One of the more painful things for me to hear are recruiters discussing how “bad” their clients are behaving these days. I know hiring managers aren’t angels and I’ve experienced plenty head-banging frustration. Dissing clients only reinforces the idea that I don’t need to change and rarely does it help.
You want a better client? Be a better recruiter, change your approach. Sounds too easy? No, it’s simple. The hard part is the answering the question of will you and I be willing to change. Chris Brogan wrote a great email on What your boss needs most from you. Great stuff and, in that vein, here are my four recruiter visa vis client starter list:
- Don’t confuse hard work with business deliverables: Many recruiters say their calendars are sooo full of resume filtering, phone screens, posting/networking efforts and in-person interviews. None of this matters to a client. Results, as in viable candidates a hiring manager can interview do. Knowing your metrics will help you calibrate your effort to maximize your effect.
- Know your craft: By this, I don’t mean what your specific hiring process is. I’m referencing to how you are going identify talent worthy of your client hiring. If you show them a process, a client isn’t impressed. Any recruiter can show them a multi-step hiring solution. This only leads you to “more of the same” in the effort category. Not good. Show them a game plan of hiring their Linux System Administrator (because you’ve done it before) matched to a time line – now you’re talking. This is a project perspective, not a process mindset. I’ve covered this in other posts, there is a huge difference.
- Know your options, create new ones: If you are stuck on a recruiting project, bring the challenge to the client (or your manager) with two or more possible solutions and their cost/implications. Nothing makes you look helpless and not resourceful than a shrug or “I don’t know what else to do”. Maybe the marketplace isn’t full of Flash engineers for your full-time opening. Scout out a temporary staffing solution, an external agency (yes, I said it) or even a 1099. “That’s not my area…” some might say. It should be now – learn it. Be a consultant to your client.
- Know your business: This goes well beyond a marketing slogan. This is about you being able to connect the dots between the significance of the opening you are working on to the client’s engineering team product launch timeline to the company’s position in the industry to the candidate that is on the phone with you and their next career move. If you have candidates asking you, “So what is your role is in the company?” just smile. You are viewed as a business person first and your client will greatly appreciate it.
This is a start and I’m sure there are more – what would your client add? Let’s raise the bar.
Photo by Saquan Stimpson/monstershaq2000
