Is Recruitment Really Pot Luck?

I was making my way out of the gym this week when a woman walked past me with a member of staff towards the car park. Her number plate had rung out on the tannoy and she was practically running. I could feel the adrenaline pouring off her as she passed. 

“I was only in the car ten minutes ago,” she said. “I sat there for twenty minutes. I don’t understand how…”

By the time I reached the car park, it was obvious why she had been pacing.

While she was watching her son’s swimming lesson, her car handbrake had failed, and it had rolled into the car on the opposite side of the car park. And yes, had left a considerable dent. 

Thankfully, everyone was fine and unhurt. Phew.

The man whose car had just been introduced to the front of hers seemed relatively relaxed about the whole situation, despite, from the looks of it, his son also being in the car at the time.

How unlucky. 

But with this thought of unluckiness, I couldn’t help but wonder: is recruitment sometimes complete pot luck? 

Some would argue that it isn’t. A good network and years of recruitment experience under your belt can give you access to opportunities through bonded-for-life clients who return with frequent job openings. A great CRM and wickedly fantastic automation tools can also make an enormous difference, provided they have been bought, implemented and mastered to their full potential, rather than becoming another expensive system that everybody swears they are going to start using properly next week.

Then there are people skills. Some would say you have either got them or you haven’t, and that the gift of the gab cannot be taught. I would have to agree.

However, luck does come into question when you consider just how many things need to align for a successful placement. Somewhere in the world of recruitment, you need to have the right job opening with a lucrative and trusted client at exactly the same time as the right candidate appears like an angel from the heavens. That candidate must also be actively looking for a job, live within a reasonable radius, want the salary being offered and be interested in the company. The company must like them and their notice period must not be so long that everyone involved has retired by the proposed start date.

Everything has to line up perfectly.

Sometimes, an amazing job opening lands on your desk and you cannot wait to fill it. The right candidate comes along, their experience is ideal and they are genuinely interested. There is just one small problem: they live on the other side of the country. Alternatively, everything matches for a candidate in every conceivable way, except for the minor issue that the salary is beneath them. Hard pass. No, thank you. Good day.

Luck does not only affect the search. You can get heavily unlucky during the process itself. Every recruiter has experienced the blisteringly aggravating task of selecting, vetting and preparing a candidate for interview. You have spoken to them, briefed them and checked in with them that morning. They are ready, enthusiastic and fully aware of where they need to be. They will absolutely be attending. One-hundred-percent!

Then they don’t show up. WHAT!

You text. You call. Nada. Nothing. They miraculously disappear into thin air, only to call you two weeks later with a heavily practised and carefully rehearsed excuse. It is normally something so morbid or morose that you feel unjust questioning them on the matter at all. Then, while they have you on the phone, they ask whether you can find them another opportunity. What faith. What confidence.

Although nothing, literally nothing, compares with completing the entire process and reaching the offer stage. The interviews are finished, the client is happy, the candidate is happy and there is an offer on the table. Eureka.

Except the candidate has now spoken to their current employer. Somehow, despite being underpaid, undervalued and desperate to leave only a few days earlier, their company has suddenly realised how important they are and has located the money required to prove it. They have been offered a pay rise and, actually, now that they think about it, they are going to stay where they are…

Great. Unlucky.

Of course, a good recruiter will do everything possible to prevent these situations.

They will qualify candidates properly, discuss salary early and ask whether a counteroffer might suddenly make their current employer remember they are valuable. They will spot concerns before they become last-

minute withdrawals, mysterious disappearances or conveniently timed family emergencies.

They will also keep clients moving, so the process does not drag on until the candidate forgets which company they interviewed with.

That is not luck. It is experience, preparation and knowing where trouble usually hides.

Even so, some things cannot be controlled. A recruiter cannot move the perfect candidate twenty minutes closer, force somebody to attend an interview or stop a current employer producing a surprise pay rise at the final hour.

What they can do is improve the odds: build the network, maintain the database, earn trust and recognise warning signs early!

Recruitment will always involve some luck. Sometimes everything aligns perfectly. Other times, the professional equivalent of a failed handbrake rolls across the car park and leaves a sizeable dent in your plans.

Because making your own luck is not about crossing your fingers.

It is about being prepared when everything finally lines up.