves something to be
desired.
• Professional.
The candidate’s ability to achieve career goals or technical
fulfillment is stalled, or unattainable. As recruiters, it’s
on the professional aspects of a candidate’s employment
equation that we most often (and erroneously) focus our
attention.
• Situational.
The candidate’s dissatisfaction has nothing to do with the
personal or professional aspects of the job; rather, the
dissatisfaction is tied to circumstances. For example, the
candidate’s commuting distance might be intolerable, or the
air quality or school system in the candidate’s city might
have deteriorated; or the candidate’s spouse might have
recently accepted a job in a different city.
The point is,
there may be a hundred different value-related reasons behind
a candidate’s apparent discontent. As recruiters, it’s our job
to develop an awareness of the factors that motivate a
candidate to explore his or her options—and to offer viable
career solutions.
Unless you’ve
pinpointed the precise motivation behind a candidate’s
interest in interviewing for another position, you’ll have no
leverage in the job-changing process. And worst of all—if the candidate
has no real motivation for making a change—you’ll find
yourself as a mere facilitator in a tire-kicking exercise, in
which your efforts will serve only to satisfy a candidate
whose only interest is to extract a counteroffer.
At which point,
you need to ask yourself: Who’s really in
control?
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