For some hiring managers, recruitment firms are a must, though taking the time to invest in a relationship with their account managers is not a priority. But, here’s a secret. The better we know each other professionally, the faster and smoother your hiring process will proceed. Here are the top four ways to partner with your recruitment firm and the benefits to you and your company.
When you take the time to have the account manager from your recruitment firm visit your office, they are getting the full picture of what you have to offer, what the setting and environment are like, the amenities, the parking, the dress style beyond the dress code and other important details that will help them describe and sell the role and the company to candidates. Additionally, if some of these areas aren’t strengths for your company, your account manager can be prepared to address the issues with top candidates and direct their focus on the more positive aspects of the job and the company. This information is especially valuable for sourcing hard-to-find candidates.
This in-person visit, complete with a quick tour, will enable your account manager to pick up on details you may not realize are important and will give them a chance to absorb the more subtle things that can get lost when you are describing the company to your account manager over the phone. For example, we’ve been to company visits where everyone is noticeably friendly and gregarious and others where employees clearly keep to themselves. Each one has an appeal to a specific candidate. As your account manager, it’s helpful to us in finding a new hire who will be the right fit – and who won’t cost you time and money.
Many skilled recruiters will help you craft the job description. While clients often come to us with a complete job description, having your recruiter participate in this project almost always results in a better recruitment process with realistic and attainable goals. Tapping into your recruiter’s expertise will help hiring managers have realistic expectations of the market and their new hire. We have deep knowledge of the competition along with the candidate pool and what they are seeking. Sometimes we are given a very broad and encompassing job description, and through our experience, we know these candidates do not exist. But, through working together on the job description, your recruiter will gain a better understanding of the requirements of the job and can work with you to tease out and emphasize the most important areas, while omitting the less salient points. Don’t forget, the job description is an ad, and ads need to be compelling to gain the attention of your target audience. Working as a team with your recruiters will make this happen.
In addition to all-encompassing jobs, sometimes a manager will give us just a job title and will want us to find the perfect candidate. It is hard to know what to find and where to find a candidate with just one or two words. Taking a moment to discuss the job will save you time in the long run as the agency will be able to send the most qualified people.
We all like doing business with people we know and like. We love taking our clients to professional sports games, lunches at fun restaurants, out for dinner and drinks and to other great events with the goal of really getting to know each other better. As your recruitment partner, the better we know you professionally, the better we will be at helping you find the talent you need. Over time, the stronger the relationship the better the service you will get from your recruiter. While we pride ourselves on expertly serving all of our clients, we recruit most efficiently when we have a deep understanding of their company, their ideal candidates and the ways they like to work.
We are all busy; carving out time to attend a professional lunch or give your account manager a tour of your office space may not always make it to the top of your to-do list. But, trust us, fairly soon, these small investments in time will result in a more enjoyable recruitment process. We’re at the point with many of our clients now that we know what they are looking for and how we can help before they actually say it. This comes not only from doing many searches for them, but from visiting their offices, breaking bread together and really understanding the needs of their organizations. The time they need to spend working with us on specific job orders decreases exponentially each time we work together.
If you’ve been working with your recruiter for a while, but haven’t really developed a rock-solid partnership, or if you are venturing into a new relationship with a firm, consider laying the foundation for a strong partnership that will make your job easier, result in a faster, smoother recruitment process, and even will be fun along the way.
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Candidate experience | Hiring top talent | Human Resources | Working with recruiters
