Everything
else!

As a 30-year veteran in this industry, that I love, I am always surprised by the following:

• Clients want help …. but.... some will not speak to us, meet us or provide feedback...then they are surprised when they don't get the candidate/service that they want!
• Job Descriptions that do not have a hook or sell a job that candidates want to see. Take our advice, we really do know what we are talking about
• Clients who will give their jobs to multiple agencies in the hope that this will increase the number of CV's they receive...it doesn't! Recruitment companies have reputations the same as companies do. Believe me, recruiters with a great reputation will always attract the best candidates
• Clients who take AGES to make decisions in the recruitment process – because they are busy. We are in a candidate driven market, the candidate may really want to work for you, but they are going to get snapped up by your competition while you take your time.... Then you have to start the process all over again wasting time and money
• Clients who try to drive down the price on our fees because they do not see the value of what we do. Step into our shoes and then argue with us!

Apart from the retail industry where you have lots of stores to shop in to make your choice, what other industry do you work with where you hire more than one service provider to do the job? Do you have more than one Accountant? More than one Financial Adviser? More than one hairdresser? More than one Doctor? So why do clients hire more than one recruiter? As an industry, we have certainly contributed to the current state of affairs, we roll over and die!! Some of us are grateful for the small crumbs we receive from our clients; we accept we will be competing with other recruitment companies; we work on jobs even when the client is not communicating with us and we try to contact candidates even when they don't show up for meetings. Clients and candidates should work with the recruiters they believe in and we should work with the clients and candidates that believe in us!

I gave a speech a number of years ago to a conference of recruiters in a global business about BELIEVE. I thought it was a good time to share it again.

B - BELIEVE. Believe in who you are, make your clients and candidates believe in you, that they will find the staff they want because of you, and candidates will get the job they want, because of you

E – ESTEEM. Trust in who you are and what you do. We sell people and they must trust and believe that we believe in them and that we will do the best by them. Stand up for integrity in the recruitment industry by having integrity

L – LOVE. Love the job you do, love your clients, love your candidates, this will feed into the recruitment process and will make you more successful

I - I can fix your problems. I can find you staff. I can find you a job. I am good at what I do, and I believe I can make a difference

E – ENERGY. If you believe in what you do, you will work to make it happen - candidates and clients need responses with energy and enthusiasm which should speed up the recruitment process. We all need to be on the same page and energy is infectious

V – VALUE. Value for money, value for our contribution, value the opinions of our clients, value the candidates that we work with and they in turn will value us. Value is the fundamental first block of the recruitment industry

E – EQUALITY. This is a partnership. Clients and candidates should value our contribution. We want to find the best people for any job, but we must understand who you are as a company and who you are as a candidate. Help us to do our job

I have always believed that I do a good job, that I do the best by my clients and candidates and I am proud of what we have achieved, it would be good if everyone in the industry could say the same.