600 things; 10 Things I’d do if I was a Recruitment Agency Owner

Lisa Jones from Barclay Jones knows a fair bit about technology and that’s what she normally shares with us.  Additionally, over the years she has worked in many recruitment agencies and has been lucky enough to work with some pretty inspiring recruitment business owners and managers. Here, as part of our 600 Interesting and Useful Things for Recruiters series, she talks about the 10 things she’d do if she was a recruitment agency owner.

I have a great job – I go into businesses and on a good day have fun, on a bad day get bossy! The time that I spend with recruiters really inspires me and I’ve been saying to my clients for a while that I would write a blog about what I would do if I owned a recruitment business. I’ve stuck at 10 to get the ball rolling – who knows I may have a sequel. I’d love to hear your thoughts about some of my ideas below.

1. I’d give a jar of sweets to lonely candidates on their first day – they’d have a branded sticker on them so everyone who approached the candidate to say hi (and of course nab a sweetie) would see my brand and want to check me out! The candidate would make more friends quicker and I would be the person who made that happen!

2. I’d ensure that when I interview recruiters I’d ask competency based questions about their use of tech and social media – how do they recruit and generate leads using it? How many placements have they made through their use of internal recruitment CRMs?

3. I’d make it my business to know about tech in recruitment so I’d not be dreading my recruiters coming to me asking for another gadget and claiming that it’s just one placement worth of fees!

4. I’d make sure my staff know how to use their smart phones at work so that I effectively have a dual screen and 24 hour workforce (they get more done out of hours, the process speeds up – we all make more money!)

5. I’d split the 360 recruiter role up into consecutive parts – meaning I’d dump the tedious and time consuming “first I get a vacancy, then I source a candidate, then I setup interviews… then I take too damn long to fill a role and the client bags it with either another recruiter or worse they manage it on their own!” Seriously, I’d get specialists in to do specific parts of the process – a little like an operating theatre where everyone has a part to play and the patient gets the right level of attention at all times.

6. I’d source advert writing to specialist SEO-savvy writers who get how to attract search engines as well as humans. My aim would be to give candidates-in-their-smalls the option to deselect themselves from the process and not waste my recruiters’ time with inappropriate applications that they are clearly not qualified for. Plus this would make it clear to my clients that I take the process of advert writing super-seriously and they should get on with their day job and respect my expertise.

7. I’d make sure that I knew where the party was and not assume – I’d actually ask my client and candidate database what they read, where they socialise online and what they want – then I publish in that space, socialise in that space and talk sense in that space! (And I wouldn’t waste time assuming and just posting jobs on LinkedIn because it feels like a safest option.)

8. I’d not settle on the excuse that social networking is hard. It’s not. If recruiters can’t talk with integrity online I’d worry about how they cope with face to face situations.

9. I would personally engage with every new client PLUS I would link up with them on LinkedIn – I’d strengthen the business’s relationship with the client. And I’d see this as part of my antidote to the hairdresser model which seems to have become the norm for many recruitment agencies.

10. I’d make getting recommendations a KPI – this would keep my team focussed on making clients happy and turning candidates into at best clients, at worst informants.

If you could do anything different with your recruitment agency, what would it be? (Or perhaps you’ve got it nailed?)