The recruiter’s silent frustrations

Frustration has always been a whispered word in the offices of almost every company and organization or consultancy in general. It seems to be a feature of the world of work.

At some point we have all felt frustrated that we did not achieve the objectives of a department or job, that we did not achieve good teamwork, that we were not recognized by leaders or that we could not push forward some ideas and projects which we thought needed to be implemented. Whatever the reason, frustration appears and becomes that emotional discomfort that affects us every day.

We know that frustration has negative consequences on individual emotional experience such as lack of motivation, emotional fatigue, low performance and ultimately stress. When this experience is repeated in other people working on the same team it impacts the organizational climate and the emotional experience is negative for everyone. However, people working in the same organization are immersed in a work culture which demands certain individual expressions considered «adequate», so that each person seeks to generate an emotional experience compatible with the emotional expression requested by organizational requirements. To achieve this adjustment we use certain strategies of emotional regulation, which can be worked on our cognitions, physiology or manifest behaviors, or achieve a dissociation between the emotional experience and what we express (Martínez Íñigo D., 2001).

These organizational strategies, then, are different procedures that aim to achieve the emotional adequacy of their employees. One of these methods is through recruitment and selection (David Martínez Iñigo D., 2001). Hence the role of the Talent Acquisition – Jobs – Personnel Selection department, which must look for people who fit the “culture of the company”.

However, today the position of employers is changing because there is a constant demand for changes where you must have great sailors who can keep the boat afloat in these turbulent waters. Companies seek to attract talent by flexibilizing the old image of rigid organizational culture, with their strategies of excessive control over the emotions of their employees.

The pandemic and the endless demand for IT professionals has impacted in such a way that it seems that they choose how to be seduced by the Talent – Jobs departments. All this, consequently, pushes to highlight the importance of the role of the recruiter within companies and in some cases, companies must hire IT recruiting consultants for their workload . This demand added to the lack of preparation of standard consulting, allowed the emergence of many recruiting agencies that today we can work with companies all over the world.

As we all know, this particular type of recruiting has a constant load of frustration mainly due to the difficulty in achieving recruitment goals. This may be due to the lack of professionals for the exaggerated requirements of companies, perhaps having uncompetitive job proposals or that the projects they planned between companies fall soon. In addition, incredibly, there are companies that maintain the old work paradigm, which complicates the role of Talent Attraction professionals.

There is a demand for responsibility that organizations should not escape, and it is the need to collaborate in managing the frustrations of IT recruiters. This thinking should focus on accompanying the well-being of recruiters, working in tandem in terms of individual motivation.

From here follows the responsibility of the companies/ consultants to worry for each recruiter thinking about their motivations, development and general situation, so that the only frustration to be faced is hunting in those days with few results.

References: – Martínez Íñigo, D. (2001). Evolution of the concept of emotional work: dimensions, background and consequences. A theoretical review. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 17(2), 131-153.