This blog has been coming for a while now but a few conversations recently have given me the motivation to finally get it on to paper. I spoke to a candidate earlier in the week who is actively looking for a new role. I have spoken to this chap sporadically for a number of years. James (not his real name) has had a solid career to date and is a sensible fit for a couple of my clients. However, while there are probably other candidates out there that are a better fit on paper, I am going to back him over and above anyone else for this role.
Why? Because I am a member of his team.
How do I know this?
It is quite simple really. James once described himself to me as being a Manager that liked to get to know his people. He did this by asking open questions, keeping mental (and paper) notes and following these conversations up over long periods of time. His team(s) were engaged and they would go the extra mile for him.
James asks me questions too. We hadn’t spoken since the summer but he remembered my house move last May. Had I settled in? How did I find the new area, what was it like compared to London, how is my commute? He remembered that I have 2 year old twins demonstrating genuine empathy; how are the twins, are they sleeping, are YOU sleeping Jez? He commented that recruiters work long hours and that it must be tough to find a balance.
This conversation was very telling for me. Not only did my engagement levels with James go up another notch - what a great guy who I will really enjoy supporting in his job search - but also and perhaps more critically from a professional point of view, James WALKS THE WALK. James naturally builds rapport, has high levels of emotional intelligence and seeks to work collaboratively. This is exactly what several of my clients are looking for, so as a result, I will be backing James as I have seen first hand his ability to communicate and motivate.
Candidates often tell recruiters they are ‘people focused’ but often move on to behave arrogantly, or treat the consultant with disdain (it is true that some deserve this though). Your behaviour when working with a recruiter is generally a reflection on what you are like as a Manager/Leader.
The flip-side of this is how clients treat their agencies and manage recruitment processes. In the past I have worked with Companies that eulogise about what a wonderful place they are to work in but then proceed to treat recruiters with pure contempt. This also affects how I view that business and how I relate this perception to my candidates. Again, I know we recruiters have a bad reputation and many of you reading this will have multiple examples of poor recruiters but there are bad eggs in every walk of life.
If you want to get the best out of your recruiter then perhaps it is time to treat them as a MEMBER of YOUR TEAM.
Download the free Social Recruitment in Retail Report hereBy Jez Styles, AdMore Recruitment
In the light of the office a little egg lay on a desk. One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and – pop! – out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry recruiterpillar.He started to look for some candidates.
On Monday he ate through 50 LinkedIn invitations. But he was still hungry.
On Tuesday he ate through one Blog (this one), but he was still hungry.
On Wednesday he ate through 15 LinkedIn company updates, but he was still hungry.
On Thursday he ate through 280 Telephone calls, but he was still hungry.
On Friday he ate through 12 Tweets & messages, but he was still hungry.
On Saturday, he ate through 3 Skype Interviews, 4 meetings, 75 Text messages, 5 Google + messages, 90 Voicemails, 791 Emails, 12 Inmails, 14 comments on LinkedIn Groups, 7 Comments on blogs, one comment for trade press, 5 LinkedIn status updates, 142 CV applications, and 3 new job adverts.
That night he had a brainache!
The next day was Sunday again.
The caterpillar ate through one nice database search, and after that he felt much better.
Now he wasn’t hungry any more – and he wasn’t a little recruiterpillar any more. He was a big, well-connected recruiterpillar.
He built a small talent pipe-line, called a database, around himself. He stayed inside for more than two weeks. Then he nibbled a hole in the database, pushed his way out and…
...he was a beautiful Social Recruiting butterfly!
A rough summary of my last 7 days. Inspired by "The very hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Of course, if you have kids you’ll know that already!
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By Sophie Mackenzie, AdMore Recruitment - Specialists in Retail and Hospitality Recruitment, Search & Selection, Talent Management and Career Development.
I recently wrote a blog titled Top Eleven Best Things About a Career in Recruitment and jokingly mentioned that I would be writing this follow-up blog. In all seriousness, Recruitment is a very challenging career and anyone considering making the move into our industry should do so with their eyes wide open. In my view the pros far outweigh the cons, however in the interest of balance, here are some of the issues which can make the role so difficult. People have minds of their own!Dealing with people is fundamental in recruitment – it is what we do, day in, day out. Every action you take, decision you make and issue you face is related to a person and so it follows that every single situation is unique. Once you have chalked up some experience in recruitment, you will have seen a huge variety of scenarios which helps you deal with different issues, however achieving this level of recruitment ‘zen’ is a long and painful process!
People can be unpredictable, unreliable, change their minds and lie. However strong you believe your relationship with a candidate is, they can still cause you problems if you do not anticipate possible complications. The same goes for clients.
