Cutting Through the Hiring Noise to What Clients Actually Want (and Need)
You hear the same refrain every January in nearly every staffing company…
“If we just fill our orders more quickly, we’ll have great success this year.”
It certainly seems logical. But that’s not how it really works. This kind of thinking creates mismatched candidates resulting in frustrated recruiters and, more importantly, frustrated clients. Or even worse, the placement blows up in a day, a week, or a month, and everyone blames everyone else.
Here’s the real truth:
The job order isn’t the requirement.
The job description isn’t the job.
They are certainly important, but they aren’t the final destination. Instead, the recruiter’s job is to uncover what success really looks like.
In order to do this, it requires asking harder questions, challenging assumptions, and understanding the client’s real pain. When this is done properly, something shifts. The client stops seeing you as another staffing firm that just dispatches resumes in the hopes that something sticks, and instead, sees you as a true partner invested in helping them improve their operations.
It’s accomplished through genuine curiosity, strategic (and gentle) pushback, deeper discovery conversations, and the willingness to tell a client what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear.
Filling orders as presented by the client doesn’t solve problems, it just checks boxes. Strategic recruiting, on the other hand, is where job orders turn into solid and meaningful placements. It’s where real motivations are uncovered, the search is customized to what actually matters, and trust is built that keeps clients coming back.
Besides treating job requisitions as gospel, many recruiters also misdiagnose what’s actually happening. When placements aren’t sticking or clients are becoming more frustrated, they immediately assume it’s a sourcing problem. But the first assessment they should make is whether they have a discovery problem or a sourcing problem.
Unclear requirements is a discovery problem.
Poor candidate quality is a sourcing problem.
Discovery should be evaluated on its ability to uncover the client’s real needs, and sourcing should be evaluated on its ability to find people who match those needs. Get clear on that and your placements suddenly become more successful, more profitable, and more likely to lead to repeat business.
Or, think of it this way:
Discovery defines the target.
Sourcing finds the person.
Successful placements require both.
As you look at your open job orders right now, ask yourself, “Do I actually know what success looks like here, or am I about to spend weeks finding people who check boxes but don’t solve the problem?”
Be the recruiter who asks the harder questions. The one who pushes back (gently, but firmly) when the job description doesn’t match reality. The one who tells clients what they need to hear. The one who slows down long enough to get it right.
That’s what separates you from the other three staffing firms the client is working with.