Once at a client party I started chatting with an HR person who was soon joined by her colleague, one of their developers. As we were talking, I noticed discomfort in the HR person, especially after the developer said: “I didn’t know that we have to do direct search!”. The whole thing felt as if our client had been doing something shady, something embarrassing or wrong. To me, it sounded as if the HR person was admitting buying followers on Instagram or using some other unethical tactics to get people to join their company. But is it so? Is direct search something to be ashamed of?
Of course not! Regardless of the size and (employer) brand awareness of your company, recruitment marketing, and job advertisements are simply not enough to compete in the current market. The best tech talent is already employed, and many of them are relatively happy in their current job and don’t have time to spare searching for and filling in job applications. However, casual contact from a professional recruiter can get them interested in seeing what else there is out there.
Another myth, from the candidate side, is that people who are talented enough don’t need any help to get where they want. Guess what – it’s probably true that if a talented developer knows exactly what they want and where they can find it, they will get the job in a heartbeat. But think for a moment why most C-level people are found through headhunting? Because they are busy doing their everyday jobs rather than thinking about what would be the optimal next step and where to find it! As an IT expert, you can’t always think about what the coolest possible opportunities are, and if you are not looking, you are not actively thinking. Through our networks and experience, we support candidates and companies alike to make happy matches.
A good external direct search partner would help the internal teams focus on their core business, doing work on their behalf in an efficient way.
Fear not!
This Halloween, don’t panic, direct search is not the monster lurking behind the corner! The real monster is much creepier – it’s the “let’s just post a job ad and expect that our brand will get us the best talent in every niche field”. Be proactive, instead of letting the “let’s just post and wait” ghost spook your business goals!
If you’re in need of a direct search partner, contact us!
