Creative ways to recruit

When asked to recruit a new role for a client, the first question to ask is: "What is the ideal candidate for them?"Traditionally, interpreting the job description and marrying these requirements with a candidate's professional experience would suffice but adding value to the recruiting process and finding the ideal candidate for the role involves a more creative approach.

To truly understand the requirements of the role and the culture of a company involves emerging yourself within the company, its operations and processes. Regularly visiting a client gives a deeper insight to the company, its processes, or any limitations it may have. This awareness makes you part of the problem solving process, you become the solution provider, experience which is more valuable to finding the successful candidate than sitting at a desk evaluating job descriptions and candidate's CVs.

One of the key elements of any role are the dynamics of the team surrounding this position. A visit to the client site will result in better understanding of the culture within the business and to hear first-hand from the Project Manager about the team and what it would take for the candidate to succeed within this environment. Measures of success can and will vary in different positions and as a result it is essential to have the knowledge and understanding of all types of vacancies and the people who hire them.

Often a Project Manager will have a type of person in mind for their ideal candidate and getting to know the Hiring Manager is key to understanding what they are looking for from an individual and also if there are any areas which need to be avoided. Speaking to a range of experts on the project is a chance to gain exposure to what the candidate could expect from working in this environment. Meeting members of the project team throughout the day gives further knowledge of who could be a strong cultural/character fit. It was also beneficial to have technical conversations with staff to gain a more in depth understanding of what is required of the role when recruiting for positions.

Recruiting with as much information on the role and company as possible is imperative to give you the competitive edge for. A recruiter must ask the right questions of the hiring manager and extract all of the relevant information. Using this information to relay to candidates helps ascertain from their answers if they are going to be suitable for the position and ensures you as a recruiter are putting the right people in front of your client and delivering the best in service.

Exposure to the client's environment increases a recruiter's professional development and expands their skill set in a number of different directions. It is valuable experience to interact with professionals and manage their expectations whilst recruiting their staff. Site visits are a GOOD learning experience for recruiters, understanding the processes of their clients enables them to improve the recruitment process and deliver to a high standard.

How do you identify the ideal candidate for your client?

For further information please contact Tom Irvine on 01628 857348 or tom.irvine@bps-world.com