Kudos to you Nicola!

Following on from my previous post I wanted to share an experience that has inspired me.

I met with an agency recruiter today

SHOCK, HORROR, ALERT THE MEDIA!

Seriously though, I’ve always said how much respect I have for so many of our agency colleagues. Many are friends that I’ve worked with in the past, and others I respect because I truly feel that they take a candidate first approach to representation- which is really what it is all about.

However, I have over the past couple of years, moaned about the approach some recruitment agents take to try to secure business with companies I have worked for. Dishonesty, underhanded tactics, trying drive fear into leaders regarding the capability of the teams I have managed. But I’m not here to moan today. I’m here to give kudos!

I met with Nicola Crocco from People Equity for a coffee this afternoon.

Nicola and I have a bit of history. Many years ago, Nicola represented me for an internal role when I was trying to transition from agency to internal. I was so impressed at the time when I met her- she was caring and really took the time to get to know me. She gave me so much advice and feedback to assist me for my interview with her client. I felt I completely BOMBED at interview- however they were keen to progress me to second round. In the end I accepted a position with Monash Uni, however I had never forgotten how impressed I was with Nicola’s style and efforts.

Fast forward to last week- Nicola reached out via LinkedIn and asked me if I was free for a coffee while she was in the area. In her email she remembered so many details about our time together (and we are talking 5-6 years ago) and because she was so kind and humble when I withdrew my application back then, I thought how lovely it would be to see her.

Now, back to the kudos. What an impressive meeting!

The reasons why this meeting was unique are:

Nicola was so well researched, she knew more about me than I know about myself (joking). She had read all my blogs, she listened to my pod-casts, she knew my opinions on the future of Talent and opened conversation. This is so rare. So many times, I’ve met with recruiters that don’t know anything about me, and what is worse don’t know anything about the organisation they are interested in partnering with.

The questions she asked me were so on point. But there was no secret agenda. She didn’t once ask the question “how could we add value to your recruitment process”. She didn’t patronise me or make me feel that she had all the answers. It felt like two peers expressing ideas and opinions.

Peers! We need to feel like peers. Internal and external shouldn’t be at odds with each other. We talked about this in detail today.

So many times, I feel as if I’m in a different industry than agency recruiters. This is a two-way street. Internals push back at agencies, many are incredibly rude, even when the consultant is truly trying to do the right thing. And agencies try to work around internal teams, as I highlighted earlier. We aren’t united. And we should be.

So, what is my point here? Be more like Nicola and I were today. Be curious, explore, ask questions, understand each other. We all know that change is in the air- we know that he we operate today will not work 5 years from now. The days of transactional recruitment will not continue, and we need to think towards the future. United.