Negative image of the industry
Most relevant for those working on the agency side, the perception people have of recruitment consultants is pretty unflattering, down there with Estate Agents on the popularity scale! We are seen as aggressive, sales focussed, arrogant and unscrupulous. Although I have met a few people who do fit that description over the years, the majority of people working in the industry do not fit this stereotype at all. Unfortunately, if someone has had a negative experience of a Recruitment consultant, it can be very difficult to win them over, but therein lies the challenge!
The Ups and Downs
Although the highs are great and accompanied by financial reward and recognition, the lows are tough to handle. There are so many factors which affect your success and you have to learn to anticipate these and avoid them where possible. At some point you will experience a slump when your CVs are rejected, jobs are filled internally, none of your candidates gets an offer and one of your placed candidates ‘backs out’ at the last minute. Those who build a long term career in this industry quickly learn how to cope emotionally with the stress caused by these setbacks.
Targets
Recruitment is a sales role. You are expected to ‘sell’ yourself, your candidates and your clients, develop new business, grow existing accounts and deliver against often-stretching revenue targets. While it is not about helping someone find a new role, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job. Chances are, if you have the right qualities to succeed in Recruitment, you will thrive on targets and on beating your competition. If you are very lucky, you will work for a company where you are measured not only on your financial performance but on the quality of your relationships - repeat business, candidate and client testimonials etc. The phrase ‘you are only as good as your last quarter’ will resonate with most recruiters!
Frustration
The only joke I can ever remember is this one. Patient: "Doctor, Doctor, people keep ignoring me" Doctor: "Next!" This describes how recruitment can feel sometimes. Picture this. You have worked hard to understand your client’s business and have advised them about how best they can fill a problem vacancy based on your experience of recruiting day in day out and your knowledge of current market conditions. They don’t take your advice and insist on proceeding as ‘normal’. Several weeks later, the role still isn’t filled and you now get the blame for not delivering.
When you have a proven track record with the client and they trust you it does minimise this issue but it can still happen. Perhaps it’s because there are so many recruitment agencies all operating with varying degrees of integrity and experience that clients simply don’t view us as ‘experts’ or perhaps they don’t believe we have their best interests at heart? It takes time to build up a reputation in recruitment and often it is our own lack of conviction which perpetuates this situation. We should be more willing to politely walk away from business if the process is not collaborative.
Equally, on the candidate side, the perception some people have of recruitment professionals is so negative that candidates will often go into a conversation expecting the worst. This means that as a consultant who is genuinely trying to understand their situation, you spend most of the call trying to overcome barriers that need not exist. Again, this is something we must work hard to overcome by building trust over time.
There are countless other daily frustrations: candidate no-shows at interview or pulling out of a process with no explanation, clients cancelling interviews at short notice or changing the job brief – the list is endless! However ultimately, the skilled consultant will help minimise the impact of these issues by firstly anticipating possible complications and learning to ‘read’ people and secondly, by maintaining tight control of as much of the process as possible.
A thankless task
Most relevant for in-house recruitment positions (in an agency, you may not get a thank you from your client but you will hopefully hit your bonus target). Recruitment teams in-house rarely get the credit they deserve from the wider business as recruitment as a discipline/professional is not valued in proportion to its importance to the business! They tend to get all the pressure when there is a vacancy but little credit for finding the right person and often hiring managers have little interest in a) how they have found the candidate and b) how much money they have saved the business by sourcing directly. Line managers are more likely to complain that the process has taken too long! Recognition is more likely to come from HR who, particularly if they hold the budget, will thank you for your efforts to source directly.
Some of these factors have been exacerbated during the recession and so, for those of you who have managed to hang on in there, you should find it a little easier once the market improves.
Despite these downsides, Recruitment is a great industry to work in – challenging, fascinating and exciting! For any advice about starting a career in recruitment, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
The format of each review comprises Pros and Cons and Advice to Senior Management along with star ratings given for the following criteria: Compensations & Benefits, Culture & Values, Career Opportunities, Senior Leadership, Work/Life Balance and CEO Rating.
It is a simple format and undoubtedly can prove a useful resource when researching companies or preparing for interviews.
Under each company profile, it includes a Recent News section which is useful for ensuring you are up to date with latest Press Releases, results or general news.
Understandably, the large, global businesses have the most reviews (often in their thousands) with some sectors being more broadly represented than others, particularly the Management Consultancies, Technology companies and Financial Services. I would guess therefore that reviews on these businesses are a pretty accurate reflection of working life within those companies.
Within Retail, the major UK brands are represented although many have a limited numbers of reviews – I’m sure this will change as more people in the UK become aware of its existence. Until there is a significant body of material on each company, I think it will be a while before it provides enough insight to accurately reflect what it is like to work for a particular company.
In their Community Guidelines, glassdoor are clear that participants should write balanced reviews without reverting to bitter or overly personal accounts of their own experience. Reviewers must be current or former employees of that business within the past 3 years and so there is reason to assume that the integrity of the reviews is good.
