What does a candidate look for in a recruiter?

What does a candidate look for when they speak to a recruiter?

The old days of “Here’s a desk, here’s a phone, go bill….” are long gone, and in today’s society with the millennial generation there is far more to be considered and imparted to our new apprentices. Certainly, it’s something we genuinely pride ourselves here in BPS World as we have shown through the successes of our award winning Rising Stars Apprenticeship programme which develops the apprentice through all the stages of the recruitment process

When preparing an apprentice to become a recruiter there are now many factors that need to be considered. Are they going to work in a field: IT, Marketing, Engineering?  If they are, are they going to stick to an area: Developers, Digital Executives, Mechanical Engineers? It is important to support them on internal platforms like your ATS, Email, Office so they can follow a due process from the point of contact with a candidate, right the way through their journey to the final offer, acceptance and start date. In addition, understanding the process of recruitment to ensure a good user experience for the candidate they need to become knowledgeable on the industry they are recruiting into. Becoming the “expert” in the field will give the candidate confidence that this recruiter understands the what they are talking about. Building confidence in your candidates is key to successful recruiting.

Social Media is another area recruiters can build on their role as “expert” in their industry. Sharing content on their social media sites relevant to their industry sector show the candidate that this recruiter is proactively interested and keeps up to date with information. The statistics quoted by some firms are staggering on how they’ve engaged candidates via social media. Hubspot reported that 73% of sales people who use social media outperform those who don't.  It’s something that needs to be understood and embraced – at the right time and in the right places. This is something that more and more apprentices will bring to the table as the technology continues to grow and move into new environments.

And this, in a very round-about-way, brings me on to the question I originally asked; What does a candidate look for when they speak to a recruiter?

Many companies use twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, to broadcast their message. But does this resonate with a candidate who is looking for a new role. Do you, as an active candidate in the market look at a company’s social status and consider calling them to find out whether they have any vacancies? Or would you follow a recruiter who is posting about their live roles, how their day is going, the challenges they are facing and whether they are an individual who you would want to work with?

In my opinion, I feel that the adage of “people buy from people” still stands to this day and that if you, as a candidate, are looking for a new role you want to work with a person. You want to feel empathy from that individual. You want them to fight in your corner to help you achieve a new role in your career. So, building up a relationship over the phone, Skype or face to face still play an important role, a strong social profile can bring about good connections between a candidate and a recruiter and this can be built on further through personal interactions.

Investing in excellent training, support, advice and guidance to all apprentices means you will be growing a person’s skills to allow them to be successful and offer the best level of recruitment skills to their candidate. Combining this with the “personal” touch of good communication skills you have the perfect blend of traditional and modern methods to achieved the best outcome for the candidate.

What do you look for in a recruiter?

For further information please contact Matthew Wheeler or 01628 857333 or matthew.wheeler@bps-world.com