How to identify 'bad' business 🧐

One of our commitments this year is to focus on 'good' business partnerships only.

But how do you spot a 'bad' client? 🤔

Before I start, a disclaimer: 'bad' or 'good' business is referring to how effective your working relationship is, not how they operate in their own industry.

Before you actually start working with a new client, it may be difficult to get an understanding of how effective the partnership will be, especially as people will naturally rave about their own business!! (Myself included 😎)

After all, you don't know someone until you live with them, right?!

Here is how we spot potential issues, prior to, and during the recruitment process.

1. 𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝘂𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲! Look at things like customer reviews, social media presence, staff movement on LinkedIn and have a browse on companies' house.

2. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻! This is usually the earliest warning sign. For recruitment professionals like us, you may struggle to get hold of decision makers, get feedback on candidates presented or after interviews, and if you do manage to get feedback, then it often lacks detail.

3. 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀! This is the most frustrating one! When the budget starts off at 'X', but the offer comes in at 'Y'. Or you agree on a recruitment process, and then the client starts adding stages (More recruitment talk, sorry, it's all we know)

4. They 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻! Now we are at the end of the recruitment process (Well, the interview and selection part anyway), the client loves the candidate, but "we just need to get sign off" or "we want to see someone else as a comparison". Nothing quite spells warning sign like getting exactly what you have asked for and then not moving forward with it!!

5. 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲! This one is an absolute red card for me! It is one thing to mess me around, but when I am presenting candidates to a business and they are not treated correctly or have a terrible experience, I am sorry, but we can no longer work together!!

Here are some very recruitment focused warning signs of 'bad' business. We hope these transfer into your industry too, so you can spot the warning signs.

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