Your partner recruiting process needs work. ASAP. You better believe me. It needs work and if you aren’t prepared to do it, don’t even bother searching for external talent.

Candidates start excited but then they get bored and disengage. Maybe even your chosen one turns you down.

And then what?

Well, you’ve wasted your time, and everyone else’s.

Think like a candidate

To make a recruiting process worth its salt, you’ve got to start thinking like a candidate.

“What do you mean, Max? I’m hiring, it should be on my terms.”

No!

I remember being a candidate and getting underwhelmed. By great firms. And I know, others feel the same.

So, flip the process.

See it from the candidate’s angle. Understand what frustrates them and fix it.

Fix your hiring process

Many reasons get candidates frustrated but it’s usually down to these three things:

1. A loose process

Manage expectations from the get-go – firm intentions, the cadence of interviews, with whom and why. And give a timeframe. By when will this be done? So, it doesn’t become something eternal for the candidate.

2. Confused interviewers

They make the firm seem a mess when all ask the same old – again and again. And when they appear to have been dragged into the room accidentally!

No joke, once I had an interviewer tell me, “No idea why I’m here today!” As a candidate, I wondered that as well… And then I thought …Well, I won’t say.

3. No story from executive searchers or you

“This is a great firm” “The partners are great, all trusted advisors!”

Duh! Of course, you would say everything is ‘great’. But who’s prepared to uproot their lives for something ‘great’, without detail? Give candidates something to hold onto – explain why does your firm need them? Specifically, what can the right candidate achieve here?

To stop wasting your time and everyone else’s, three major things are needed: a tight process, orchestrated interviews, and a story exciting enough for the candidate to take that leap.

And, please, don’t forget: after a candidate has passed all the gates, you need to tell them why you think that their joining you and your team would be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Make it a point to share what a tremendous career will be in front of them, and how much you and your team are looking forward to welcoming them – that it’s going to be just awesome!

The latter is the clincher: candidates probably will have to explain it to someone at home.

It better be good!