What Does Engagement Really Mean?

What does engagement mean to you?

For me, as a recruiter, engagement means everything.

But, what does engagement really mean? 

Obviously, this question can be answered in many ways depending on who you are and what you do for a living. For Example:

• For many in Human Resources and in Executive Level positions, engagement is the measurement of effort and enthusiasm that employees put into their work (which is usually determined by how well the employer engages the employee).  
• For Social Media Influencers, your level of engagement is determined by the number of likes, shares, and comments your posts/pictures/videos receive divided by the number of connections or followers that you have. 
• For people in Sales, engagement can be defined as the interactions that take place between a seller and a buyer and can be measured in time and touch points.

Like I mentioned, in recruiting, I believe that engagement is everything!

• You are engaged with your clients. You know what is important to them about the candidates that you send them, you know their expectations, you know their company’s culture, you know the decision-makers, and you know how to effectively sell their company to potential candidates that may not be familiar with them. The only way to fully gather this information is through engagement with the hiring managers and the human resources department.
• You are engaged with your candidates, potential candidates, and anyone who may one day become a candidate. You know what they are looking for in their next career opportunity. You know what motivates them (job title, brand, culture, salary). If they have a spouse, you know what their spouse does for a living. If they have kids, you know how old they are and what type of activities they are engaged in. For example, if they have a son playing varsity football in the state of Texas, they are not even going to consider relocation until that kid finishes up with his senior year. You cannot get this information from looking at a resume. You get this information through true engagement with anyone and everyone that works in your industry.
• If you are a great recruiter, there is a good chance that you are engaging with other recruiters. There are recruiters out there that give our industry a bad name due to their lack of integrity and ethics. Therefore, I see engagement with other headhunters as an imperative part of our business. Through engagement, we learn more about our partners, mentors, and our competition. The stronger that we get as recruiters, the stronger our competition gets resulting in a stronger and more effective recruiting industry.

So, to all hiring managers and decision makers; I may not be the recruiter that your company is looking for in your next search, but, through engagement, we can learn more about each other and get to that decision. To all hospitality professionals; I may not have the career that you are looking for today, but, through engagement, I will do my best to learn everything about you as a candidate, because what I do not have today, I just might have come across my desk tomorrow.