Data & Analytics: How to Work with a Partner to Secure Better Talent!

I have more conversations than I can even begin to count, with organisations to discuss best practices around securing Data & Analytics talent.

I’ve talked/pulled myself out of work on numerous occasions recently by outlining the most effective way to hire talent.

I’m cool with that!

I’m no hero, I simply have a duty to provide the best advice and offer the best service possible whether a company decides to engage with me and my business or not.

 Here is Why?

Due to such talent shortage within our industry, many organisations believe that the more “recruitment partners” they have working on a Data & Analytics role, the more coverage they have and therefore the more chance they’ve got of filling that vacancy.

I’m here to tell you why that method will always deliver sub-par results:

1)    Commitment: those recruitment “partners” aren’t committed to your vacancy. Why would they be? They aren’t committed to you because you aren’t committed to them.

At best, they’ll spend a small amount of time on it (if any at all), not screen candidates as well as they should and send you what they can in the shortest amount of time possible because there are more “certain” things out there for them to focus on.

The chances of them getting paid for their time is so slim, it just isn’t a priority for them.

2)    Reputation: when people start getting multiple calls off a number of different recruiters about the same role, it reeks of desperation, panic and looks unorganised. 

3)    Quality: you are NEVER going to be presented with the best possible person for this role because none of those agencies have invested anywhere near enough time to truly unearth the best.

4)    Your Time: instead of receiving a small, relevant shortlist you’ll get lots more. Why? Because these agencies feel obliged to send as many people as possible, in the quickest timeframe, even if they think they’re only 25% relevant “just in case” – because if the other agency sends them and they get the job they’ll be kicking themselves.

Resulting in you having to sift through far too many CV’s from each “partner”

 The Comparison:

Would we ask a consultancy business to deliver a solution on the premise that they would only get paid if they delivered what we decide to adopt/implement, while 3 of its competitors are working on the same solution?

Would we ask 4 of our staff to work on a project where, only the one that delivers what we like the most will get paid that month?

Of course not!! Because they wouldn’t do it and we wouldn't expect them to.

They would go and find someone else who values their time, work and effort, where they can be 100% committed to and focus on delivering the best possible result, while knowing they’ll get paid for their work.

Recruiting talent is no different.

Is the Recruitment Industry the Problem?

We (the recruitment industry) have a bad reputation (and rightly so) because we are allowing this to happen. We are purposely taking on assignments that we shouldn't be, not performing to our best and throwing some proverbial sh*t at the wall and hoping by some form of miracle that it "sticks"

Recruitment companies that operate in this way are partly to blame because they should be educating their clients on why engaging with multiple suppliers will ultimately result in poorer results than if they engaged just one, specialist partner.

We are getting involved in the rat race which continues to bring our industry’s reputation down.

Ask for Yourself

If you engage multiple suppliers on the same assignment, go and ask any of them if they would rather work on that vacancy exclusively/retained – outside of the obvious reasons why, if they’re being honest with you, they’ll tell you that you’ll get a much better/ truer service from them.

More commitment, more time, better processes, better terms etc etc.

Stop engaging multiple recruitment partners on the same role, it does not give you greater coverage!

We already have a talent shortage.

Identifying people isn’t the difficulty these days, it’s the ability to engage the appropriate audience and stand out from the noise (and trust me, it’s noisy!) so make sure you pick the right partner.