Four fundamental flaws of the hiring of new consultants through recruitment consultancy agencies

In recent years it has become increasingly popular for companies to use the recruitment of consultants to find and hire new workers. And while the method is a bit of a mess in terms of finding quality people, the majority of companies are still in happy ignorance to continue using it.

The sad reality is that this practice has become the form of consultation for companies to hire new associates.

When workers are employed in this way, it may be a reasonable approach, but it is a big mistake, even a cardinal sin of biblical proportions to see companies acquire talent in this way.

Sadly, when Friedrich Winslow Taylor, the self-appointed first management consultant, sold its “scientific management” concept, and, basically, says that in the past people were the first, but in future systems are the first thing, and people become strongly controlled, consumable costs.

He also said that with the help of tightened processes and systems, people with the intelligence of the horse may be employees because not even they can understand simple tasks that must be carried out several times to serve the system.

And with this action, Taylor and his notorious stopwatch took pride and fulfillment without work, and turned it into monotonous bonded.

And this “anyone can do any work”, has paved the way to…
The rise of agencies recruitment and hiring of consultants…

Generalist human resources realized quickly that if anyone can do any kind of work, then HR generalists, most of them without any knowledge of the specific contents of the industry, can hire anyone for any job in any industry.

And then he began the new industry.
First became a standard for industrial companies to outsource their recruitment to recruitment agencies and industrial enterprises enjoyed support from experts.

So the recruitment industry quickly assembled a named body of knowledge, essentially made up of several psychological pseudo-pruebas, and increasingly more recruitment consultancies, agencies began to promote its services on time few managers.

And now we also know that the traditional, the industrial era of human resources has pulled miserably in the era of knowledge.

In his book conversations in the customer service and sales, Ken Edmundson tells us that…
“We mathematically have a chance of 52% of hiring the right person if only to toss a coin, and studies reveal that only increase to a whopping 8% through the use of our wonderful interviews skills.”

So, with a bit of serious insistence of the scientific management of Taylor, we reached the industrial age fairly rapidly, but his message, despite 99.999% obsolete, is so ingrained in the managers, who can not think of another way to hire people.

And what this entrenched mentality and outdated practices of human resources created?
A recent Gallup Poll indicates that 59% of the workforce is off, IE wasting your time. 14% tracked active labour no-actividades. And only a mere 27% actually work.

According to a study by the journal of insurance, more than 50% of American workers question the morality of their leaders and feel mistreated by their managers. Less than 15% of workers feel strongly excited by their work and 42% have difficulty with exhaustion.

And managers cling to this obsolete “manual laborer” mentality HR type, despite the loud and clear message from Peter Drucker, who, in his 1954 book, The Practice of Management, introduced us to the concepts of the era of knowledge, knowledge work and the knowledge in writing worker…
Knowledge workers are volunteers who have the means of their performance, and if they are not with any company it is completely voluntary. Like the majority of investors, will be where you can obtain economic performance measured in wages, fringe benefits and other pecuniary rewards, as well as in those that are well treated and respected, fair, the psychological in the knowledge society, the hypothesis more likely for organizations-. and no doubt the hypothesis in which they conduct their affairs – is that they need knowledge workers much more than knowledge workers need. ”

And after this little detour, but necessary, you will arrive to the…
Problems of recruitment consultants through recruitment consultancy agencies
Although in the majority of enterprises industrial people are simply considered controllable expenses which have to be reduced to a minimum, since it is the system that gets the job done, in consulting firms people supposed that more businesses are great assets. In fact people are the same “things” consulting firms sell. Its people and their relationships.

Before consulting firms can sell their services to their customers, customers have to buy people’s companies. I.e., clients have to be sold in the culture of companies in general and character traits, based on the character of its people.

Asi_que, when firms hire new associates, have to consider two main factors: 1) character of the candidate and 2) the experience of the candidate.

Therefore, the engagement of consultants, employment, agencies where fall of face to face?
Let’s start with the discovery…

Recruitment Flow # 1 Agency: Technical knowledge no or very little matter
The first problem is that most recruitment agencies have no experience in the subject in the area of your company with experience, so the candidate pre-selection is quite irregular.

If the agencies can use several methods of psychological testing, but most of these tests are not more than pseudo-cientifico, and you can only test the character of the candidate. And even for those who are not bulletproof.

But agencies can not determine the levels of experience of the candidates. This would require judgment and discernment, but in the absence of experience in the field, these agencies cannot be judge or discern anything.

And when we don’t have the knowledge to discern something, it resorts to the use of yardsticks.
Imagine figure skating, for example. Imagine that one of the judges does not understand figure skating, so, instead of judges, he begins to measure so high what skaters have risen, many degrees that have turned their bodies and some without measurable sense another.

No. Judges must be able to make subjective decisions based on his experience is based both on the skating and skating evaluation.

But in the absence of experience in the field, agencies tend to finish…
Flow selection agency N ° 2: searching for and hiring Superstars of curriculum vitae
These “Superstars of the curriculum vitae” look excellent in the role, because they have dedicated their lives to pass the exams and in good condition in the role. Each shirt is crossed and each time is “professionally” splashed from the cradle to the present day.

To read their resumes, recruiters are pis of joy because you think you just find perfect candidates for their clients.

Or do they have?

But overlooked a fact about the superstars is that they became superstars in the working environment and culture that worked before. And since they cannot offer the same circumstances, the superstar can not become its star.

We know from Peter Drucker that handles are excellent to the destruction of innate motivation of people to do a great job…

“90% of what we call” management “is to make it difficult for people to do things.”

