The Human Element

I recently conducted a survey of professionals who concluded a job search within the last few months. My main objective was to get feedback from them in regards to any experience they had with recruiters during their search. Although I was not surprised by their responses, I was troubled by one common theme: poor communication and/or feedback.

I believe as recruiters we often forget that we are dealing with human beings and not just candidates or our next placement. There are many pressures on recruiters to be as systematic and mechanical as possible. Some of us have quotas, others are on 100% commission plans that make every second of our time extremely valuable. 

But that is not an excuse for disregarding the professional dignity that I believe is the right of every human we come in contact with.

One thing that has helped me to be a successful recruiter is my perspective. I always try to understand the human needs that my candidates have. I do this by simply asking and genuinely caring about who they are and why they are looking outside of salary, benefits, etc… 

Often times I discover that the engineer I am talking to is not just someone who designs widgets for XYZ company. He is somone’s dad who needs to increase his income to pay for his teens college education. The programmer I  got a call from is someone’s aunt who is  in a very toxic environment that is making her sick, literally.  Although these are fictional examples, I have hundreds of real examples that are very similar to this.

With this in mind, how can I not return a call or how can I not invest the time to set up a system that keeps people with such serious needs in the loop. They called me to help them find a solution to a problem they are having. And it is an honor to have the opportunity to help them resolve it. We are recruiters this is what we do!

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t call everyone that applies to my opportunities, that is nearly impossible especially if they are not qualified. But, if I tell someone I am going to call them or follow up with them; then that is exactly what I am going to do. And everyone get’s an “auto-response” email, just to let them know that I have received their correspondence.

The net result of this level of service and professionalism is referrals, job orders and insider tips. These perks come with relationships that are built by extending common professional dignity to people.

As recruiter’s we are given the opportunity every day to improve peoples lives. It is a great responsibility to ask someone to change jobs or move from one city to another. And if we want to be successful and build long lasting relationships that lead to the big dollars then we need to do a much better job of sticking to our promises.

Not all recruiters are like this, I know many top shelf recruiters who are dedicated to their craft and would do anything for their candidates or clients. But if you are struggling to make it or or are new to the game, then this is the first and foremost quality that you need to master before you can achieve any level of sustainable success!