What Do You Want in an Agency Recruiter?
If resume-slingers are no good, how should agency recruiters comport themselves? When choosing an agency to work with, here’s what you should be looking for.
Knowledge of Your Company: Agency recruiters should be ready, willing and able to get to know your company thoroughly. They should understand your industry, what you do in the industry, what your culture is like, what your company’s vision and goals are, what kind of people work best at your company, and so on. That way, the agency recruiters will be able to better communicate your employer brand to job seekers.
Honesty and Transparency: Agency recruiters should keep in constant touch with your company, letting you know about the process they are conducting, soliciting your feedback, asking questions, offering suggestions, etc. These recruiters should also be honest and transparent with job seekers-which leads to the next trait of great agency recruiters.
Partnership: Agency recruiters should be your partners in the hiring process. They should help you improve your employer brand. They have the benefit of being able to see it from the outside, as they are not part of the company. If they know that your company has a certain, not particularly great reputation as an employer, agency recruiters should be able to help you figure out how to repair your employer brand. Agency recruiters should also help you figure out exactly what kind of talent you need
for any given role. You may think you need a certain type of job seeker, but the recruiters may be able to point you in the direction of a different type of job seeker that actually better suits your needs.
Enthusiasm: Agency recruiters should be genuinely excited about your company and the opportunities it offers job seekers, and they should work to let job seekers (who are a good fit for the position, of course) know why your company is a great option for them.
Relationship Focus: Agency recruiters should get to know job seekers, too. They should treat them with respect and value them as people. They should aim to build long-term relationships with job seekers and regularly follow up with them, letting them know where they are in the process. Even if a job seeker isn’t hired, the agency recruiter should let them know they company’s decision and offer to keep their resume on file for other opportunities in the future. Of course, such an offer has to be more than hot air: the recruiter really should reach out to the job seeker in the event that a new opportunity arises. If the job seeker decides to reach out to the recruiter about potential opportunities, the recruiter should respond in a timely, truthful and informative manner, even if no opportunities are available.
Loyalty: The best agency recruiters don’t just place job seekers and walk away. They stick around to see how your new employees are working out for you. If your newest hire is struggling, the agency recruiter who brought the job seeker to you should act as a partner in helping you address the problem. If it turns out the new hire is unsalvageable, then the agency recruiter should be ready to jump back on the horse and find another job seeker that is better suited for the role.
It’s not salaries. It’s not bonuses. It’s not time off. What really draws top-talent to you is your employer brand. And your employer brand is in the hands of your recruiters-whether they work internally for you or they work for an agency you’ve contracted. So when it comes to improving your hiring process and landing the best job seekers, there’s only one place to start: with your recruiters.
-Provided by Recruiter.com
