It’s what happens after placement that matters most to recruiters.
External recruiters don’t get judged on interviews, shortlists, or even signed contracts – they get judged (and paid!) on what happens six months later.
And the current data around those first six months is not comforting...
Research consistently shows that most new hires decide very quickly whether or not they’ve made the right move, with ~70% forming this view within their first month.
Gallup found only 12% of employees agreed their organisation did a good job during onboarding. In other words, most people walk into a new job already feeling underprepared, misunderstood, and disconnected.
When that early experience goes wrong, exits are inevitable. A disproportionate amount of voluntary turnover happens within the first year, much of it within the first six months.
As a recruiter, that’s not a HR statistic - it’s your brand sitting in someone else’s office.
Great onboarding starts with knowing new employees being understood, connecting with their team and leader, and quickly leveraging their strengths to get productive quickly. AskTALY makes it crazy easy to know and lead people effectively - from recruitment and right into the first year.
Want to learn more about how TALY is helping to reshape great decision making and outcomes during recruitment? Get in touch or book a demo today.
When a Placement Doesn’t Land
Every recruiter has had the call: “it’s not working out”.
Performance rarely starts with technical capability; the CV was strong, the references checked out, the interviews felt aligned, and the client was excited.
But something shifts...
The manager thinks the candidate is too reactive, too slow, or not proactive enough.
The candidate feels micromanaged, unsupported, or unclear on expectations.
Feedback lands badly. Small friction builds. And no one quite names it.
By the time the resignation lands, everyone talks about “fit” - but what they usually mean, is behavioural misalignment.
And when a hire leaves early, the commercial damage runs wider than most recruiters will admit.
Clients question the brief and the process. Quietly they question your judgment, even if they never say it directly.
Their retention is your reputation.
The Part No One Screens Properly
Most recruitment processes are built around capability - Experience, Skills, Track record, References.
These are all important, but they’re not the key factors that drive success...
Very few processes rigorously examine how someone is wired to operate.
• How do they respond to direct feedback?
• What is their natural pace of work?
• How comfortable are they with ambiguity?
• Do they need structure or autonomy?
• How do they behave under pressure?
• How do they make decisions when information is incomplete?
These aren’t soft questions - they determine day-to-day behaviour, culture and suitability.
And that daily experience determines whether someone stays.
You can place a technically excellent operator into a team that runs at a completely different emotional temperature, decision speed, or risk appetite. It won’t show up in the interview – it‘ll show up three months later.
Why This Matters…
Recruitment teams feel the pain of early churn.
Your value is measured in trust and repeat business. One early failure can quietly stall future mandates. It can shift you from ‘strategic partner’ back to ‘supplier’. This is true for both internal and external recruiters.
In a market where clients have access to sourcing tools, LinkedIn Recruiter, and competing agencies, the bar is no longer set by access. It’s judgement.
The recruiters who build long-term businesses are not the fastest – they are the most accurate. And that accuracy is built on finding a holistic view of each candidate for long-term success in the role.
Early Turnover Is Expensive
Clients rarely calculate the full cost of a failed hire in public, but they feel it.
There’s the obvious cost of replacement; depending on seniority, replacing someone can cost anywhere from 30% to 200% of their salary once you factor in lost productivity, onboarding time, team disruption, and management attention.
Then there’s the invisible cost; morale dips, projects stall, leaders hesitate on the next hire, and confidence in the process erodes.
When that happens, recruiters are no longer just filling a vacancy - they’re rebuilding credibility.
If you can reduce early churn, you’re not just delivering candidates - you’re protecting commercial risk.
That’s a very different positioning conversation.
What Strong Recruiters Do Differently
The recruiters who consistently build durable placements tend to shift one core question.
They stop asking, “Can this person do the job?”. Once you have 10 – 15 suitable candidates in your list, that’s already answered.
Instead, they start asking, “How will this person experience this manager and this team? How will they fit into the role? Do they bring something the business wants?”
And that changes everything.
It forces deeper conversations about leadership style. It surfaces tension points before they become problems. It reframes interviews away from generic competency questions and toward behavioural patterns.
It also extends your influence, as a recruiter, beyond offer acceptance.
When you have the tools and ability to brief a hiring manager - not just on what the candidate has done, but on how they are likely to respond to feedback, pressure, autonomy, or change - you become part of the onboarding equation. You are no longer simply delivering talent. You are increasing the probability that the talent sticks and brings long-term value.
The Reality
Most new hires decide quickly whether they belong.
Most onboarding processes fail to create real understanding.
Most early failures are behavioural misalignments disguised as “issues with fit”.
And most recruiters still stop thinking at offer acceptance.
If you want to build a recruitment business that commands trust, protects margin, and generates repeat work - what happens in the first six months is not someone else’s responsibility.
It’s yours.
Get in touch to find out more… we really do love talking about this stuff. Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.
