Bleating about jobs all day long may lose you clients!

Lisa Jones of Barclay Jones has written a little something for us about  how some recruiters really need to stop bleating on about jobs all day long…

It’s not based on exhaustive research, polls, surveys, interviews. It’s based upon the world I live in (recruitment), the people I follow online (recruiters), and what I see every day in their status updates.

That said, I know of lots of lovely recruiters who this blog does NOT apply to (have I covered myself enough?) On we go!

Another Job Advert on LinkedIn – Yawn…

I am probably connected to more recruiters than most, bearing in mind who I work with (er, recruiters), so I get to see what they talk about all day long on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc… JOBS! God – it’s so boring!

Now I am damn sure that most of those lovely recruiters don’t wander into a client office spouting job/candidate/job/candidate – in fact I bet a lot them take the time to ask questions, get to know the client,  freely give their opinions about the sector they claim to be specialists in. They listen, build relationships, help…. consult! Then they go online and totally ruin it all! They bleat on about jobs all day long – worse, they use systems to automate the bleating! (Robot sheep!)

Some thoughts / stats:

• 80% of people on social media are not looking for a new job – so you risk alienating them if that’s all you seem to have to offer! 
• I bet most clients don’t wake up in the morning itching to spend their hard earned post-recession cash on recruiters! So, please stop trying to flog jobs online to candidates, when the ones you probably need to attract (the fee payers) are not bashing your door down. Clients are people too! 
• I bet most of those clients are getting targeted by LinkedIn to use them to advertise instead of using recruiters. You are playing right into LinkedIn’s hands if you only advertise roles – you make it look like that’s all there is to recruitment. I know this is not the case, I am on your side!

So, if you are a recruiter bleating about jobs all day long, why?

• Are you actually getting more applications? And I mean quality applications.  Getting 100 applications for a sales manager role in Birmingham is nothing to get giddy about, it’s head in hands “I’ll be late home tonight love” stuff! 
• Is it that you have nothing else to talk about? Surely you are a sector specialist, if a not market specialist you’re a recruitment specialist. Don’t reserve this kudos for when you finally get to meet the client – it may be too late by then! 
• If you have loads of jobs on, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are successful. I worked for a recruiter once who only filled 10% of their vacancies – they made a mint BUT they failed at 90% of the roles they were given.
• You’ve been given the technology but not really thought about if you should be using it. It’s just another button to press to get the job out there! (All the gear no idea?)

I know I’m probably sounding like someone’s mum, but I am really passionate about getting things done right. I really believe that if you have the title “consultant” it’s because you “consult”. I have yet to meet anyone in the recruitment sector who’s job title is “Job Advertiser”.

So give yourselves a break, and step away from the job advert for 2 mins and think about what else you could be saying online to attract candidates (and don’t forget the lovely clients who pay you…).  If you continue to bleat about jobs all day long, you are giving a compelling argument to clients to do the same and you could do yourself out of a great job.