Be Honest…That is all that is expected of you

Ok so the Recruiter bashing on Linked In has reached an all-time high, this year, in my opinion. Candidates and clients are equally as frustrated with the industry and it is totally understandable The main issue here is not the recruiter themselves, it is the recruitment business owner. Recruitment Directors are constantly pushing their recruiters to hit targets that are mainly volume based and are usually set by someone who hasn’t made a placement in years and lacks ALL tangible knowledge of what it is like to work a role in 2016! Emphasis absolutely needs to be on quality. We, as a generation, expect more than generations before us in terms of quality and service and our industry needs to progress. We have recently worked a role with a client who is a CEO of a £45m+ turnover business and his feedback was that he appreciated our absolute honesty…that he was sick and tired of other recruiters ‘feeding him a line’ and ultimately not delivering. I had to push back on this CEO at times in terms of some of his criteria but as long as this is done in a positive and consultative manner then it is received correctly. The key is to be honest, be transparent and be consultative. Pretty simple really and yet very effective…it is a shame that more recruitment professionals aren’t able to apply these methods and are too busy trying to hit targets that have zero bearing on reality. Quite strong opinions I know but I completely stand by them. If a recruiter needs to be hammered by stupid targets then they shouldn’t be in this game anyway and if a recruitment business owner is driving these metrics forcefully then they need a reality check!!