How to Build a Strong and Credible Recruitment Brand – notes from the #RecHangout

This month’s google+ hangout was discussing “How to build a strong and credible recruitment brand” and it was one of our most interesting hangouts yet.

Our guests were

* Russell Amerasekera – Personal Branding Expert at Epiphany.
* Paul Sharpe – Marketing and Sales Director at niche recruitment business, InterQuest Group PLC.
* Clair Bush – Marketing Director at recruitment technology business, Broadbean.
* Felix Wetzel – Advisor and consultant for HRTech companies such as Maj.io and Talenetic. Formerly at Jobrapido, Evenbase and JobSite.

Our host, Alan Whitford, keep the conversation on track whilst Mark Stephens (Technology in Recruitment Alliance and founder of the F10 Group) and  Louis Welcomme (Colleague Software) also shared their thoughts.

It was a really interesting debate with everyone sharing insight. You can watch the hangout here:

I’ve sourced a few blogs which I think support some of the themes discussed:

• The Employment Brand – the glue for recruitment cohesion – written by Felix
• Slideshare from Laurie Ruettiman on Personal Branding for Human Resources and Recruiting
• Recruiters – the hidden gem behind personal branding – written by yu:talent for the National Online Recruitment Awards
• 4MAT’s very thorough blog on recruitment agency branding
• The truth behind establishing a strong corporate brand written by Mark Stephens
• Felix also wrote this one – Employment Branding – the Emperor’s New Clothes?
• Paul Sharp wrote this blog ahead of the hangout – Branding Recruitment – The importance of being ernest

I also loved Felix’s comment during the hangout that if candidates are a commodity (contentious issue alert!! Candidates are not an online commodity) then they are a luxury good like an expensive car.

One interesting thought toward the end of the hangout was “Recruiters need to think like Marketers. Don’t ‘sell’, communicate & evoke conversation”; which leads us nicely back to our last hangout – Is Recruiting a Sales Job?

Our next hangout will be in April and details will be here soon.