Just like in any relationship people appreciate it when you care about them. Recruiting is no different. If you’re aiming to be in this for the long haul you have to think about not only filling your positions but having solid relationships with your Clients and Candidates.
Your Clients and Candidates have to trust you. When dealing with Clients it’s essential to develop a level of certainty where they know you will find the best candidates out there. Likewise, with Candidates – they need to feel appreciated and that you actually care about helping them find the best opportunity that will improve their career and quality of life.
You can have the best tools and resources in place, but if your Clients and Candidates can’t rely on you – you won’t make placements.
Building Trust
For your Client to believe that you are trustworthy will take time and consistency. You may impress them with a candidate periodically, but can they rely on you every time? Are you able to provide them with a submission within 24 hours after they gave you a position? And then consistently provide them a minimum of 1 submission per week?
This is not an easy thing to do. It will require your time to build a solid database of Candidates that can trust you. Candidates who will trust that you are willing to provide them with what they really need, not just what you’re trying to fill.
Getting to know your Clients
In both cases, it will require you to invest additional time in getting to know your Candidate and Client.
For example, instead of just bringing your conversation with a Client to a level of submissions, consider doing research on their company online and see what you could recommend them to improve. Maybe you spotted that they have bad reviews and you could recommend them to improve their online presence. Or you can try getting them on a Skype call once you have a submission and at the same time try to get more personal.
Go beyond business, try to get to know the person, and establish a rapport. This way you’ll enjoy your experience with this Client even more so and will be able to get their attention. These are just a couple of ideas, but essentially they are built around your intent. If the intent is for long-term, solid relationships – you will find a way of building those relationships.
Creating a Connection with your Candidate
The same goes for your relationship with Candidates. Instead of talking about job openings all the time, see what additional value you can bring. For example, you can bring their attention to a local meetup group of their interest or put together a nice PDF presentation outlining the latest trends on the market for their profession, which can include salaries based on location or technologies/skills that are most in demand.
Conclusion
Again, the intent should be to create lasting long-term relationships where they would remember you and whenever they are thinking of making a career move – you would be the first person that pops into their head. This is one way to know that your efforts are bringing results.
As you see, it all boils down to the relationships that you managed to establish with your Clients and Candidates which will separate you from the bunch and would make you a great recruiter. Placements are the result of solid relationships.
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