Series 1, Episode 3 - Clients

Well we have been honest as recruiters, advised candidates, now it’s time to really put the cat amongst the pigeons and advise the people who pay our bills…Clients.

We have a great deal of experience in recruitment, over 30 years between us and we’ve placed a lot of people. This is what we do, and we have genuine expertise. A client telling us how to do recruitment is like me telling a CFO how to put together a set of accounts… 

Here are some of our thoughts: 

• Your team, your plan, your business, your career, are dependent on the quality of the people in your business. It is absolutely a false economy to buy people (or recruitment services) based on price.

• Your brand, in your market, is probably fantastic. I bet you have spent tens or hundreds of thousands of Dollars perfecting it. That doesn’t mean your “Employer Brand” is equally well developed, especially in niche functions that your business is not known for. Attracting talent takes work, not just an ad and a prayer. 

• Talent is a scarce resource. PwC recently published that 72% of CEOs are worried about the availability of key skills. So, it’s a scarce resource, hard to find, of high value, but still recruitment budgets don’t represent that. Clients that allocate the right resources to securing the right talent win. We can provide lots of examples…

• Interviewing is a two way sell. Now, don’t get me wrong, put candidates under pressure, test them, challenge them constructively. We do when we are recruiting. However, be prepared to sell to them. Ask your recruiter about their needs, their hot spots, their drivers, then hit them. Don’t simply expect someone to want to work for you because of your brand/product/reputation etc. The best people are in demand.

• Top talent is rarely responding to ads. There are exceptions. We place them. However, on the whole, they are not. Picture your best person. The most valued, successful, hard-working and engaged person in your team, the person you want to replicate. Is that person replying to ads? You’d hope not. So why would you assume the high caliber talent you want for your team is going to hit up your Indeed.com ad?? They aren’t. Identifying and wooing them takes work.

You won’t be surprised to hear that the answer to the above, is to find a recruiter you trust, with a network in the right area, and pay them the right rate to find the best people.

As always, happy to take feedback, discuss how we can help: info@hoxtoncircle.com