Bless you recruitment marketers, surrounded by recruiters avidly trying to hit target, asking for pretty pictures and business cards, asking for you to organise events, create PDFs, memes, job adverts and PowerPoint decks! And at the same time you all say to your boss and I...
I want to add value
I have written about the approach many recruiters take to their marketing departments, in that they treat them like the CID – the colouring-in department.
Recruiters Are from Venus
And bless you recruiters, stressfully avidly trying to hit target in a pre / during / post / wherever-the-hell-we-are Brexit world. With clients having the same access to recruitment tech (LinkedIn) as you, and all you want is the candidate to apply / turn up for interview / dazzle the clients and start on time (and stay long enough!!!) And at the same time you all say to me
I want my marketing department to add value
So the colouring-in department is avidly crayoning their value into the recruiters’ pipeline… And it’s often lost in translation. Marketing departments are often surrounded by colours and, wait for it, criminals.
I want to highlight another CID that I see in recruitment marketing:
The Criminal Investigation Department
Is Your Recruitment Marketing Department the CID?
When I work with recruitment marketers – all levels from Strategic Global Heads of Marketing and tactical Marketing Execs – I often start by reviewing the perception that the sales (recruitment) team has of the marketing department. It is often disconnected, blame cultures exist, marketers feel devalued (but keen to add value) and sales dread being asked to do marketing “stuff”.
Marketing is not seen as true sales support, rather it’s seen as more administrative than that.
Hours of “change requests” to make sales more effective by creating PowerPoint decks, mailers which don’t generate leads – potentially lots of “colouring in” and not enough convertible leads.
Sometimes the lack of perceived value which marketing brings to sales is driven by what seems to be stringent rules about what recruiters can’t do… and we know how recruiters love rules!
Marketers Are from Mars. To Police or Protect?
The marketing department is often seen as “policing” sales. Branding Guidelines are issued with guidance on how to position a logo and which version of blue you need to stick to.
LinkedIn Recruiter, Job Board and Broadbean licences are audited and given and taken away. The goal of every marketer to protect the recruitment firm but in the process (and likely due to lack of resource and time) they police, rather than protect. Hence the 2nd CID kicks in.
The goal is sound, but the outcome often divisive. Lots of “no you can’t do that!”, “can you stop doing that?” “have you read the brand guidelines?” Rather than time for...
Have you thought about…?
I know that you’re trying to… I’ve come up with…
I saw this online last week and know it’ll help you solve…
I know you have a campaign for… I’ve got something that’ll really improve…
Marketers Need to Be Allowed to "Get" Sales
Recruitment marketers need to be allowed to “get” Sales, generate leads, demonstrate value and get into the thick of a growing recruitment business. They need to be given the time, mentoring, and information to develop clear paths to successful sales-led strategies, or they risk simply saying “no” to people who tend to not take no for an answer.
Then the crayons and handcuffs are retired in favour of genuine value-added services delivered by marketers who are seen as crucial to the sales process.
I train and mentor recruitment marketers to deliver the 4Cs - candidates, clients, colleagues, and cash!
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Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate clients, and colleagues (3Cs).
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How Can Recruiters Improve Performance? Get on the Phone!
Recruiters can always improve their performance, whether it be marginal gains or drastically improving failing pipelines. Right now is the time to dig deep and ask:Where can I improve my recruiter performance? AndWhat part of my recruitment workflow can I improve?Take a speedy 30mins and listen / watch my latest Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast. Take a few notes and grab a few takeaways for your recruitment business and your recruitment desk.Recruitment Research: Phone Calls Are a DownerI spent time with Josh Symons from Hinterview. Hinterview has completed some interesting recruitment research to help recruitment leaders and their recruiters focus on where and when they need to get mean and lean in their recruitment workflow!We chatted about how and where recruiters can improve their recruiter performance.Recruiters, Get On the Phone!Josh and I have both been in recruitment for a while and the tried and tested recruitment mantra “get on the phone” has never been more relevant…BUTOnly 10% of calls get answeredCall volume is up 200% - your candidates and clients are saturated with callsBut only 5% of voicemails get listened to.So “get on the phone and hope” isn’t the way to go.But what is? What do recruiters need to do to improve their recruiter performance? And how can we keep phone calls front and centre?How Can the Phone Still Be “The Way” to Recruit and Sell? Josh and I talked about:With all of the recruitment technology available, how can you keep the recruitment process human?Where in the recruitment life cycle can recruiters improve their performance?How can video improve recruiter performance?Phone calls work IF you want and mean them to – but how?How can a recruiter generate heat?What’s Daley Thompson’s decathlon got to do with recruitment?Why does recruitment technology