We posted recently about changes going on in the recruitment industry. Far, far from being dead, Talent Acquisition/Third party Recruiting Partnerships are more relevant than ever, but with the rise of social media as a recruitment tool companies are more savvy (as they should be), so recruiters have had to learn to be highly specialised – find their niche where there is real demand. As an industry we have had to get smart – adapt, think on our feet, stay really, really current or dare I say it …..PERISH. We received a great comment recently we wanterd to share.

So good, in fact, that we wanted to make a special point of telling our readers ARGENTUS IS LISTENING. We would love to discuss this topic MORE with our blog readers. This comes from Sumit Chawdury, an executive-level Supply Chain professional who recently moved to tech strategy. He talks about what sets a really great recruiter apart from the mediocre pack. He writes:

….“An…important factor is candidate memory. I’ve been an active candidate and I’m now “passive”.

During the time that I’ve been actively looking, I’ve sent resumes through to recruiters, only to have the form response “we will get back to you if something were to ever come up”. During my passive phase/s, any subsequent email from these recruiters goes straight to my Trash folder…I know that they will likely not deliver and are simply “Keyword Bodyshoppers”.

On the other hand, recruiters that have treated me as a person (even if they could not ultimately connect me with a job), always get thoughtful consideration, and a referral wherever possible.

With Social Media, each interaction is not only between the recruiter and the candidate; it is potentially between the recruiter and the entire world. PR skillsets are therefore in greater demand for all roles that require external communication. I see this recurring theme all the time when doing Technology Strategy engagements with my clients.

Best regards,

Sumit”

Yes Sumit, these are very true and to the point words. Thank you for being brave enough for saying it like it is!!!! I am sure that there are many others who feel the same way. This very topic has often been the topic of our weekly meetings here at Argentus. Keyword Bodyshoppers just DON’T CUT IT. People expect moreof Recruiters and rightfully so. We get it the bar is higher than it used to be and candidates are just not taking it anymore.

It’s a fact that recruiters sometimes get a bad rep for being flaky and they deserve it. Candidates are very critical of the recruiting process and it’s good to remind recruiters that individual career aspirations and concerns are vitally important.  Recruiters see a lot of candidates, and sometimes active candidates get tossed on a pile of resumes which isn’t right.

In Recruiters and In-House Talent Acquisition Recruiters defence, we all work more than ever to fill tougher psoitions with harder to find skill requirements in shorter periods of time. But if you get backburnered because you don’t fit the exact profile of the job being hired for RIGHT NOW, you need to call a recruiter out on their poor behaviour.

Really good recruiters understand how the proper game is played. Its very much about strong relationship building with candidates. Learning how to manage those strong relationships with candidates one doesn’t have a position for today but who could be a good for something in the future is really important. It’s about paying it forward and how recruiters manage themselves – It is how they build favourable relationships with star candidates of the future that count. People really remember how they get treated and treating people with respect and integrity and honesty and actually answering their calls and their emails is where its at – It’s about the the human touch and its the only way to foster success and a ongoing full cycle relationships .

Candidates are really savvy and as important as clients – they don’t want to be treated as nothing more than a body of keywords, as Sumit says. As a recruiter you’re not dealing with stacks of disembodied resumes, you’re dealing with people. Sometimes recruiters forget that. And for what it’s worth, it’s easier to forget you’re dealing with a person when you only interact via LinkedIn or email. That’s why we’ve redoubled our efforts to engage in person and by phone. Love email but we are trying very hard to use email as a secondary form of communication on a go forward basis and the reports from candidates are positive. I personally have been in recruiting for thirty years so I get the personal relationship thing…email, voice mail, keywords, social media…none of that existed for me when I began my career. So I’m simply going back to what I know works with my team and I love it. It’s very educational and I think it’s great for my team to live the engagement experience every day. It keeps us up to date, on the pulse about what professionals are doing day-to-day in the SCM vertical. And it gets deals done.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for us, please reach out bhann@argentus.com

Over and Out

Bronwen