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5 Mistakes for Recruiters to Avoid During Intake

Steve Lowisz
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Apply to join our REI Recruitment Roundtable Facebook group (for practicing recruiters only)! This is a place for the community to encourage each other, to share ideas, challenges, tips, and tricks. And a place to receive extra opportunities for free training. It’s for recruiters who really want to ELEVATE their careers and the industry as a whole! 
Intake sessions are essential in the recruiting process. It would be nearly impossible to recruit the right candidates without having an in-depth conversation with the hiring manager first.

HOW you conduct your intake session is just as important as having the session itself.

You want to ask the right questions so that both parties leave the conversation with a clear understanding. All too often these sessions end with uncertainty. Uncertainty about what the day-to-day will look like, what range of compensation you can offer, or where you should begin your search.

Do yourself a favor by consciously avoiding these 5 common mistakes that can create confusion for you and the hiring manager:

1. Cruising Through the Session Too Quickly

Give yourself adequate time to cover everything that needs to be discussed. It’s not enough to have a quick 15-minute conversation and then expect to hit the ground running.

Start off on the right foot by insisting on connecting for at LEAST 30 minutes. There are many areas that need to be thoroughly defined to ensure a successful search. Like what the open role will entail, the type of candidate that is needed to fill it, and what communication about the project will look like moving forward.

2. Making Assumptions About What Managers Want

Don’t just ASSUME you are on the same page as the manager. Everything needs to be spelled out to avoid conflict or disappointment down the road.

Even if you have recruited for a role with the same client in the past, it is best to revisit and reconfirm what expectations are. The needs and relationships within an organization are constantly changing and can affect how quickly the project needs to move or transform what responsibilities look like.

3. Staying Quiet When Compensation Seems Low

SPEAK UP! Don’t set yourself up for failure when you know that the compensation being offered does not match up with the job expectations.

It will be a waste of your time and the client’s money when you begin your search and no candidates are interested once they hear the salary range. You need to have the honest conversation immediately with the hiring manager about either lowering the job expectations and requirements or increasing compensation.

4. Accepting a Long List of Requirements

Have the manager narrow down the top 3-5 attributes and skills they’d like to see in a candidate.

Identifying the top must-haves will get the manager thinking about what’s truly necessary to be successful in the role and will help you refine your search strategy. Without doing so, you’ll be casting too wide of a net and ultimately end up with a bunch of candidates that the client will be unsatisfied with.

5. Making Too Big of a Commitment

Don’t promise results that you’re not sure you can deliver before you even begin the search.

If their expected quantity of candidate submittals seems too high, or the timeline feels too rushed, make sure to say something. This is not to say that you are incapable of doing the project, you just might need a week to get a feel for what’s out there before you can confidently commit. Being honest from the start will help strengthen your relationship with the client and keep things practical.

By avoiding these 5 mistakes, you can minimize any future confusion, miscommunication, or disappointment from both parties.