Internal & external recruiters – investing in our relationship
June 7th, 2021
The relationship between internal recruiters and an external recruitment business can be a win – win for both parties, especially if a few key issues can be sorted.
Building trust & integrity
Easy to say, not quite as easy to accomplish. Building trust happens over time and a transparent approach is the ideal scenario for both sides. A recruitment consultant is certainly not going to build trust by circumventing their internal counterpart, yet so many still try this approach. Similarly, a lack of communication, providing feedback on candidates from the internal recruiter during the interview process, adds to the frustration of the external consultant who is looking to communicate fully with the candidate. Even if there is no definite news, it’s good to explain any delay to the candidate who is invested in the process.
Why do you ask so many questions?
Everyone has time pressures, but an external recruiter is going to want to find out as much as possible about the business, the role, and the culture before briefing a candidate. So, ideally both sides can speak in detail about the opportunity in the early stages. The old expression “we act as an extension of your HR department” is still true, but an external recruiter will also be acting as an extension of the company’s marketing and PR department.
Priming a suitable candidate for the opportunity is so much easier if we can uncover as many business facts as possible about the company and how the interview process will be handled. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 10th role an external has worked on or a first, those discussions are crucial.
Here’s a CV, but let me tell you about the person
The CV is a factsheet, but it doesn’t tell you that much about the person or their story so far. A good external recruiter will be itching to inform the internal person about the individual, their personality, their status, their availability, and more importantly, their aspirations for their future career. Transparency in the first instance, over salaries and benefits will mean there should be no insurmountable issues at a later date in the process.
Experience versus Expertise
Really, does 5 years’ experience trump 3 years specific expertise in the appointment you are looking to fill? I think we’ve all moved on from stating the number of years’ experience required, let’s face it, that should be a guideline, not a prerequisite. Here, it’s important that the external recruiter can relate about the expertise the candidate has that is completely specific to the role rather than the number of years.
It works for us!
At Recruitment Gamechangers we work hard at building brilliant relationships with our business counterparts, be they an internal recruiter, a talent manager, or an HR professional. After all, we are all working towards achieving the same result, finding the perfect candidate has never been an exact science and sometimes the person that takes the role isn’t always the person on the job spec!
Doug Woodward
doug@recgc.com
Back
Building trust & integrity
Easy to say, not quite as easy to accomplish. Building trust happens over time and a transparent approach is the ideal scenario for both sides. A recruitment consultant is certainly not going to build trust by circumventing their internal counterpart, yet so many still try this approach. Similarly, a lack of communication, providing feedback on candidates from the internal recruiter during the interview process, adds to the frustration of the external consultant who is looking to communicate fully with the candidate. Even if there is no definite news, it’s good to explain any delay to the candidate who is invested in the process.
Why do you ask so many questions?
Everyone has time pressures, but an external recruiter is going to want to find out as much as possible about the business, the role, and the culture before briefing a candidate. So, ideally both sides can speak in detail about the opportunity in the early stages. The old expression “we act as an extension of your HR department” is still true, but an external recruiter will also be acting as an extension of the company’s marketing and PR department.
Priming a suitable candidate for the opportunity is so much easier if we can uncover as many business facts as possible about the company and how the interview process will be handled. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 10th role an external has worked on or a first, those discussions are crucial.
Here’s a CV, but let me tell you about the person
The CV is a factsheet, but it doesn’t tell you that much about the person or their story so far. A good external recruiter will be itching to inform the internal person about the individual, their personality, their status, their availability, and more importantly, their aspirations for their future career. Transparency in the first instance, over salaries and benefits will mean there should be no insurmountable issues at a later date in the process.
Experience versus Expertise
Really, does 5 years’ experience trump 3 years specific expertise in the appointment you are looking to fill? I think we’ve all moved on from stating the number of years’ experience required, let’s face it, that should be a guideline, not a prerequisite. Here, it’s important that the external recruiter can relate about the expertise the candidate has that is completely specific to the role rather than the number of years.
It works for us!
At Recruitment Gamechangers we work hard at building brilliant relationships with our business counterparts, be they an internal recruiter, a talent manager, or an HR professional. After all, we are all working towards achieving the same result, finding the perfect candidate has never been an exact science and sometimes the person that takes the role isn’t always the person on the job spec!
Doug Woodward
doug@recgc.com