Last week I was privileged to be representing RecruitLoop and speaking at the 2015 Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA) International Conference held on beautiful Hamilton Island in Australia\u2019s fabulous Queensland.<\/p>\n
The theme of this year\u2019s gathering of hundreds of recruitment professionals from across Australia and New Zealand was \u201cRecruitment Renewed\u201d<\/em> and the line-up of speakers all addressed the one constant thing we face in life and business \u2026 change<\/em>. \u2018Disruptors<\/em>\u2019 and \u2018Disruption<\/em>\u2019 were probably the two most often heard words across the three days we were together.<\/p>\n There were gold nuggets of information and advice everywhere (and I\u2019ll be writing about some of those soon) but for now I thought I\u2019d share the essence of my own presentation, \u201cChameleons Rule: Reinventing Yourself as a Recruiter in the New World of Recruitment<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n Chameleons are tiny little reptilian creatures who have the incredible ability to outdo and trick their predators by changing colour and blending into whatever\u00a0landscape they\u2019re in.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying for a minute that recruiters are small or reptile-like! Nor should they ever simply blend into the background, unnoticed. But\u00a0our ability to adapt to the changing recruitment landscape is essential if we are going to remain relevant in the changing world of employment services.<\/p>\n In the past few years we\u2019ve seen numerous new players in the recruitment industry offering alternatives to the traditional percentage of salary billing model; fixed flat fee and hourly rate models (like RecruitLoop) are popping up around the world and doing well. Freelancer and other contractor online marketplaces are on the rise globally. And the new, improved candidate search tools offered by companies like Seek, Indeed, or LinkedIn enable employers to bypass the use of an intermediary altogether.<\/p>\n And being online initiatives in a digital world, they are here, on our doorstep, now. We simply cannot put our head in the sand and ignore these changes in the hope they will go away.<\/p>\n They won\u2019t.<\/p>\n Add to\u00a0this the fact that clients today are more tech savvy and confident to do more of the candidate sourcing themselves and the rate at which entire industries are transforming, or disappearing altogether, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed.<\/p>\n But we don\u2019t have to sack all our staff, turn our businesses upside down and rush out for a prescription for anti-anxiety medication. The challenge for recruiters today is about remaining relevant in the rapidly changing world of work.<\/p>\n And it isn\u2019t that difficult if we pay attention to what we need to do.<\/p>\n The key messages I shared were really quite simple:<\/p>\n There is room in the market for all of us. Clients have different needs and none of us can meet all the needs of all the clients. The smart recruiter of the future will be clear about their own purpose, be clear about what they are offering, learn what tools and technology will best enable them, and be keenly aware of what other providers are offering.<\/p>\n In his keynote, \u201cOutstanding Customer Service and the Future of Business<\/em>\u201d, Martin Grunstein encouraged us to \u201cstop selling recruitment and start selling stress management\u201d. I couldn\u2019t have said it better myself! The way we do that is to ditch cold calls, stop hiding behind emails and become true Consultants \u2013 trusted advisors to our clients.<\/p>\n This means always \u201chaving a reason to call\u201d a client. And the reason is not<\/em>\u00a0to sell our recruitment service but to see if we can partner with them to solve their current problem, which is attracting the right talent to join their team. It is about asking questions, actively listening to their responses and exploring possible solutions. Or in the words of Rob Davidson from the Davidson Group, \u201cask questions and listen rather than tell and sell\u201d.<\/p>\n And develop, continually refine and rehearse a 60-second snappy elevator pitch that can be adapted as required \u2013 no more than 5 sentences that intelligently and eloquently tell people who you are, what you do, how you do it and why they should do business with you. Make those sentences count by making sure you understand what will resonate with your audience. And \u201cwe make sure we provide you with the best candidates available<\/em>\u201d doesn\u2019t cut it!<\/p>\n This is a big one. So many recruiters I train and coach can\u2019t tell me what is happening in the world of their clients. I\u2019m pretty sure they know who won the last season of \u2018My Kitchen Rules\u2019 or \u2018The Voice\u2019 but they don\u2019t know what is happening in the industries and candidate markets they claim to be specialising\u00a0in!<\/p>\n The recruiters who will still be in business five years from now are the ones who make an effort to truly understand the industry their clients are in. What is their<\/em> core business? What are the challenges they are facing? What do they think will be their biggest challenge in a year\u2019s time? What is happening politically that may affect their business? Where will their future candidates come from?<\/p>\n I asked one delegate what company she was from and she said, \u201cOh, we\u2019re just a little agency from \u2026<\/em>\u201d. This fired up the acute frustration I always experience when I\u2019m training recruiters and hear over and over again in the role plays, \u201cI\u2019m just<\/em> a recruiter\u201d; \u201cI\u2019m just<\/em> calling to see if …\u201d; \u201cI was just<\/em> wondering if you had time to …\u201d.<\/p>\n When we use the word \u201cjust<\/em>\u201d in these circumstances we diminish everything that comes after it. We are not just<\/em> recruiters just<\/em> calling to see if you just<\/em> needed our help or just<\/em> wondering if you had time to talk.<\/p>\n If we want to be perceived as intelligent and credible and position ourselves as trusted advisors, we need to be confident and forthright in our communications and proud of our profession.<\/p>\n Algorithms can never replace the human component of the recruiter-client relationship. What they can do though, is give your clients an alternative to using an intermediary \u2013 clients can now use the same tools you do to source candidates. The magic smoke and mirrors of old are gone.<\/p>\n Smart recruiters will pay more attention to their client relationships \u2013 see points 2 & 3 above for starters! Spending time listening to your client, thinking for<\/em>\u00a0them rather than just about them and selling stress management and not recruitment will establish a business partnership, taking you off their provider<\/em> list and putting you in their trusted advisor<\/em> circle.<\/p>\n The number of channels for candidates to market themselves directly to clients are increasing and the tech savviness of the emerging labour market means our relevance to candidates will decline if we aren\u2019t careful.<\/p>\n Successful recruiters of the future will actively source candidates using a multitude of channels, build solid candidate networks and engage with them via their preferred methods. You might even think about building an online talent community as part of your business.<\/p>\n As Greg Savage reminded us in his presentation, amongst other things, the recruiter of the future will be a master e-sourcer and social networker.<\/p>\n Clients now have many alternatives if they are motivated by price alone. Discounting your fee by a few percent is no longer enough to win the business.<\/p>\n The successful recruiter of the future will find ways to add value to their offering – psychometric testing, a complimentary hiring wellness check<\/a>, probation review reminders, an \u201cInterview skills for Hiring Managers<\/a>\u201d workshop and so on.<\/p>\n Which one will you start doing today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bernadette Eichner shares 7 tips from her recent RCSA conference presentation, \u201cReinventing Yourself as a Recruiter in the New World of Recruitment\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":8706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[74],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n1. Disruptors are not destroyers but you need to understand them<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. \u2018Sell\u2019 differently<\/h2>\n
3. Get informed<\/strong><\/h2>\n
4. Find your active voice \u2013 start by removing \u2018just<\/em>\u2019 from your vocabulary<\/strong><\/h2>\n
5. Outdo the algorithms by improving the quality of your client relationships<\/strong><\/h2>\n
6. Candidate sourcing<\/strong><\/h2>\n
7. Add value<\/h2>\n