by: Wendy Floyd | Senior Recruiter
Recruiters are great matchmakers! We spend the majority of our time finding, attracting, and keeping viable candidates warm with the intentions of filling open positions. Although recruiters don’t necessarily have difficulty playing matchmaker, we can’t do it alone. As recruiters we must establish ourselves as business partners and not order fillers. Given this, recruiters should build and nourish business partnerships with line of business managers. How? Periodically request relationship building get-togethers with the managers/clients you support.
I’m sure you will agree that it is easier said then done, but really it’s worth the effort. I have found relationship building get-togethers to be an extremely advantageous approach to finding the right candidate fit. The get-togethers provide an opportunity to learn about the client. In doing so, you assess the client’s personality, interviewing style and techniques, and his or her likes and dislikes about the “flow” of the life cycle of recruiting. This information will help you adjust to the client’s functional needs.
More often then not, recruiters will need to look beyond the job description for the perfect candidate fit. Therefore, having prior knowledge about what skill set and candidate attributes your client is looking for will greatly improve the odds of identifying a candidate who fits the mold. Last but not least, recruiters will need to utilize the job description along with the information obtained during the get-together to determine what the client needs versus what he or she wants!
Remember…getting the cooperation you need from your clients will depend on your performance, so hit the nail on the head the first time around
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