RGC

How recruiters can place more candidates

As a recruiter, placing candidates isn’t just your bread and butter, it’s your passion. Good recruiters want to place candidates because it’s our job to do so, but we also do it because it’s our calling. We love seeing people and businesses succeed because we’ve matched them with the right people, and to see candidates succeed because we’ve matched them with the right positions in the right recruitment firms. It’s a great feeling.

So, we all want to place as many candidates as we can.

There are many aspects to making more and better placements. These include streamlining processes, ensuring clients understand the importance of paying competitive salaries and improving communication.

A recent survey of nearly 2,000 people found that candidates abandon the recruitment process for the following reasons.

 

  • Salary didn’t meet expectations – 54%
  • Poor communication from the employer / recruiter – 53%
  • Lack of career advancement opportunities – 38%
  • Read or heard negative reviews about the company’s culture – 36%
  • Received a better job offer – 36%
  • Didn’t offer remote or flexible work options – 33%
  • The recruiting process was taking too long – 32%
  • Lack of diversity at company – 17%

There are some obvious issues here. One should not try to lowball candidates with unrealistic salaries, leave them hanging with no communication for weeks on end, or take six months to make a decision.

We asked our Director of Recruitment Deborah Whelan-Payne to share some more elements to consider when it comes to making more and better placements. Here is what she had to say:

Work with the right firms. To make more and better candidate placements, we must engage with firms that are reputable, well branded, in growth mode, and willing to include you in understanding their needs in detail vs those that don’t really know what they want, are not able to articulate their needs, and are not clear about salary, culture, progression, and often change the direction.  A client should be respectful of a recruiter’s and candidate’s time, willing to provide quick, valuable feedback after each step of the interview process, and keep you updated on the process.

Do your due diligence. Ensure that you understand the employer’s needs and have gathered every bit of information necessary to go to market and source efficiently. It’s also important to understand the reasons why any applicant would be interested in the job. What is great about the employer, the job, and the brand? Be clear about the selling points. Engage with firms. If physically possible, go and visit your clients to get an idea of who they are and what they need. This is priceless when it comes to helping identify the right candidates.

Get to know your candidates and be a good listener. Gleaning plenty of pertinent information about a candidate’s past, present, passions, and future expectations is vital.  Support them all of the way through the process without “leading the witness.” When interviewing a candidate, always ask open questions, never make assumptions, and leave leading questions alone. Provide as much information as possible to assist them in the interview process.

Be targeted in your outreach and clear in your messaging. Reach out to candidates that appear to tick all of the boxes on the skill list. Send the message with enough information to turn their head and make them want to contact you, the recruiters. Be clear and don’t leave questions unanswered or be cryptic or vague.

Remember: without candidates, we are nothing. We are dealing with people’s livelihood. Recruiters are like career doctors. We can take away the pain for firms that need the right people to enrich growth and we can improve the lives of individuals who are not fulfilled on a  daily basis.

We need to do our jobs with sincerity, compassion, and intelligence while making available all the information about why any given position could improve their careers. The bottom line is that we must be partners to clients, candidates, and hiring managers and the entire journey should be a fruitful experience.

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