often not work in recruitment (hint – it’s got the word “training” in the answer)What are 85% of male recruiters also doing when they are most engaged with their mobile phones?Recruitment leaders and recruiters – you want your phone calls to work! Listening / watching this recruitment podcast episode will help you use your mobile to improve your phone calls, candidates and clients, and sales.Get at least one takeaway to help you improve recruiter performance and nail those phone calls.Make Your Phone Calls Work! Listen and WatchLISTEN TO THE RECRUITMENT PODCAST EPISODEThanks, Josh, for being such a great sport. You have such passion and purpose, and have so many valuable ideas around best practice and recruiter productivity and performance.Listen and subscribe to the rest of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast Series on SoundCloud or find us on iTunes and subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch our vodcast series too!… Talking of Recruiter Performance, Phone Calls, Productivity…Improving recruiter performance and recruitment tech ROI comes from recruiter training. Our recruitment training platform, Recruitment HIIT is focussed on those 2 things.Recruitment HIIT helps onboard new recruiters, and refresh experienced recruiters so they can improve their performance.It contains a wealth of recruitment best practice tips, as well as “how to” for recruitment technology such as Bullhorn, SourceBreaker, Hinterview, Daxtra, Broadbean, idibu, and LinkedIn.TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREE
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Blog
3 Ways to be a Jedi Recruiter
Recruiters! Did you know it takes over 25 hours to watch all of the Star Wars movies? I personally think that's a great use of time, of course, once you've attracted, engaged, converted, and placed the best candidates in the galaxy! Every day is a Kessel Run for the recruiters we work with! Being a Jedi is crucial!To celebrate the annual upcoming Star Wars Day I spoke with a fellow Star Wars geek (and recruitment trainer), Phil, Head of Talent at First Point Group, about what he feels are the top 3 skills that Jedi and Recruiters share.Defence – Recruiters Need to DefendThe ability to objection handle, be prepared, prevent drop outs, and to expect the unexpected – that’s part of recruitment. It’s about reading the Jedi path in front of you and being ready to defend. It’s about defending your candidates, whether they be scruffy-looking nerf herders or teachers. It's about managing and preventing counteroffers. 57% of candidates accept counteroffers that are made to them. This shows the odds are not in your favour, so you need to be prepared.Luckily, our Recruiter Circuits workout on Recruitment HIIT has a course dedicated to helping you manage the offer stage of your recruitment process with your candidates so you can prevent counteroffers and secure your pipeline.Knowledge – Be a Knowledgeable RecruiterKnow your market! Whether it be Ewoks, or IT Developers, Millennium Falcon flight skills, or how to down a Dreadnaught, you need to be knowledgeable. What’s old, new, emerging in your sector…? Knowing the market, client, job, candidate, (and who your sister is) is key. Without this knowledge who knows who you’ll end up kissing!Continuous training is key to enhancing your recruiter skills and can increase sales by 50%. From reducing admin to improving sourcing, BD and beyond, Recruitment HIIT has speedy recruiter training videos to help you continuously improve your recruiter skills and fees.Training – Recruitment Training in The ForceLike Jedi, recruiters continuously training is a must. As Yoda says - “There is no try, only do!” Just like the Rebel Alliance fights against the evil Empire, as recruiters, we are in a battle - a battle for top candidates and clients! You need to be continuously upskilling to stay ahead in the competitive recruitment market - your commission depends on it. Just like The Force is a weapon for success, the best recruiters use their key rec tech, their CRM first for sourcing, engaging, nurturing, and placing candidates.As much as Jedi have the gene (midi-chlorian) they need to constantly train to battle dark forces, whether they be dirty data, drop outs, back door placements, or challenging clients (siths?). Our Bullhorn and Adapt training on Recruitment HIIT will ensure you use your CRM first to save time, improve your candidates and client relationships and placements.Become a Jedi RecruiterJedi, like recruiters, need to follow “the way”, whilst changing lives. They need to know when to lead, when to fight, and when to kiss! Never let it be said that recruitment is just a job – it’s a Way! Someone (Mando) once said… “This is the way!” How can you follow the "the way" as a recruiter? Our recruiter training courses on Recruitment HIIT will help you follow the recruitment 'way'. Our Recruiter Circuits course, especially, has "the way" with 5-minute training videos to ensure qualify your jobs, source, advertise, screen and nail your CV to Interview ratios.Thanks Phil– The Force is strong in you!Speaking of Recruiters Improving Through TrainingOur recruiter training courses on Recruitment HIIT helps recruiters and resourcers source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines. Bullhorn CRM training, job qualification, screening, candidate sourcing, job advertising and management, and reducing counteroffers, are just some of the 5-minute topics recruiters love.We're saving recruiters and resourcers at least 1 hour per day (6 working weeks a year) - more billing time, more fees!TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREE
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