Mary writes 10 job orders and arranges 6 send outs for every placement she makes and has 1 in 4 offers rejected.   With an average fee of $14,000.00, Mary’s now $7000.00 monthly desk average was still below the $10k per desk quota, but she showed potential… and it was better than having another empty desk.   Mary may be considered average among new recruiters, but Mary was also beginning to talk with other recruiters she had met.  In another 3 months, she’ll accept a position with another firm and her desk will become another empty void in the office.

The manager takes action to fill his open desk and begins the search process for a new recruiter.  He’d like to hire an experienced recruiter, and although not hard to find, a good and experienced recruiter is difficult to actually hire.  The best ones aren’t looking or have ‘golden handcuffs’ that keep them from leaving their built up bank of commissions, clients and candidates to start over in a new environment.   Of those that are ‘looking’, there’s usually a good reason why they’re ‘on the market’ or a fault exists that eliminates them from consideration.  Others demand a base salary too high for the budget or expect a commission percentage that is not allowable.  Many won’t consider a straight commission position, even with the draw that is offered.   Two weeks have passed.

With nothing to show for his efforts so far, the manager decides to consider hiring another trainee and places an ad in the newspaper and on job boards. Several responses come in and he and his senior recruiters conduct multiple interviews with recruiter candidates.  An additional two weeks passes.  Phone calls, job orders and send-outs are now even lower from the lost production time.  One person stands out as having tremendous potential and an offer is made and accepted to begin as a Recruiting Associate.  “Training will start on your first day,” the manager says… “in two weeks.” 

Six weeks have now passed since beginning his search for a new recruiter and the manager is eager to get his new hire on the phone.   After the Monday morning meeting, the new hire goes through orientation and is shown his desk.  He is given the outdated and photocopied 3 ring binder entitled ‘Recruiters Training Manual’ to read – ‘the one that has been used for years.’   He sits at his desk and begins to read, and read, and read… all the while absorbing the ‘atmosphere’ and listening to the other recruiters on the phone.  The next day, the Manager and his Senior Recruiter have cleared their schedules and begin the company’s version of formal recruiter training. 

The new recruiter sits anxiously as he learns of the agency’s market and the types of candidates he will be working.  He absorbs the agency’s recruiting process and learns about clients, job orders, candidates, interviewing, send-outs and placements.  He is handed forms to help him with each task.   Some role-playing is performed and he is shown the database and research sources.  After two days, he is given a candidate to work and their new recruiter is ready for the phone. 

While everyone feels he is ready, pure statistics show that it is unlikely our new recruiter will produce much of anything of value for quite some time, if at all.  He will make countless mistakes along the way – all at the mercy of our client and candidate market.  He will have innumerable questions that must be addressed.  He will constantly require the time and helping hand of other recruiters while struggling along the path of experience.   The other recruiters are all eager to grant their time and expertise for the new guy, but each moment helping him is time away from their calling.  There’s a one in four chance he’ll still be on the team in 90 days. 

With each failed phone call along the way, buyer’s remorse digs itself a little deeper and our new recruiter’s once motivated energy and anticipation settles into obscurity while he begins to solely go through the motions of a questionable career choice.  After 6 weeks, the next newest recruiter, Mary, resigns.   Three months from starting his new career, when the expected joy and exhilaration of making a placement has avoided him, his desk too will become painfully quiet and another $6000.00 in lost draw will be permanently added to the negative column.   

And the cycle continues…

Why do new recruiters so quickly and so often fall off the payroll?  Too many companies are simply too eager to get their new recruiters on the phone and fail to provide them with the proper training and preparation that is absolutely necessary to get them started right and with the greatest chance of succeeding.  Companies too often choose not to make the additional - yet all-important - initial investment to further ensure their return on investment.  They fail to consider the amount of time, effort and lost production time that has been extended up to this point just to find and hire this new recruiter. 

Other than Human Resources, there are no college courses or degree programs for the recruiting profession, and we all know that HR is not recruiting.  Any certifications that exist are for those already in the profession.  The recruiter training programs available are not sought by non-recruiters.  To be frank, few people - if any - grow up wanting to be a recruiter.  New recruiters have little or no basis for this career endeavor; they must rely upon their employer for their success… or blame them for their failure.    

This dilemma is not so much a matter of training time, but more of training content and preparation in the earliest stages of a new career.  Recruiting firms are recruiters by profession.  The experienced staff on board is the result of many failed hires along the way; they are the remaining statistics that made it.  But recruiters are not trainers by profession and thus do not fully comprehend the essential elements that absolutely must go into the initial development of a successful recruiter.  New recruiters that don’t make it are simply written off as a poor hire… and the cycle continues.  Why should losing 3 out of 4 new recruiters be an acceptable cost of doing business when losing only one out of four is so easily realizable?     

Companies concentrate too heavily on the basic mechanics of recruiting and are sorely inadequate when it comes to educating the new recruiter on the staffing business in general, the full business life cycle of recruiting, and the soft skills that are absolute prerequisites for all truly successful professional recruiters.  Most new recruiters never make it past the critical 90 day pivot point that makes for a successful career in this business.  Frankly, this is because the new recruiter is not prepared for the pitfalls along the way and thus they lack the foundation and confidence necessary to survive and overcome the failures that all recruiters face at one time or another so early on in their new undertaking.  They are told how wonderful this profession is and how much money they can make… and when it doesn’t happen according to their perceived beliefs, they become discouraged and ultimately seek another opportunity elsewhere, or are released after a couple of months of low production numbers.   

Recruiting is a practice profession - just like Doctors, Attorneys, and Realtors.  We deal daily with the human element, and as such, our profession can never be perfected - thus a practice.  To be a successful recruiter, one must understand the human element right along with the mechanics of recruiting.  From the very beginning, we must groom ourselves - and our new recruiters - that this is a business of failures.  No matter what we do or how we do it, we will fail over 95% of the time.  But while we are failing so very frequently, as long as we are doing all the right things in all the right ways and at all the right times, our 95+% failure rate is actually resulting in tremendous successes - professionally, personally, and financially.