(Note: This is the fourth in a series of blogs that shares the thoughts of industry trainers regarding what recruiters should be doing to prepare for the economic recovery. Below are the insights of Greg Doersching of The Griffin Group.)
“Recruiters should be thinking about areas and the types of positions where the demand is still going to be high, regardless of a recession, and I’m talking mainly about math and the sciences. You still have to look at the degrees that clients are requiring, especially the demand for degrees that exceeds the number of graduates. There’s IT, Engineering, Research and Development . . . anything in the sciences.
“Recruiters also have to realize that even if times change, you can’t play the ‘one-hit wonder game.’ You have to develop legitimate clients, ones that might not use you as often, but if they have a need, they’ll call you first and give you exclusive rights to fill something. It’s all about follow-up and relationship building. Recruiters need to start building relationships now, even if they know they’re going to hear, ‘We don’t have a need right now.’ You have to say, ‘I understand that, but you’re going to have needs in the future, and I want to explain why we’ll provide a better value when you do.’
“Recruiters also need to upgrade the level of their deliverables. You can’t continue to just send a resume and think that clients are going to write a check for $14,000. You need to screen the candidates, tell the clients you’ve screened them, give them the interview notes and the reference checks, and let them know that the work has been done. If you don’t have a process in place for putting high-end deliverables in front of the clients you do get, you’re not going to retain them for very long.”
(The above information appeared previously in the Networking News newsletter, a publication of Top Echelon Network, the leading split placement network of recruiters.)
leave a reply