As in any relationship, communication is the key. We here at Talent Zoo feel that the better we [tag]communicate[/tag] with our clients, the better they can make a hire. What one must first realize is why they hired someone like us to be their search partner.

[tag]Hiring[/tag] a [tag]search partner[/tag] is to help eliminate the stress of trying to keep up with all the candidates, who you need to let go, who you want to keep warm, who may have an offer from another agency or company, etc. Our basic job is to set the candidate and the clients expectations straight. We do all the dirty work, let a candidate go, handle the [tag]negotiations[/tag] of offers, etc. That is why you hire someone like us. It allows you to do your job more [tag]effectively[/tag] and [tag]efficiently[/tag].

One of my colleagues has a client who doesn’t understand how to be a good search partner. He feels that if he keeps all the info on all the other candidates to himself, i.e. level of experience compared to ours, when they are interviewing, etc. that he is better off not showing his cards. What this client doesn’t understand is keeping this info from us, keeps our hands tied and we can’t set our candidates expectations.

As we all know it’s a candidates market out there, they can be choosey if they want, so not being able to have a time line of when to keep warm isn’t going to cut it. In the end if this is really how the client chooses to conduct his searches, he will end up with either no candidates or c-players, the a-players aren’t going to be around forever. Learn from this agency’s mistakes and communicate.