This post is the final in a series illustrating recruiting strategies we’ve learned from watching high performing recruiters in action. The following strategies apply to any recruiter, whether you are an internal recruiter at a growing business or a specialized industry headhunter.
This post is the third in a three part series. You can find the first post here.
Recruiting Strategies for Efficiency
Recruiting can be a race against the clock. If you are an agency recruiter, the longer it takes you to get the job done, the less you are earning and the less faith your customers and candidates have that you can solve their problems. If you are hiring for your business, either as a manager or a professional recruiter, growth is usually on the other side of your new hire. Great candidates always have options, and someone else out there may have a good opportunity for them. Whatever the reason, you need to get things done as quickly as possible while still getting great talent. HPRs are good at making the most of their time.
1. HPRs Maintain a sense of urgency
Timing can be a crucial element to the overall success of hiring. Taking a new job or adding a new employee is a big commitment and like all major decisions, momentum plays a big part. Hence HPRs are there at all times to make sure things don’t stall. I was once working in a customer’s office and it was near the end of the day. Our main contact walked in to say goodbye (and to tell me how much he loved Crelate – sorry I could not help myself). He mentioned that he really need to get out of the office because he had dinner plans. However, as he turned to leave, his desk phone rang. Rather than running out the door and letting it go to voicemail, he answered it. He wound up spending 20 minutes with the caller (see It’s all about the phone in part 1). I watched this scenario play out three more times before he finally left the office — an hour later than he originally intended. Not to say that HPRs give up all of their evenings, but they do address issues as they occur.
2. HPRs make the most of every interaction
There is always something else we could add to our workdays, and so when we connect with people it is usually for a specific reason. Sure, there are lunches and networking events and other free-form activities throughout the normal workweek, but if you pick up the phone to call someone or show up for an appointment, you are there to address a certain issue. Our interactions with HPRs are no different. What is different, though, is what they always do when we’ve finished addressing that topic – they make sure we’ve addressed everything they can think of when we are together.
“Did you connect with that lead I sent you?”
“Oh, you should know I got a reference call from that new customer you told me about.”
“Hey, I know a guy that is looking for help with an IT problem; it’s not exactly what you guys do but maybe you could point him in the right direction. Mind if I connect you two?”
Sometimes it’s as simple as “Everything going well?” They know that it takes work to make a conversation happen. It seems counter-intuitive. You’d think the efficiency gain would come from getting to the point and moving on, but then you’d waste the effort of connecting in the first place. HPRs know that the best strategy is to make that connection as meaningful as possible.
3. HPRs are diligent about using technology
We never stop being impressed by how much some networkers can remember about their connections without looking at their contact list, but that doesn’t stop HPRs from using their systems. They realize that technology is a force multiplier – instead of thinking that they need technology to make up for weaknesses, they use technology to amplify their strengths. Obviously we have strong opinions about what makes a good system, and we have designed Crelate around those concepts. We know we’ve succeed when we see one of our users working quickly and efficiently with the system. But my favorite part is seeing a customer going through search results and having their memories jogged by the names and activities they see there. The list doesn’t replace their memory – it fuels it.
Whatever their system is – they have one and they leverage it.
I hope these tips have helped you focus on a few things you could be doing to improve your recruiting strategies. Many thanks to our beta customers, without whom we wouldn’t have learned so much over the past year about successful recruiting. If you’d like to join them as a Crelate customer, or just learn more about our software, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.
