23.04.2024 - Nawia
The recruiter must reinvent themselves
"We are managing this recruitment, but we just don't have enough time to do it right now. That's why we use a partner."
Saving time on core activities, the right systems and recruitment tools, ready-made skills lists, notification channels and professionals dedicated to recruitment. These are some of the typical pitches we have heard from clients over the years when justifying their decision to outsource their recruitment to a dedicated partner. These are good points. So why should we recruiters be concerned?
Social media and technological change has done to recruitment what it has done to communication. Recruitment has become democratised. Almost every company today has the opportunity to do quality recruitment - or at least the opportunity to try to do it well. The main reasons for this are the advent of modern and cost-effective recruitment tools, the use of social media and a general change in culture - we now understand a little better that recruitment is worth investing in. Today's clients may ask us, what value do we add when they too have their own ATS (recruitment tool) in place and our few active key people can get the message going on LinkedIn?
Saving time is still a valid benefit, regardless of the tools and channels. But is that really what we should be relying on to create value? Well, what can we do differently? Where can we raise our own standards?
First, we must be able to see, and then earn, our role as genuine consultants (in the positive image of it). This means taking a stronger role as a partner in managing recruitment, providing insight, challenge, managing expectations in relation to the labour market we know, understanding what talent values when making a selection and helping clients understand the importance of employer image as part of recruitment success. Once we have a vision of which channel to use to reach the right talent, we will also have a vision of how and at what angle to attract that talent to engage in a conversation with us.
We need to make the client see that there is much more to a recruiter's plot and skills than just getting through the process. We need to prove that we can see the wood for the trees, rather than just taking the process to the finish line one assignment at a time. Experience brings perspective, insight and the ability to find other solutions when the original plan did not work. Let the client see that we can and should be asked to do more than they may have been used to in the past.
