"But what if I can’t fill the role?"
The big question that tricks recruiters into working for free
The phrase I’m hearing again and again in 2023 from recruitment leaders is, we need to stop working for free.
The answer, of course, is to invoice part of the fee at the start of the recruitment process.
But with that comes the fear:
What if I can’t fill the role?
This question appears throughout the recruitment world, and traps thousands of recruiters in contingent servitude (in other words, having to work for free a lot of the time).
Interestingly this question, which strikes fear into any wannabe-progressive recruiter, only exists because we’re stuck thinking about recruitment in a certain way.
Change the way you view recruitment, and the question becomes irrelevant. And once the fear has gone, there is one less barrier to stopping working for free.
The problem is, most recruiters believe that their service is to place a candidate with a client. But if that’s true, then why do we have zero control over the final decision? A client can choose to freeze their hiring, change or cancel the role, take an internal or direct candidate… the list of events outside of our control seems endless.
So logically our role as recruiters is not connected to that final decision. Which leads us to ask: what is our service? What is our client paying us for?
The answer is simply: to help our client with their recruitment process. Once we start the process, we’re doing our job. And should be paid for it. From the start.
If you want to stop working for free this year, simply reply to this email and I’ll tell you what you need to do next.
Jon
P.S. Once you’re clear with your client and yourself about what your service is (reminder: to help your client with their recruitment process) then in my experience an unfilled role rarely damages your relationship with your client.
In fact, clients often admit that the reason the role wasn’t filled was something to do with them - their process, their boss, an internal candidate - and are keen to work with the recruiter again on their next role. Paid, of course.
If you want to stop working for free this year, simply reply to this email and I’ll tell you what you need to do next.