If you want to have a successful relationship with your staffing or recruiting agency, your most important role is “communicator.” That doesn’t mean just giving orders or only calling them when you have a problem. As with any other successful professional relationship, you have to contribute more actively to the process.
Here are five key strategies that can help create a win-win situation:
1. Create Comprehensive “Briefings”
A typical job description usually comprises a list of responsibilities and requirements that doesn’t say anything about the kind of person you want to hire. If you want to set up your recruiter to successfully find and assess a great candidate, kick off the search by writing up a true description that explains to the recruiter the key objectives, priorities, success metrics and growth opportunities of the role. Review this description with the recruiter, hopefully in person.
2. Set Up a Schedule
After your initial meeting with the recruiter, where you’ll review the description, come up with a timetable for the process. Decide how often you’ll meet and what information will be shared.
3. Contribute To Building Your Company’s Employer Brand
When your recruiter reaches out to a candidate, one of the first things that candidates will do is check out your company’s online presence—and specifically your department or team. Make sure everything looks great. Your LinkedIn profile should be complete. And hopefully your status updates, article sharing or other posts will give candidates a glimpse of what you’re working on, what you’re passionate about and what your team has achieved.
4. Help Out With Reference Calls
Yes, one of the ways your staffing agency saves you time and money is by making these calls. But when the list of candidates gets down to the final few, it may be worth your while to participate in this highly critical step. It’s your chance to hear for yourself what you really need to know to manage this candidate from people who have already done it.
5. Conduct Temperature Checks and Help Sell
Once your top candidates have been identified, don’t assume that your job is over. Again, your recruiter should be helping with the process of keeping the candidate apprised and smoothing the way to an easy negotiation. But your participation can be important. You can ask to be scheduled for a 10-minute check-in with the candidate when they come in to interview with others. See if they have any questions, or assess whether they still seem interested in the job. It wouldn’t hurt to pitch the role, the team, or key projects if you have more information to share.
At Smith Hanley, we strongly believe in the power of partnership. If you’d like to experience our quality and service, give us a call any time.