New Perspectives in Recruitment

I have always been a big advocate of the recruitment industry and firmly believe (and still do) that a lot of the problems we experience in recruitment is down to the contingent nature of the industry.

However, I have to say I have had a few shocking revelations since working "on the other side of the fence" in internal recruitment.

I have bitten my tongue for some weeks now but after today I have to say something, and please do take this in the spirit it's intended - to help, not to recruiter-bash.

1) I must get on average 60 - 70 speculative emails a week from recruiters. Most of them start with "I know you must get lots of emails like this but..." Yes I do. As soon as I read this, or another recruiter proclaiming to be the Number One in their field, I press the delete key.

2) Recruiters contacting line managers/ sending CVs, despite my requests not to do this. Setting up a brand new recruitment function in a ￡350m turn over company with stakeholders who are used to doing things for themselves, is NOT an easy task. I would really appreciate you working with me and my colleagues. You are much more likely to get on the PSL I am creating that way.

3) Don't tell lies. I have had numerous lies told to me by various recruiters since I started. If you tell me you supply us but don't, I will find out and lies really do damage your credibility. 

4) Please don't spam. A couple of recruiters email me literally everyday, sometimes twice a day. The scatter-gun approach is one I never agreed with when I worked in agency recruitment and I can categorically state that being on the receiving end of spam is really annoying and becomes a noise - so I am even less likely to read these emails, which I am guessing is counter-productive to what you are trying to achieve.

I know being a recruiter is hard and that business development is possibly the toughest part of the job, however I could not be more passionate in my belief that in order to succeed it's not about numbers, its about being different, being credible, knowledgeable and honest.

Now for the positive:

I have had some approaches that I have responded to. Without fail these have come from recruiters who have either offered me something different - a "value add" - or just been very authentic / real in their interaction with me.  

They kept it simple, gave me some REAL USP's (not the "expert" word) and most importantly, they were confident in their ability without any salesy BS.

I still firmly believe that recruiters, if engaged with in the right way, are a huge asset to their clients. The reputation our industry has upsets me and in the main is unjust and caused by people interacting with our industry without a real understanding of what we do. However, a lot of recruiters don't help themselves. I implore you to stop chasing the numbers and instead strive to deliver first class customer service, and always be mindful as to how your actions are perceived by others. If you know your market, work hard but strategically, you really can't go wrong.