Editorial Articles

As a Recruitment Consultancy we have ways of working, processes and tried and tested means of finding both candidates and any new clients that we’d like to work with. Over the past five years these traditional processes have taken a back seat to the emerging online methods of finding candidates – social networking has given recruitment a whole new lease of life if you like. The internet allows real time global communication and the talent pool from which we can draw suitable candidates, is now a global one. Economic hardship has ensured that people will actually move country for the right job.

Another point worth making here is that, as the economy recovers, we are inevitably going to see the market change to a more candidate-driven one. That will lead to situations where the best candidates will be able to negotiate their own salaries and there will be more time investment needed during the search process. Recruitment consultancies can obviously ensure that the right candidate with the right attitude and experience is put forward, saving an employer precious time.

In terms of social networks, I believe that LinkedIn is the one that has made the most difference to how recruitment consultants and their clients operate. Clients can, and often do, use LinkedIn to do their own research into potential candidates and they exploit their own networks and the networks of their connections to hunt for talent. This is still, however, a time-consuming process and one which many people who have a full time job can not find the extra time for. It’s often necessary for creative agencies to appoint a dedicated in-house resource for this kind of research, and this is obviously where using your existing recruitment consultancy can be a more efficient and better use of time.

Searching through the CV databases, that we used to rely on in the past, never seemed to provide the range of talented people that it’s possible to research online now. When you only have a name, for example, research online can help you decide whether a meeting is going to be worthwhile or not. It can give you insight into that person before you make the initial call – cold calls of the old days were exactly that. Now you can establish where a person works, who with and view recommendations on their profile, all of which allow you to build up a fuller picture of that person.

Twitter is another social media channel which is being used to good effect in the world of recruitment. It’s still too early to say whether it will become a mainstream tool for recruitment consultants to use but for regularly reaching out to your candidate/follower base it definitely has a role to play. It can provide contacts with useful information on your activity as well as links to company blogs and work sites and, as part of a broader programme of relationship management, it can help you to nurture contacts over a longer term.

I believe that these new online routes can play an extremely useful role in today’s recruitment landscape but I don’t believe that they are replacing everything we’ve done in the past. These channels are still an unknown quantity and are not a magic cure for any recruitment problem. In fact I would go so far as to say that an over-reliance on online can actually have a negative impact on the choices you make. Meeting candidates face to face always gives you a much clearer indication of their suitability – personality counts for much more and does not always come across in a LinkedIn profile. Nor are online channels a substitute for a recruitment consultancy but they can be incorporated into an overall strategy for recruitment. They simply allow for a broader reach and more insight into the cross-section of potential candidates on the market – finding the right one for you is still something that requires time and expertise.

Toby Thwaites
MD, Purple