Having a quality recruitment partner can really help your business with your hires. Good recruiters are very busy people. Each consultant works on a multitude of vacancies at any one time. Additionally, they have a host of clients and candidates to manage. Time is a scarce resource and recruiters only get paid IF they are successful. Therefore, it is of great benefit to make sure your vacancy is a priority in the mind of your recruitment partner. After all, if you are the top priority of your recruitment partner then you will get the first pick of the top talent!
As seasoned consultants, we at Ignite Digital Talent are in a great position to be able to offer some industry insights. Our experience means we know the factors that come into play when a recruitment consultant is deciding where to assign their efforts. Being at the forefront of your recruiter’s mind will increase the chances of you filling your vacancy. It will mean they choose the best possible person for the job in a timely and efficient manner.
Give exclusivity to your recruitment partner
Working with your recruitment partner on an exclusive basis is probably the biggest factor in making you their priority. Working with one or (at the most) two recruitment partners is the key to securing you a stellar hire. This approach is the most productive for both filling your role and developing a relationship with your recruiter that is mutually beneficial. The exclusivity model is defined by you allowing your role to be solely resourced by one agency. You may choose to only do this for a short period of time, but it is important to do. In return for your 100% investment, you receive 100% accountability and commitment.
Give a thorough brief and feedback
Job specs by themselves do not provide enough information for a recruiter to have a true understanding of your vacancy. If they don’t fully understand the vacancy then they have less chance of filling it. If there is less chance of filling the vacancy then the recruiter will not invest the time to do so. In short, they will have more fruitful work to attend to.
Recruitment consultants thrive off detail. The more detail that is given on recruitment briefs and candidate feedback the easier their job will be.
Think about details such as: why not that CV? Was there anything stand out and impressive about the candidate’s interview performance? What projects do you have coming up? What are the business growth plans? – These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered for your recruitment partner to do a thorough job.
If you would like more help with writing a recruitment brief then you can check out our guide here, or read another great guide by Venturi Group here.
Take ownership
This is particularly relevant and vital for the more technical roles. Hiring managers need to take ownership of the recruitment process for it to truly flourish. You cannot afford to palm this one off to HR. As you know, your HR team have many different hats to wear on any one day. Unfortunately, the ‘giving detailed briefs and feedback to recruiters hat’ is not generally a high priority for HR.
When you, as the hiring manager, are out the picture for the initial brief and feedback stages, you run the risk of your vacancy slipping down the priority list. Of course, there are still agencies out there that will be quite happy to take a minimum brief and spam it out to their database. Quite frankly these agencies are best avoided!
No Substitute for Pace
The faster you move, the more of a priority you will become for your recruitment partner. Why is this? A combination of things. Firstly, it’s clearly obvious that you have prioritised the filling of this vacancy as you have demonstrated an investment in the process. Secondly, it becomes clear that you understand the realities of the current digital/tech/data recruitment market. Candidates are in short supply, and those great candidates will have multiple opportunities to choose from at any one time. Move too slowly and you will simply get left behind.
By giving timely feedback and booking candidates into interviews swiftly, you will be showing the types of behaviours that make your vacancy highly fillable in the eyes of your recruitment partner and worthy of a great deal of attention.
Make it an easy sell for your recruitment partner
Candidates need to be sold opportunities. The best candidates REALLY need a good reason to speak to a recruiter about a role. There are ways that you can make this an easy sell for your recruitment partner. For example, by inviting them to your offices, they can see first hand what it is like to work there. They will gather an insight into your culture…the vibe…the commute. To be honest, if the recruiter you are working with is any good they will be pushing to come and see you face-to-face.
It may seem like a minor point, but this experience will give the recruiter an extra edge when convincing a candidate that they should attend a face-to-face interview at your organisation. This has even worked for us in the past. A candidate has been adamant they were going to accept another offer, but because we KNEW they were a perfect cultural fit for our client we could tell them so with conviction. The result? The candidate accepts the offer from our client. Not because they were coerced into it, but because it was the best place for them – we knew that because we had been there on several occasions. Everyone wins.
Money talks
Why not offer a higher percentage fee? Whilst this is not the most important factor, it will influence how your vacancy is prioritised. For reference purposes, it is highly unlikely that a recruiter who offers rates of less than 15% will put much above the minimum amount of effort into filling your vacancy. Generally speaking, an agency that charges any less than this will depend upon high volume and as a result, will not give your vacancy the attention that is required.
Here at Ignite Digital Talent, we specialise in finding talent solutions within the ever-evolving tech, data and digital marketing space. Maybe we can help you? If you are looking to outsource your recruitment strategy, or maybe you are having trouble filling a role then why not drop us a line? We are waiting to take your call!
