Are You Making These Common Mistakes When Recruiting New Talent?

I’m sure we all will agree that the biggest concern clients have is finding the right person to participate in their research. And sometimes the criteria is so specific it drives the incidents rates so low that the recruiting manager is ready to pull their hair out. So how do data collection companies pull this off? To be clear, it’s not easy, but 99% of the time doable. The fraction of those studies that seem impossible, when working closely together with your client can often be accomplished. How Facts ‘n Figures approaches these types of challenging projects is through open communication with our clients and thinking out-side the box. Now I’m sure other companies do talk to their clients, but at Facts N Figures, we take that extra step.

The first thing every company should do is have a good line of communication with their client and a good understanding of the project. What is the research about? Who is the target? Does the screening questionnaire ask the questions to ensure that you will recruit the target? This is the most important hurdle to overcome, making sure your screener will identify the target. So before starting a recruit, Facts N Figures reviews the screener for obscurities and potential roadblocks that will prevent recruiting the correct target. So many times we will see a screener that will not be specific and allow for people to pass the screener who are not truly the target. Clients love it when you identify issues at the beginning of a project and not when you are deep into the recruit and then bring it to their attention. Or the client calls the recruiting manager and says a number of the recruits don’t really qualify even though they passed the screener. Worst yet, during the project, the end user says

“They are not who we are looking for.”

Even though the project was recruited to the specs, the client did not get the target group they were looking for. As a data collection firm, it is our duty to guide the client to make sure the target group is identified and recruited to specs. Facts 'n Figures has helped clients time and time again for doing just that. One time a client was looking for patients who used Botox, a medication for both cosmetic use and for neurological movement disorders. The screener was targeting doctors. The screener just asked if the doctor used Botox on patients, and they would qualify. Had we not asked the background of the study, we would have not known that the actual target was for neurologists, specifically movement disorder specialists. Facts N Figures hit the target because we were proactive in understanding the background of the study and were able to recruit the exact target. The other markets missed the boat and the project had to be redone. Time and money spent could have been avoided if the conversation with the client took place at the beginning of the project.