Developing & Nurturing Candidate Relationships

Most recruiters can agree that there are two types of recruitment- passive and active. Passive recruitment tends to lend itself to more candidate involvement. The majority of your time is spent building that relationship with the candidate & earning their trust while all along suggesting and offering opportunities for them to consider. It's not uncommon for the passive candidate to stay in your pipeline for several months because they are only looking to make a career change for the "perfect" position. Contrary to the passive candidate is the active candidate who is ready for a career change now and has typically already begun their search and might even be coming to you as a secondary route.

Regardless of the type of candidate that you are dealing with (passive or active) it is extremely important that they have the experience of "knowing" you. Building candidate relationships with each and every individual that will stand strong over the months and years translates into loyalty and referrals that will increase placements and income. Critical to the process of building that relationship is the art of listening. Make it a practice to be fully present during all of your conversations. Learn what is important to each unique candidate. Perhaps there is a special needs child involved, or maybe their spouse is an avid skier and wants to be near great slopes. Regardless of your candidate's considerations it's important to "get them". Everybody wants to be "gotten". Said another way, everybody wants the experience of being heard and understood. Too often we as human beings are too busy thinking about how we will respond to what's being said and we end up not being present to the conversation. Often as recruiters we are too busy thinking about the role that we need to fill, or our next phone call. It may turn out that the person with whom you are speaking to is not a fit for the role, but by getting to know them you have already begun to establish the trust needed to pitch the role yet to come.
Be sure that every candidate you speak to knows that you are working for them and that you appreciate them. As a recruiter I used to end my calls by asking if there was anything I may have forgotten to ask that is of importance to them, or if there was anything additional that I should know that would make a difference to them and their family. Each call was ended with a "thank you" and a reminder that I was available to them whenever they needed me. Taking and organizing detailed notes during each communication is critical to building and nurturing your blossoming relationships. Having the right tool to assist you in keeping everything at your fingertips is imperative.

RecruiterBuddy is a web-based recruiting tool designed to simplify relationship building and nurturing. Pertinent information is right at your fingertips and users can set reminders for important dates that should be acknowledged. In addition to managing your relationships, RecruiterBuddy also sources for new talent. The RecruiterBuddy Sleuth Tool scours the internet for talent specific to your input and returns only relevant candidates which can be imported to your database with one click of the mouse! The Sleuth Tool and a Parsing Tool are both standard features available to all RecruiterBuddy users. RecruiterBuddy doesn't require any long-term commitment and offers a no obligation trial as well. At $50 per user monthly you can't go wrong! Sign up for your free trial or request a demo at www.RecruiterBuddy.com