Faking It

It’s almost guaranteed in Auckland, that the week you return to work coincides with glorious sunshine and bright blue skies. Most folks were back last week and if you were a little less lucky you were the week before that. The predictability doesn’t stop there. The beginning of the year brings the same sluggish start it always does, with decision-makers deciding to make the most of the tail end of holidays. Let’s be real, the wheels haven’t properly started turning yet. There’s a long weekend on the horizon and if my bus is anything to go by, most kids aren’t even back at school yet. This isn’t to say the coconut phone at Island HQ hasn’t been ringing off the hook! Agencies are keen to see what’s out there and with the promise of thriving this year, want to put themselves front of mind for any would-be employees. My gut feeling is that once we get this financial year off the books, that’s when we’ll experience a big push in market movement. Till then what’s to be done?

The title of the blog doesn’t refer to what you, Mr/Mrs Recruiter, should be doing during this time. If I talk about faking it in recruitment, you’ll likely remember the old adage from your early days “Fake it till you make it” a time-honoured recruitment mantra up there with “champagne and razorblades”. The learning curve for recruitment is crazy, you effectively learn two industries at the same time; recruitment and whatever vertical the sorting hat has placed you in. The idea behind the motto is that you project with confidence or at least pretend that you’re an authority on the subject till which time you actually get to grips with things. It’s not malicious in fact, it’s the remedy to imposter syndrome because nobody, especially in recruitment, comes out of the box already assembled.

There is another type of faking it however, one that’s most prevalent in these months and can be seen on both sides of the fence with us consultants and the candidates we represent. This arguably takes a bit more acting chops than just feigning an understanding of an industry trend. Picture this, you’re getting to the business stage of an interview process. You’ve got a few options reminiscent of porridge made by bears, ones too hot, too cold, and the other, just right. You’ve decided that you’re 100% leaving your current gig it’s now just a case of getting a firm hand on the right branch before letting go. But it’s January in NZ. Things move slowly, Steve who manages the team you’ll be going into is at a Top 10 in Whananaki till next week. Nec minute! You get a request to your Outlook calendar with the title “Action Plan 25” That’s when you realize, you’ve got the fake it, till you make it out the door!

It's an awful position to be in. I’m going to go out on a limb and presume your candidate base also finds it uncomfortable being disingenuous to people they’ve worked with for years. Nothing stresses a candidate out more than having to present as if you’re going to be leading the charge when in actual fact, your mouse, chair, coffee cup is imminently up for grabs. The reality is there are two paths to take, and it totally depends on your candidate’s relationship with their manager. Firstly, they could share their recent exploits with their manager, cluing them up on the fact while they don’t have a firm offer yet they'll be exiting the company, probably. Or they nod, they smile, and they keep cards close to their chest. If your candidate goes for beers, plays golf, and engages in periodic slagging of the bosses with their manager then sure, honesty is the best policy. However, in most cases, a few little white lies will save some red faces.

A question for your candidate. Are they included in board meeting decisions? When it was decided that flexibility was cut, fat was trimmed and rates were lowered, did that come across their desk? Then why are their business decisions under the same level of scrutiny? If they let the cat out of the bag, it causes panic, it triggers a love bombing. Suddenly, the issues you had brought up numerous times are gone, and here’s a car park to boot! Who’s disingenuous then? I’d hate to be advocating for lying but I think it’s about having some awareness for when to speak your truth. Heaven forbid the opportunity is put on hold leaving your candidates out of favour with their current employer and forever under the spotlight. People who accept counteroffers are only around for another 6 months on average. What about the people who didn’t even get countered? They likely leave at the next opportunity that doesn’t subtly question if that WFH day is a WFH day.

A bit of practical advice there, recruiter to recruiter. At the end of the day, we want to make the process as comfortable as possible for our candidates. We’ve done this process hundreds of times but, this could be their first rodeo. Don’t be a cowboy but, down be a clown. 🤠🤡