This past year I’ve addressed many conferences attended by our end-users. Obtaining their input has caused me to change my approach or try new strategies. We all know there is a tremendous shortage of candidates. However, many companies have changed their company policy regarding hiring back past employees.
As a result, we’ve added one question when interviewing our candidates who have more than five years of experience. That question is, “Have you ever regretted leaving any of your past employers?” If they respond “Yes.” we ask, “Why?” We then ask if they would ever consider working for that company, if offered a job at their level of expertise and salary range.
We call their past employer and say, “I just talked to one of your past employees and when we asked them if they ever regretted leaving a company, they said yes, yours! After hearing what they said, I just had to pick up the phone and share what they said with you.” We have not revealed the candidate’s name, only what they did and why they regretted leaving.
Over 50% of the time, the individual asks us, “Would they consider coming back?” We then ask what type of job they have in mind, so we can present something to our candidates. It’s important for this person to realize if they hire this person, they owe you a fee or margin.
It takes them less than 48 hours to check if this person is eligible for re-hire and it is one of the fastest ways to close a deal. You may think this sounds too good to be true and if we hadn’t been doing this for almost twelve months, I might agree. However, we’ve proven this question helps close more business.
I’ve had conference attendees call me amazed that they were closing Direct Hire deals by asking one additional question. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by adding this one question. I’d love to hear how it works for you!