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Relationships Win in the Recruiting World

by Liz Carey

Recruiting is a relationship business. Having conversations and building relationships with clients, candidates, and trading partners will lead to long-lasting relationships, loyalty, and repeat business, as opposed to one-off hires.

But due to the current nature of the recruiting business and a candidate shortage, recruiters must act quickly to fill roles, and because of this, there are many recruiters who treat sourcing and recruiting as a transaction. They don’t see the big picture, the long-term view that today’s candidate may be tomorrow’s hiring manager.

But relationships still need to be cultivated through frequent communication — preferably in-person or by phone. Candidates receive so many messages through LinkedIn and emails, that it can be hard to stand out amongst the masses. Similarly, potential trading partners may receive resumes thrown at them by so many other recruiters.

Within NPAworldwide, recruiters value deep relationships with their trading partners, as with their clients and candidates. Building that personal connection requires a significant investment of time and effort. Our most successful members treat their trading partners the same way they treat their clients. And many of those business relationships evolve into true friendships, with members helping run each others’ businesses while their partner is out of commission due to illness, or attending weddings of their NPA friends.

Because they know and can depend on their partners, they are able to go straight to their trading partner with a job or candidate, and there is that level of trust to where they are able to hand over a candidate’s full details, or invite their partner on a call with their client. Transactional recruiting, on the other hand, tends to focus on the ‘here and now,’ with more emphasis on speed. Transactional recruiters may devote more of their time and effort to internet searches, email, or high-volume cold-calling, and may spend less time talking to clients, candidates, or trading partners. There is credence to the success of this style of recruiting, as the need to act quickly and fill positions fast is real. Flipping resumes may end up in a placement here and there, but it often does not build that foundation for a long-lasting successful partnership.

But if you are not taking the time to talk to the candidate to determine their motivation and goals, or talk to your trading partner to understand the culture fit or nuances of the role, but are instead focusing on just getting a candidate in front of a hiring manager or providing a candidate before another recruiter does, it may be a temporary/’bandaid’ fix that ends up biting you in terms of a fall-off.

Take time to get to know your candidates – don’t rush them or try to ‘sell’ them on an opportunity. Discuss what is important to them and what their goals are. It’s about finding the right fit for both the candidate AND the client. Similarly, if you are in a recruiting network or do splits, get to know your trading partners… develop relationships beyond the job/candidate you initially inquire about. Recruiters each have an extensive network and you never know what conversation may lead to your next split. Always follow-up and follow-through with them. If someone sends you a candidate for one of your vacancies, always reply even if it is to tell them their candidate is not a fit. Many NPA members have the philosophy of: treat your trading partners as if they were your client. Stay in touch, even if it’s a simple reach out or check in… “Hey Steve, just wanted to let you know, I haven’t found anyone yet but I’m still working on your java developer role.”

Tags: recruiting relationships | Posted in: Uncategorized

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