As always with reviews, you must take each contribution in context and look at the overall theme which emerges from a number of reviews. Other factors to bear in mind are the level of the person reviewing (junior candidates will have a different perspective than senior managers although their opinion is no less insightful or valid). Equally with the Interview section, where people provide sample interview questions and insight into their application process, it is wise to be cautious. Interview processes can change and your preparation still needs to be thorough enough to deal with any unforeseen eventualities.
We are all becoming increasingly reliant on reviews whether that is before booking a holiday or buying something and they can be an incredibly powerful tool. Recently, before leaving on holiday, I accidentally stumbled upon some Tripadvisor reviews on my destination. They were so bad that I was tempted to cancel, however I kept an open mind and sure enough, I had a lovely time albeit with my eyes wide open and expecting the worst! With something as important as your career, the more research you can do the better, and as long as you keep an open mind, glassdoor.co.uk should prove to be a useful addition to your ‘career toolbox’.
So what should a good recruiter be doing for you?
Career Advice
A specialist recruiter should be able to give expert career advice and both challenge and assist you in your career goals and objectives. They should be highly knowledgeable in your field and very well connected. Your recruiter should be a career partner and not just an agent that will place you in a role.
Recruiters can and should provide impartial career advice. When paid commission you need to appreciate that some may have a short term attitude and advise what is best for them and not for you as the candidate. However, the best recruiters will take a look term approach, appreciate that people will remember great advice and certainly never forget bad advice. Although in the short term they may lose out on a fee, longer term if they do the right thing then you are much more likely to engage them when you are looking to recruit. So look out for the signs that they are thinking long term.
Recruiters can if they are willing provide advice across a range of areas including advice on CV’s and Interviewing. They typically do not change for these services but do it as a way of adding more value to the candidates. Again they are likely to only provide in depth advice to those individuals who they have built a relationship with.
Job Search
In addition to some of the added value areas, fundamentally you want your recruiter to give you access to the best jobs in the market. So, do plenty of research and ask plenty of questions; what roles are they recruiting? Who are their key clients? Are they recruiting the types of roles you are interested in? The competition out there is fierce and through building a strong relationship with key recruiters in your sector you can try and ensure you gain access to these roles. A good recruiter should always call you back. In the current market, recruiters are incredibly busy, there are large number of candidates on the market chasing relatively fewer roles, however if you agree up front how to communicate and how frequently then you should be able to find a way that works for both parties.
Process Management
A good recruiter should "coach" you through the recruitment process. They should be using their in depth knowledge of the client and the individuals within it to guide and advise you on how to position yourself. They should be able to give you a strong insight into the culture and how you will fit. The are also likely to get in depth feedback from the client after each stage so make sure they are sharing this information with you, so you can understand what you may need to do more or less of. In fact a really good recruiter will always think long term. The better ones will coach you through a process even when they aren’t representing you but it is with a client they know. They will appreciate the long term benefits of doing this and the potential for the future.
Offer Negotiation
Whilst there are a multitude of reasons for moving jobs, increasing your salary and benefits is often an important aspect. Your recruiter should be instrumental in negotiating the right salary for you. They should know the client well and will have a real feel for what the client may be willing to pay for someone with your skill set. But make sure they are clear about your parameters because as much as you want to receive the best offer you also don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you are jeopardising a potential offer because the recruiter is demanding an unachievable salary on your behalf. Also make sure you understand the full package. The benefits on offer may vary considerably from your current role and other roles you are considering and it is wise to look at the package as a whole. This will both influence your thoughts around basic salary but also may give you some leverage. Make sure you have this information early in the process. Like any negotiation the Recruiter will be aiming to find middle ground that is acceptable to both you and the client. It is ok to push but get a feel for where those boundaries lie.
Post Placement
A good recruiter won’t just place you and collect their fee, they will support you through your notice period and then though your induction into the business. They should provide you with an insight into the key players in the business you are joining, the culture and advice on how to integrate into the business. They should keep in touch and ensure that your induction runs smoothly, feeding back to the client where appropriate.
Conclusion
Identifying and then building a relationship with the right recruiters will be critical if you are determined to make the best career move possible.
So how can you ensure your recruiter is doing all these things for you? Firstly please choose wisely. It is best to get recommendations and check their credentials.
Secondly to gain this level of advice, support and opportunity you need to invest time in building a relationship with the recruiter. This is easier said than done when working in a demanding and consuming role, so select a small number of well connected recruiters. For some additional advice on job hunting please read our recent blogs Looking for a job in 2013and How to avoid joining the wrong business.
Here are some tips from AC veterans I have worked with:
I hope this helps and please share your tenth tip in the comments below or via our Blog page on LinkedIn: