How to Attract and Engage with Talent with Greg Savage

We had the opportunity to host Greg Savage on our podcast, who is one of the most influential and well-known individuals in the recruitment space.??

Boasting a wealth of experience, multiple accolades, high-quality content and a book, we picked apart a ton of topics in the recruitment space, and wanted to share some key takeaways with you in the blog below!?

What's your advice around how to attract candidates, how to build a pool of them and get their full engagement from the beginning??

“It's a heady cocktail of things. There are no passive candidates, all candidates are active, it's just a matter of timing. Right? There's no one listening to this podcast who is not going to change jobs at some point.??

Maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's in two years. But, at some point, pretty much everyone's going to change jobs. So, recruiters need to take a longer-term view pool, which is not in our ethos.?

That means building a brand on LinkedIn. They need to build their brand through a strategic approach to content. And then that can be a step to engagement.”?

How can you measure success??

“So, I'm a great believer that you can't manage what you don't measure. And, of course, KPIs have got a bad name in recruitment.??

Nobody becomes good at anything without measuring. Do you think people who play sport don't measure? A great KPI system should be part of someone's job.?

Additionally, you need to help that person with tactics and activities that lead to the outcome. Some of that might be, of course, candidates you have to get from the database. By the way, that's another thing that recruitment companies have to do a lot better! There are candidate graveyards, and by that, I mean that full of people that aren’t being contacted or engaged with.”??

What are you seeing in terms of how those motivations have changed over the last few years??

“I wrote a blog on this, and I said, the skill of understanding a candidate's motivations is now the skill for 2022. Because it's so wildly changed, and so many recruiters were making assumptions about that.??

I was the worst when I was recruiting, I'd see a person and go, ‘oh, two years since your Charter Academy? Yep, I've got four jobs for you.’ That was me as a brash, 25-year-old.??

I think in this industry, we've got to be slow to understand. Purposefully slow to understand. Ask a lot of questions, build up rapport and trust and really understand their motivations, but, also how to rank them.??

You've got to dig deeper because what I'm finding is candidates are increasingly interested in the culture of the organisation, and that sounds a little clichéd.??

But, another thing I'd be counselling my clients on is, can you answer the question, particularly authentically???

People are finding that candidates are much more interested in a company's employers. What's their attitude to climate change? And how did they treat people during the COVID lay-off period? And, how diverse is the organisation???

People want to really have visibility to their learning path, what training and development they’re going to get, too.”??

Maybe this is a good time to talk through the valley of death, and how it should be effectively managed to avoid dropouts and disappointments??

?So, the ‘valley of death’ is that time, between the moment your candidate accepts the job and the moment they put their derrière in the client's seat, figuratively speaking, because most of them may not go to the client.??

First, when you get an offer and the candidate accepts, support and reinforce the decision, and do it with passion.?

Then, I would go through the offer document with the candidate. So, that might be a letter of offer or contract. I've seen things go wrong with candidates plenty of times; so try and manage and control the process. If possible, like the old days - and by that, I mean two years ago, I would like to make offers face to face. I know it's not always possible, particularly now, but certainly, do it if you can.??

Why would you make an offer by telephone when you can actually make it by video where you can see the person's body language, you can see the eyes, you can see the hesitation? So, have that conversation face to face, and soothe any jitters.??

Once you confirm the start date with the candidate, get the documents signed. Coach, your clients on the key steps also for a seamless process from both sides.?

To listen to the full episode, click here.??