Relationships are the most important part of the recruitment process

Recruitment can be a rewarding experience - as a candidate

I’ll never forget my first experience with a recruiter - she was over the moon when I got offered the job, she was so excited to tell me about it - the move she knew I was going to make to London and the fact that she’d found a great fit for a strong team. This isn’t the only great experience I’ve had but they feel few and far between. I also once had a recruiter who, having spoken to me about the role that I was a great fit for, wanted me to come down to meet her. She stood by the fact that she would meet her candidates face to face and understand how they were a good fit for her client. At the time I didn’t have childcare for my son, ‘no problem’ she said, just come down to the office with him. Probably one of the most challenging experiences I’ve had and surely a test of my ability to manage under pressure - my son had no interest in being quiet at all! She made the process easy to manage and she was spot on with her recruitment skills at identifying a great cultural fit to the business.

Feedback loops

Over my years’ working with recruiters, I’ve had some rocky moments too. Times when I’ve questioned why I’d bothered applying for a role. I had a recruiter shout at me down the telephone, telling me that ‘no woman should ever ask about training and development opportunities with a business in the city’. I was taken aback. It’s not often I’ve been shouted at over the telephone in fact, that may actually have been the first time and at 22 years old, it was pretty upsetting. Bad day at the office sure, but there was no need to take it out on me. I was quite new on the interview circuit and she could have handled it much better. I’ve never worked with that global recruitment firm again. I’ve also shared my experiences with others, to ensure they don’t have to go through what I did. That’s the damage that a badly handled recruitment process can have.

Recruiting has changed

In the last few years, it seems to have become worse. I’ve had recruiters tell me that they’ll be in touch whatever happens only for them to disappear into the recruitment ether and never be heard of again. That’s not to say that all recruiters are like that but it places more importance on identifying how your recruiter will carry out your recruitment for you.

Recruitment never used to be like this. It was thorough, there were telephone calls and questions about my experience, my work, what I had been responsible for, even what my management style was like. In fact, it was almost like the first stage of an interview and some of those questions would be repeated in the interviews. It was always a good practice step. These great recruiters are still out there but seem to be diluted by poor experiences, flick through LinkedIn and it is overwhelmingly littered with ‘bad’ recruitment experiences, and I seem to have my fair share of experiences of them as well. This is why choosing which recruiter you work with and asking your candidates how they found the process is even more important these days. It is one of the biggest reasons that Auxeris has come into existence.

Meet the ethical recruiter

Auxeris is the brainchild of Louisa Plint, who identified the need for ethical recruitment practices, fair recruitment process and a low fee for clients alongside easy payment processing and other tech goodies bundled into the structure.

Great recruiters find excellent candidates

Get it right and a great recruiter can find you the best matched candidates to your business, giving you some strong candidates to interview, knowing that they have great attributes that would fit your business and future needs. They won’t just find you one amazing candidate either, we will always aim to send 2 - 3 (although sometimes there will be only 1). Because you need to be able to see the level of candidate quality in the marketplace, to have something to compare to and ensure that you are finding the best candidate for the role. You should never be sent applications to make up the numbers either. That recruiter will be able to clearly tell you why these candidates are an ideal match for your business and your role. However, a recruiter can’t do this if they’ve never met or spoken to the candidate. They will never be able to identify the best candidates for your open roles. Recruitment should not be about filling roles and churn. The secret to successful recruitment lies in the recruiter’s ability to build lasting and effective relationships across both candidate and client. To really understand both motivations and to identify the best matches in ability, personality fit and future potential.

Ways to stand out as a recruiter

If you want to stand out as a recruiter, you will want to understand the key attributes of your client’s business, teams and ethos. You’ll achieve this by having meetings with them and by asking the right questions. The same applies to your candidates and you need to be prepared to pick up the phone or have a VC to understand more about them. If you aren’t going to bother doing this - then you aren’t providing the right service to your clients as a recruiter. Your role is to screen applicants and vet them against the requirements. Yet remarkably, the experience is that there are a significant number of recruiters that aren’t completing this vital step.

Understanding your candidate’s and client’s goals

As a top quality recruiter, you will be able to work out how your candidate’s goals and aspirations match those of your client’s and you will also work to serve two clients - your candidate and your client. Only one might be the source of the revenue but if you don’t create a great experience for both parties, you’ll leave with nothing. If you deliver a poor experience to your candidate, or don’t communicate effectively with them, they may not go through with the interview, or accept the role. They may decide to go with the other recruiter and business that offered them the job, because they felt that the recruiter was more interested in them and their future career. How you represent yourself, the company you are working for and the business you are supporting with recruitment services as well as the experience your candidate has; all matters. Strong client relationships means that you can share your opinion with them if they are suddenly ill and are unable to attend the interview. On the other hand, you may be able to negotiate the salary that your candidate is looking for or find a workable compromise that works for both parties. Building a strong working relationship based on previous recruiting successes means that they will start to trust your ability to find them the right candidate for their business.

We never said recruitment was easy and we know this to be true. However, when you work with experienced recruiters, the process will be more seamless and feel like an easy process. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to get to that point. If you’ve ever recruited in house, you’ll understand that.

Meet Auxeris

We’re Auxeris, the tech enabled recruiter powered by experts. We have a network of specialist recruiters with years’ recruitment experience. Many have worked within the sectors they support and have a keen understanding of the skills required to work within the roles you are recruiting for. We charge one consistent fee of 15% and work with clients sourcing permanent, temporary and temp to perm hires.