The hidden value of having someone challenge your hiring decisions

One of the things I think businesses sometimes misunderstand about using a recruiter or recruitment consultant is that the value is not simply in finding people and getting somebody into the role.

Sometimes the most useful thing I can do is say, ‘I’m not sure yet.’

That might be because I am not convinced by the person in front of us, because the client is talking themselves into somebody they were never particularly excited about, or because the more I hear about the problem they are trying to solve, the less convinced I am that the role itself is quite right.

None of those things are especially convenient when everybody wants to get the recruitment finished, but I think they are exactly the moments where judgement matters most.

The trap of urgency

Businesses are often recruiting because something is already under pressure. Somebody has left, the team is stretched, the founder is doing too much, the business is growing or there is simply a gap that needs filling, and understandably there is a strong desire to get somebody in and move forward.

That urgency can be useful because it creates momentum, but it can also make a perfectly reasonable person start to look like the right person simply because everyone wants the problem to go away.

The importance of questioning

This is where I tend to ask more questions.

• What do you think this person actually brings?
• Can you see them in the team?
• What would they add that you do not already have?
• How do you see their future in the business?
• Are you genuinely excited about employing them, or are you mostly relieved that somebody suitable has appeared?

I am not asking those questions because I want to slow the process down or make it more complicated. I am asking them because if the answers are uncertain, that uncertainty is worth listening to.

Sometimes talking it through gives the client the confidence they need and we realise the hesitation was simply nerves about making an important decision. Sometimes another conversation with the person resolves the question. Sometimes it becomes obvious that they are good, but they are not right for this particular business.

And sometimes the best decision is to go back out and look again.

There can be a strange feeling in recruitment that once you have advertised, sifted CVs, interviewed people and invested all that time, you somehow have to appoint somebody at the end of it.

I do not agree with that.

The purpose of the process is not to reach the end. It is to make a good decision.

I would much rather tell a client that we have not found the right person yet than help them convince themselves to hire somebody because they are tired of recruiting. A few more weeks of searching is usually far less painful than employing somebody you were unsure about from the beginning.

Challenging the brief

There is another part of this that I think is even more important, and that is being prepared to challenge the role before the recruitment has properly started.

A business may come to me saying they need a particular position, but when I start asking what that person is actually there to do, what problem they are trying to solve, what they want to take away from somebody else and what they need to be different six months after the person joins, the brief can start to shift.

Sometimes the salary does not match the market. Sometimes the responsibilities are too broad. Sometimes the level is wrong. Sometimes the role has been designed around the person who left rather than what the business needs next. And sometimes two different problems have been bundled into one job because nobody has stopped to separate them.

That is one of the reasons I do not think good recruitment starts with writing an advert.

It starts with understanding the business well enough to question what is being asked for.

I think founders and MDs often benefit from having somebody alongside them who is close enough to understand what they are trying to achieve but far enough away to see when something does not quite stack up.

That can mean questioning the brief, the salary, the CV, the interview process or even an assumption the business has been carrying for years. It can mean saying the market is telling us something different from what we hoped to hear. It can mean encouraging another interview when everyone wants to make an offer, or saying I do not think we should progress simply because someone looks impressive on paper.

For me, that is not being difficult. It is part of taking responsibility for the decision.

And I think that is where a recruitment relationship becomes much more valuable than simply receiving a shortlist of people, because sometimes the thing a business most needs is not another person agreeing with the original plan.

Sometimes it needs someone prepared to say, ‘Can we look at this differently?’

That may not always produce the quickest hire, but the quickest hire was never really the objective.

The objective was to help the business make the right people decision.