The Bait and Switch Recruitment

The Bait and Switch is used by companies when trying to employ someone. It's a way of promising the world then when employed the company goes back on those promises.

I have lost out when trying to employ people by having other companies "bait and Switch" on potential staff. Sadly I'm used the "tell the truth" style of employment which never has the gloss of the "bait and switch".

Let's say your agency does boring work and isn't highly regarded in the industry. When recruiting this is easy to fix as you say "we want YOU to help turn us around. We'll have you leading the team to take us into becoming one of the best. We have lots of great work in the pipe line"

Simple, you turned a negative into a positive. Only thing is it was all a lie. But that's fine as switching jobs is a real hassle and after 6 months they'll forget you even told a few porkies.

The hard thing when competing against a "bait and switch" is that your offering will never look as appealing to the potential employee. You won't tell them everything they want to hear as you can't promise the world.

The hardest thing is if the person doing the bait and switch plays hard ball and you don't even get a chance to respond. The potential employee is coerced into signing a contract right away leaving you with no options at all.

The only way you can combat a bait and switch is to reason with the person and let them know they are being played and hope they are smart enough to see through it.

I will say that anyone who runs their own business should take a course or get mentoring in how to talk to people when in a recruitment phase. I sure could have used some tips.

We've been lucky at Soap that our reputation has attracted lots of good people but lately it's been harder than it used to be, but then again our standards have risen too. We've also had to put everything into packages lately stating all the bits and pieces that go into it. This just makes half the time we're talking about money and fine details than the role.

We've also missed opportunities with people by replying a few days late or being out bid by an obvious bait and switch (which the person said to me later that this was the case)

Recruitment is a weird experience and those who are in a position to hire poeple will know this. It's like speed dating with a written commitment if you want to see more of each other.