These are some of the reasons to avoid the superstars

Superstars or it can be expensive in relation to what can lead to the table – Superstars need to operate in a super friendly star. But environments superstar can only occur at the expense of working in team. So, what do we need? Superstar or superstar teams. My vote is in the latter. And a group of superstars is not a super team star. In no way, baby! Superstars or it can undermine the motivation of their current employees. Superstars or they are looking for the highest bidder. If your competitor exceeds even with just a little of what you pay their superstars, they have gone.

Then, what is the alternative?

Increase their superstars from the House.

The good thing is that they grow within their culture and their values, and they can be turned into superstars without the typical attitudes of the superstar. In addition, they become great team players. And now you have the recipe for a team of superstar. And what else can make a leader strong desire? Well, it’s not really a sausage. Well, maybe a sausage on a good day.

Recruitment agency Flow # 3: Focus on filling a vacant to not advance the company performance

Employment agencies are also called hunters of heads for a reason. They hunt their customers heads and fill the vacant spaces of their customers.

Good consulting firms there are many vacancies. Since people enjoy so much of the work and the company of colleagues and customers, not to mention that they are paid well, wear talent is quite low.

In contrast look in a manufacturing company where people who work in the production lines may have an annual 20-30% wear.

Agencies are good at mass of recruitment to fill the vacant spaces, but the hiring of consultants is a little more delicate.

It is the purchase of White House staff. The public elects the President, and then the President personally world selected his closest collaborators, among them the Vice President, the Secretary of State, Chief of staff and a few key people.

But the President is not personally involved in the selection of a potato peeler apprentice. These lower-level slots can be filled through a recruitment agency.

I think that in consulting firms, as in all very United firmly, integrated units, company leaders must engage personally to all the new people simply because in a consulting firm that there is no such thing as the proverbial potato peeler.

Due to its nature, the consulting firms that people only is important, and that includes the often underappreciated receptionist offered the company first “live” impression to the acquisition of perspectives.

The leaders know cultures of their companies the. Best, and so know that it would fit better in those cultures

Yes, agencies can compare curriculums vitae, letters and other factual information, but when it’s a profession highly personalized consulting, we have to go well beyond the explicit information, therefore become pieces of rather insignificant role.
Is this because of the agencies? No. I don’t think so.

But the agencies have many clients and many types of clients to recruit for. There is no time to give due attention to each Contracting situation.

Most of the hiring process is to find a match between the candidate and the character of the company and its values. And no agency can do that because the Agency is not part of the culture of the company.

And just because the body is filled with company with persons seeking super stars in the role, does not mean that the company becomes a company of superstar. This means that it becomes the set of people who have dedicated their lives to the excellent search on paper.
But we must not confuse resume expertise and applicable experience.

Recruitment agency Flow # 4: The conflict of interest with respect to the damage

Once upon a time, companies – wrongly – he realized that instead of paying agencies of flat rates, can create an incentive for agencies by paying a percentage of the salary of the new recruit for a number of years.

And this creates a conflict of interest.
Once the Agency hires a candidate, that candidate has become a client of the Agency.
And we all know that it is much cheaper and easier to work with current customers who acquire new ones. Agencies also known this rule.

So, let’s say, the Agency hires Jill for a consulting job. The consultant undertakes to pay the Agency 15% of the total remuneration of Jill for three years.

So far so good. The problem of the consulting firm begins when on 1 January of the fourth year, the agency called Jill and offers him a position with another firm and new consultant.

In this way the body can return to start the period of three years during which it receives a percentage of the compensation of Jill.

Yes, agencies can hire good people for your company. But as soon as the organism ceases to receive payments from this person, the Agency has a great interest in this poaching someone outside your company, send it to another company and get paid more for a few years.

So, what can firms do?

If you need more help from the Agency, and then pay a fee upfront flat, and that is all.
Costs the Agency some serious money in the present to a new person for you, and if all that the Agency receives a small percentage of future money, then the Agency rightly tries to continue to receive future money, provided it is possible.

So, to use or not use agencies?

I’ve always been surprised is how sharp firm in many leaders personally select the wallpaper for their offices, copiers or personal bathroom toilet seats, but then relegating the role of the acquisition of its benefits, its people, generation assets to a third party of the Agency.

It is equivalent to ask his friend to beat your wife, because you need a baby of Easter, but they do not have time or desire to do it yourself. The example is very wild, but it proves the point.

What is the message that is sent through the recruitment agency?

Simple: Our people are not important enough and so that we can invest time and energy to select them personally.

And guess what? If people are not important enough prior to the engagement, will not important enough after hiring either. This is the reason why wear talent is so high among consulting firms? And since most of the companies promote internal competition, when members go, it is likely that lead to their customers with them.

Companies continue shouting to the world who want to partner with clients, while often the treatment of their own people as garbage. I think that, first they should associate with their own people and create the kind of environment where people are excited, full of energy and enthusiasm to make your day better and brighter on day.

And it all starts at the recruitment stage.
The basic difference is that while people are engaged in other industries for jobs, consulting firms must recruit people for careers. It does not distinguish between jobs and careers can cause rotation of great talent. And that leads to increased customer defections, and revenues that gradually erode.

I leave you with a thought of the musical renegade genius, Frank Zappa. He said once…
“When people began to take serious MBA program, which was the beginning of the ruin of American industrial society. When all the decisions are based on a concept of MBA of the numerical reality, shit you are up to the neck, because the only thing that can be judged as real is what can be proven by columns of figures. then all the aesthetic decisions are delivered to such people, who use these criteria to make decisions of management of a company without taking into account people and without taking into account what the product really is, and the only thing that matters is to maximize your winnings, you have a problem ‘. ”

Agencies can compare numerical things, but unless the companies go deeper, to stop always hire their people at the level of the heart, where lie enthusiasm, passion and dedication.
But customers do not buy consulting services in it. They buy in relations with people of a specific nature. And agencies can not recruit this character, only the companies.