How well do you know your recruiter?

It was after hearing a song the other day all about knowing people, sang by a well-known 4-piece Swedish band, that got us thinking, and as you know we love a link to a song so this blog is no different. Certainly, when it comes to recruitment, your consultant needs to be singing your tune and not leading you a merry dance!

Being in step with each other is paramount for a successful relationship. This all starts with knowing each other and we want to focus on how well you know your recruiter. There is little doubt that validation plays a big part in this. What do we mean by that? Well, take for example, the path the recruiter trod before they moved into recruitment. What was their career? Have they experienced industry and the very real, daily challenges that exist within an environment. We don’t mean what a company posts on their social media, we mean, the actual issues, the tone, the internal communication and what it takes to overcome problems.

Before we move on, we do want to add a caveat into this, yes, we fully appreciate that there will be trainees within a recruitment company or someone coming into a role and that’s great! We are supporters of developing and nurturing talent. However, lets look at this in terms of an engineering environment – would you take a person on just because they are keen, speak well and enjoy business to be a production supervisor and lead a team? No! It is not the right person for the role and later in this blog we talk about how and why this is not good for the candidate.

So, back to knowing your recruiter. A simple question but one we know makes the end result different. Putting it in very plain language, the only thing that sits between you as a hiring manager and your ideal candidate is your recruiter. Sit back and think about it for a moment, you have diligently prepared the spec for the role, you are passionate about your business, you want increased efficiency and growth and then….you just call a few companies and offer them the spec and wait for CV’s.

How well do you know the person you are trusting with this important task that will impact your business? Getting to know each other is part of the recruitment process and essential to maintain value at all points. It may be wise to think about recruiter in terms of a person and not just an agency business. We advise you to ensure you know who is working on your vacancy and get to know them.

Let’s consider the attributes of an ideal recruiter for a moment, firstly, knowledge. Has the recruiter walked in your industry shoes? What knowledge do they have of the machines you may operate? What are the processes used in an environment like yours?

Next, we move onto attitude. How do they handle themselves and how do they communicate their beliefs, values and principals. Do they possess the grit and determination to quite frankly, get out there and search for your person!

Thirdly we feature experience, what technical appreciation for your environment, culture and skills does your recruiter have? For example, if you are asking a recruiter to find you a production supervisor then it helps massively if there is experience of what a production line looks like and how it feels to be there for more than 5 minutes! Has your recruiter had to overcome challenges and handle the incredible pressure often present in a workplace where production performance is being monitored all the time!

Our penultimate attribute is innovation as you can never underestimate the power of “out of the box” thinking when it comes to recruitment. Recruiters are business advisers! They are ideally placed to use experience to offer advice and guidance around how to create and strengthen the kind of management team needed for optimum performance. An experienced recruiter should ask “why? And not just accept that’s the role. Its about what you want to achieve with the business and sometimes, like for like, is not the way forward.

Finally, its integrity. Morals and principals and conduct are just up there with the best of the attributes needed to be a successful recruiter. Time invested in really knowing the person you are trusting with your important vacancy is time well spent.

Earlier on we promised you more information on the impact on the candidate if they are not right for the role. To elaborate on this, it is vital we see recruitment as a constantly moving target. Retention has to be mentioned at this point, recruitment and retention need to be best friends.

If we look at recruitment as a see-saw – it can easily tip one way and then the other way – in fact, it needs to sit level! How that translates into recruitment as a service is, you are the hiring manager with a role to fill, you reach out to the recruiter who you know and trust, they explore and find the right person. That’s level, that’s balanced, that’s equal. If that process is not followed and the wrong person ends up in the role and therefore doesn’t meet the expectations, not only is the client let down but that candidates self-esteem and confidence is dented and can make a negative impact on their future career choices. Yes, we are client led but that’s with clear objectives in mind. Within our own KPI’s we talk about promotion and development of candidates we have placed. If you look back at how that evolved, its clear, the answer is a set of steps to success carried out by experienced and focused industry experts.

The whole thing rests on the theme of value – trusting your vacancy with a retained recruiter who knows your culture, who gets you, who understands what you need in people to make your business excel and whose attributes you are fully versed with. This maintains value in your role, value in the recruitment service and a value of the candidate who will make an impact for you.