In an ever-evolving market where client needs are rapidly changing, there is a solid argument for the need for recruiters to adapt to offer more than transactional services. Wave‘s Emily Buckley looks at the ways in which consultative recruitment is leading the way.
Are the days of transactional recruitment over? As the world of work and workforce expectations are changing, so too are client needs. As a result, forward-thinking recruiters are transitioning from being order takers whose sole function is to place a candidate in a job, to taking on a more consultative role. Recruiters are moving from vendor to forming partnerships with their clients, working together on various strategic solutions that look at the bigger picture. Rather than focusing on a particular job, more and more recruiters will be looking holistically at the business – and therefore the people – needs now and in the future.
As a result, recruiters need to be and offer more, adding value to their services beyond simply filling a vacancy. There are already examples of clients choosing competitors because they offer non-traditional, solutions-based, consultative recruitment. The future is fast approaching. So what can you do to adapt to changing client needs? Moving to a consultative recruitment model will help you to adapt with the market.
The recruiter as partner
The first thing recruiters need to do is step out of the role of vendor. Taking on a consultative partnership role enables you to foster trust in your clients and allows you to provide more than just a shortlist of candidates for a specific role. What you’re offering goes beyond that. When a client hires your services they’re paying for your experience and expertise, your networks, your databases, your data, your technology, and your understanding of what their business needs and will need down the line. That is the role of a partner. It also means not acting as a customer service advisor but trusting in your own expertise and fostering that trust in your client. This way, your goal is not simply to make the hiring manager happy (which won’t provide the best results for either party) but to challenge them where necessary. It means the client trusting you to know where their requirements may be out of kilter in terms of salary and skillset.
Invest time in really getting to know their business, their place in the market, their 3, 5, 10 year plan. Only then will you be able to advise them on a longer term recruitment strategy. And this is where you can set yourself apart from your competitors. The ability to provide solid advice and a people roadmap means you can help your clients to fulfil their strategic recruitment needs. And it doesn’t matter the current size of the client’s business, whether it’s an SME or a global organisation with complex people needs. All companies have growth plans – the fact they’re hiring at all is testament to that – and hiring the right people at the right time is business critical. Only a recruitment partner, working consultatively with their client, can plan for this.
Why value-add is now a necessity
Recruiters are a small part of a much bigger process and in order to thrive need to add value to the service they provide by utilising their expertise and skills, plus their access to data and technology. It is more vital then ever that your tech stack can provide the extra ammunition you need to go above and beyond, gaining you more detailed insights into the sector you recruit in, to the job boards that work for your jobs, to the right time to post your jobs. You need to be able to share insights and industry knowledge with your clients and have access to data that will enable you to attract talented candidates more quickly. Now’s the time to re-assess whether your tech is working for you. Does it provide you with real-time data, allowing you access to jobs and applications stats and job board performances?
You need to build and nurture a strong internal talent pool, maintaining communication with talented individuals working in your sector, whether they are actively searching for a job or not. Having access to an instant pool of talented candidates is a huge value add. Consultative recruitment works for both parties – candidates as well as clients. Being consultative with candidates means getting to know what they really want in terms of a career plan, flexibility, culture, and so on. Without this detailed knowledge it is is impossible to know whether they would be right for the role or the organisation and you could put forward someone that is a great fit on paper but not in reality. Again, it’s about gaining that trust as a consultant that fully understands what both the candidate and the client needs.
The need for holistic talent strategies
Recruitment is fast becoming solutions-based, with clients choosing recruiters that think about the work that needs to be done rather than the body that needs to be hired. Demand for project-based solutions is growing hugely. On a recent Talent Matters Podcast episode, hosted by Wave CEO Dave Jenkins, guest and well-known industry figure Paul Sharpe shared the remarkable figure that 28% of outsourcing solutions are now more project-based. Therein lies a huge opportunity for recruitment agencies to grab hold of that market.
Recruiters can help to future-proof their businesses by maturing and developing services that clients will value downstream but planning needs to start now as demand is already increasing. The scope needs to be broader than the purely transactional filling a role and moving on, including models such as total talent solutions. Clients will begin to choose recruiters that look at the broader and longer term view, taking the time to understand where skill gaps lie and what skills will be needed in the future. What’s exciting is that there is now an opportunity to work out how to solve an entire talent problem rather than how individual roles can be filled. This was already valued pre-COVID but is valued now more than ever before.
If you’re only selling transactional recruitment services now is the time to stop, re-think and plan what is right for you going forward. You’ll need to be prepared to change and move quickly. Being dynamic is crucial in an ever-changing market. As a consultative recruiter, you’ll be able to adapt more easily and make decisions more quickly. Clients are also rapidly expecting more from recruitment services. Recruitment partnerships that dig deep into an organisation’s needs, offer experience and expertise, data-led decisions, the sharing of insights, and a fully rounded, strategic talent plan are what’s needed now and in the future.
Wave aims to create a world where talent is never missed by providing recruitment solutions through a mix of cutting-edge technology and creativity, via WaveTrackR (data-powered multi-poster and analytics tool), RecWebs (tailored recruitment websites) and WaveMedia (strategic recruitment media buying).
