Recruiters Who Don't Follow Up Hurt Their Companies

Written By Ted Grigg

I get two to three calls a week from recruiters, headhunters or hiring managers  asking me to refer candidates to them.

In the past, I have always bent over backwards to support them. I ask them for their job profiles, review their client websites and ask them to describe the type of leader they are looking for.

Recruiters Don't Follow Up

But here's the rub. They don't even have the courtesy to call back to let me know if the referrals helped them? I consider that rude. It is particularly offensive when they don't even have the discipline to respond to the candidates they interview!

There is nothing worse than offending high level candidates with lack of consideration to inform them what happened or why they were not considered for a given position. Such companies are killing their reputations through lack of courage or inattention. They owe it to me and the candidates to let us know what's going on.

Both I and the candidates took the time to respond with cover letters, resumes and even referral names. Organizations that communicate with referents and candidates stand out when they bother to follow up with EVERY candidate and those who referred them. Those who don't also stand out and burn bridges behind them.

This lack of communications from corporate recruiters and hiring managers hurts organizations' reputations

Regardless of the possible legal ramifications, I consider such behavior offensive. Blaming this lack of communication on legal grounds is nothing more than an excuse for lack of professionalism.

Do you agree with my assessment? Does it tick you off when your efforts and attention receive zero recognition?

So here's my message to headhunters and corporate recruiters. If you don't intend to follow up and expend the same energy on me or my referrals as I do for you, then please, DO NOT WASTE MY TIME. 

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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