Self Assessment – Candidates

What have you been up to during lockdown? If you’ve been furloughed and not able to maintain communication with your talent pool then it’s totally understandable. There is a definite need to get your housekeeping in order and get on top of your talent pool. Set aside time in blocks to get your database up to date and create hotlists of your best candidates. A minimum of two hours per day talking to candidates to get a full up date:

• Where are they working
• What are they involved in
• What is happening where they work post lockdown? (think leads)
• What is their appetite to change jobs? What will it take?
• What else are they doing about finding it?

In some markets, there will be people being made redundant. We want to ensure we are adding value and providing good advice to all candidates. In this market some consultants make the mistake of not giving candidates enough attention, thinking that all they need is jobs. Candidates are the gateway to discovering where there is business. Build hotlists and maintain communication with your candidate pool. They will remember it and it will pay itself back.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Complete the bounce back pack
• Discuss with colleagues as to what is going to be in demand over the next three months. Start with that part of your talent pool to build your hotlists
• Make sure you attribute your candidates properly so you can find them quickly when jobs come in
• Create a timetable to invest two hours everyday calling and updating with your candidate pool
• Set goals for each week as to how many conversations you are going to have and what you want to achieve from those calls
• Send out an email to your talent pool to request an update from them. Response rates will be high so create lists of 100 candidates to mail per day. Target geographical hotspots and key skills
• Watch The Pillars covering Resilience, Planning and Cardio

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Although mid range, this isn’t a great score. It suggests that perhaps you’ve not been using your time effectively to build your talent pool and engage with your database fully to prepare for the bounce back. There is work to be done to get this up to date and to position yourself as a trusted adviser to your candidate pool. During the GFC of 2008/09 candidates were relatively easy to come by. This meant that some consultants didn’t invest in their candidate relationships and focused most of their attention on creating a pipeline of jobs. A 360 consultants cannot live with one and not the other. Balance is required in every market place. It is likely that candidates will behave with one of two behaviour types – ultra keen and hungry or uber passive and worried about change. Both will be more predictable and easier to manage with good quality, empathy-driven relationships in place. If you’ve held back from talking to more candidates as you’ve not had the work for them then you may have missed out on some golden opportunities to develop relationships with PTRs (candidates who have the Potential To Recruit), engage with candidates who could provide you with reference details of managers with mobile numbers or simply talk to people who have more time to talk to you as they work from home. Of course, this may not be the case and you were mad busy filling lots of jobs from a small corner of your database and didn’t have time to talk to any other candidates during lockdown.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Complete the rest of the bounce back pack
• Review your activity for the last three months during lockdown. What has been the driver for you not fully engaging with your talent pool as much as you could/should have?
• Based upon your client knowledge decide what you think will be the most in demand or the quickest skill set to recover from lockdown. Search the database to find all of the candidates who match the description and get hold of them with some urgency.
• If you were a candidate looking for work, what would be the most valuable thing a recruiter could share with you to keep you up to date and informed on the market? Create this as a cornerstone for your comms strategy. Create a mailing list for candidates to sign up to. As the market recovers you will have a group of candidates who know you and trust you.
• Who are your HVCs (High Value Candidates)? What are you doing for them proactively to help them achieve their goals? How likely are they to be willing to recommend you to others?
• Watch The Pillars on Urgency, Resilience and Planning

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Great stuff. The foundation of a high performing recruitment desk is often the speed at which talent can be found and presented to clients. With an engaged audience, you’re in a strong position to make money as we bounce back. Your hard work will pay off. You have an opportunity to capitalise on your hard work by refining your client sales pitch to communicate the value you provide with an engaged audience of potential candidates. If you have worked throughout the lockdown period whilst your competitors have either been on furlough or focused on other activities then you have a distinct competitive advantage. How you take this message to the client landscape will help separate you from your competitors and help you win committed business. It is important that you maintain this level of engagement and don’t lose it as your job flow increases. Seek opportunities to automate some of your communication to keep people engaged and receiving regular, relevant communication.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Complete the bounce back pack
• Capitalise on your candidate talent pool and knowledge by developing insights to share with clients around availability, rates, lockdown experiences and candidate’s motives for looking. Putting together an infographic and whitepapers will help you develop your personal brand.
• Segment your candidate pool so you can find your PTRs (candidates with the potential to recruit), HVCs (High Value Candidates) and active candidates so you can find them quickly (hotlists)
• Create networking opportunities for your candidate pool – host online sessions/webinars to do one to many updates where candidates can then Q&A with you. This keeps engagement without needing to speak to every one to one. Anyone who wants more time with you can call you
• Create video eshots of your best candidates to promote them to your prospects and existing clients. Get the most out of the buy in that exists between you and your candidates
• Spec out your immediately available, next week’s finishers and next month’s available workers to those who hire temps or contractors. Make it a weekly update on the market and a menu that clients can hire from

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