Focus On The Candidates, Not Just The Clients.

HR & Recruitment
September 17, 2021

Would you swipe left, or right?

What if he turned out to be the best marketing manager on the planet¦¦You'd probably think twice¦. If you are recruiter obviously, anybody else should probably steer clear and if possible, not make direct eye contact.

Recruitment after all is basically a matchmaking service, Tinder for team building if you like.  

The Myth

Clients give us a brief, we send them a huge list of potential candidates, they swipe left until they find that special someone who gets to meet them for some top-quality KFC chicken wings and an evening of Netflix and chill. While the remaining hopefuls get shipped to the next client brief for the process to repeat.  

This is wrong, or for any respectable recruiter it should be. Contrary to this, recruiters are not here to just play the numbers game “ 1 in 8 in case you are wondering.

Putting aside all the tinder references, we wanted to dispel this common myth that recruiters are only in it for the clients and candidates are just cattle, sure clients pay the bills and keep the coffee hot, but fundamentally without great quality candidates, we would have nothing to offer.  

The Truth

We are here for both sides, recruitment is a relationship game, and it's just as much about the 1-in-never guy (candidate) as is it is the smoking hot brunette (client). So, recruitment is less like a Tinder and more like an e-harmony.

Candidates, those everyday people looking to further excel their careers, these people become our products, our commodity, we are but the bridge makers, builders of dreams, cupids of careers. OK maybe that's a little OTT, but you get the point, recruiters should be just as invested in the job seekers as they are the job givers, and it's our job to connect them.

This is the real role of a recruiter, to help businesses build great teams by bringing together the best people, and this should be done without expecting the client to plough through endless stacks of applications.  

Recruiters need to be able to understand a lot more than just the years of experience or technical prowess of an individual, they need to understand their aspirations and motivations, as well as managing the clients' expectations, so that they can perfectly match them.  

This is why any great recruiter knows the key to being successful, is to work hard on building a quality pool of candidates, and not just by cherry picking the best in the bunch, and discarding the rest, but by spending time, getting to understand each of them by their merits and helping them to always put their best foot forward.

This way we know that who we put forward is a fit for the role, and we don't have to waste anybody's time with any kind of hit and hope approach. Good for the client, good for the candidates, means more coffee and the lights stay on a little bit longer.

Yes, you've probably had business owners or hiring managers, say isn't it just cheaper to do it myself or go direct to a job board with an advert¦..yes it would be. But like the old saying goes, buy cheap, buy twice, or pay peanuts, get monkeys, I'm not sure which one works best, but either way, you can bet that in the long run, it will take them longer and cost them more (as time equals money), to go that route.  

So in short, here's 3 reasons why it's so important to get to know your candidates better.  

Happy clients:

You can save your clients precious time, and money by bringing them first time round, a carefully selected set of candidates that will always fit the brief and bring results, meaning they'll come back for more.

Happy Candidates:

Keep candidates happy by only showing them roles they do match, statistically speaking, most people will go through several companies during their career “ Do a good job and they'll always use you.

Candidates Today Clients Tomorrow:

You never know, the candidate you place today, could quite easily become a client tomorrow¦. Especially if that candidate is a hiring manager and you just placed them into a developing team, that's a winning moment.

Want to find out how Vertex can help you?

Get in touch with one of our consultants today!
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