It’s important to have full visibility into the orders you have placed with your staffing providers, consolidated billing, and uniform control of the process of bringing new people into your organization from outside firms. Those are all good and important goals. But those goals shouldn’t override your more important goals: getting the right people into your company and onto the right team.
The problem with a VMS when it comes to hiring is that the technology is a barrier to real, effective, value- creating communication. Real communication is essential for making good hiring decisions.
Something’s Come Between Us
Your providers are required to view open positions on the VMS software and upload the their candidate’s resumes into the system to be reviewed by the person making the hiring decision. But many of your people are busy trying to meet their objectives, and unless Human Resources is the person doing the hiring, that manager is already down headcount. It takes the hiring manager too long to review the resumes, and the best candidates are often lost to other positions.
When the manager is able to make time to work on hiring, reviewing resumes isn’t a great value-adding experience. The resume isn’t the individual, and some managers simply look for the “magic words” or experience to decide to interview a candidate. Other managers can’t distinguish a “good candidate” from a “bad candidate.”
Since this arm’s length process has become the standard and real communication lacking, many of your providers are throwing resumes from CareerBuilder into the system, hoping to beat their competitors in this game of chance. Now you’re unhappy that people are throwing resumes into your system that you could just have easily pulled off CareerBuilder on your own.
Can We Talk?
When you communicate with a recruiter, you have an opportunity to discuss your real preferences, the cultural fit necessary, and what kind of individual has the greatest chance of succeeding in this role.
When you speak directly with the person sending you candidates, you get an understanding of why they chose the individuals that they want to put in front of you. You get to hear about the person’s background, what they want from a new position, and what makes work meaningful for them.
Over time, more communication allows the firm filling your needs to better dial in the candidates they place, and they become an extension of your company, making decisions as if they were part of your team.
Is there a more important decision you can make than who you hire? Should this process prevent you from knowing the people that are helping you to make this decision? More still, should it prevent them from knowing you?
We don’t think so.
