The Challenge

Why do the SaaS/IT organisations’ HR, Talent and headhunter teams rarely progress the top 20%?

One argument is that non-top performers have shorter sales cycles and higher conversion rates; therefore, less selling is required from the recruiter. More importantly, however, this is primarily due to lack of sufficient skills and experience related to the specific recruitment target (and their current job) in relation to the specific job offer – that makes the top performer qualify hard, fast and out of the recruitment funnel.

Research show that often there is an ”information asymmetry” between the recruiter and recruitment target, which allows the candidate to control both the dialogue (they know how to sell..) and the narrative (often referred to as ”impression management” in literature).

All this allows too many non-top performers through the recruitment funnel. An even bigger problem is that when top performers test fast (they are busy), hard (they are skilled) in order to qualify out the job opportunity, recruiters often lack the credibility or skill to identify and probe deeply enough into the ”pains” of the current job and contrast them convincingly with the motivational triggers of the new role. As a result, the candiate senses risk in the answers and opts out of the recruitment funnel.