Member Article

The Year of The Candidate

[Chinese New Year - Douglas Jackson the Year of the Candidate]

We celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Horse; ‘The spirit of which is recognized to be the Chinese people’s ethos – making unremitting efforts to improve themselves, whilst being energetic, bright, warm-hearted, intelligent and able’. (Quote from www.TravelChinaGuide.com)

Embracing this and in line with one of our key business values to continue to improve and develop our service offering, Douglas Jackson would like to make 2014 ‘The Year of the Candidate’.

Recruiters are quite rightly focussed on their client, as they are the paying customer and the business who is leading the hiring assignment. However, all too often, there is too little emphasis on our other client, our potential candidate and our customer too! We think that for a true recruitment specialist, this also needs to be a major focus and priority.

[Chief Customer Officer - Douglas Jackson Recruitment]

If you are a regular reader of our blog, we have said many times that recruitment is changing and part of this change means that the days where anonymous recruiters take little detail about you before sending them for roles, then, following CV’s sent out, or, interviews taken place, never get back to you, are almost long gone and if they are not yet, they really soon should be.

Only a few days before Christmas we were talking with another Director level candidate who was thanking us for coming back to them, they said ‘they find that so many recruiters still do not and how frustrating this was for them’. Unfortunately, this is a long standing and frequent complaint from our industry. This individual went on to say ‘that they, (recruiters) forget they are placing potential employers in the future’ which is very true.

Since our inception, the team at Douglas Jackson set out and have maintained that the Candidate Experience would always be one of our key priorities and values within our business and this has served us well. The above comments are not unique from our customers and many of our current client (fee paying) customers, started out as someone who approached us for help with future career opportunities, market advice, or their job search.

Sadly, we are unable to place everyone we speak too, or, work with, but we do wish we could, (although we would probably be somewhere in the Indian Ocean, looking at this view as opposed to penning this blog on a cold grey January day….).

[The Year of the Candidate - Douglas Jackson view from luxury yacht]

We might not be able to place everyone and on occasion, we accept that some individuals have not been pleased, when we have not been able, or, willing to select them for the roles they are interested in, (although we will always give feedback and explain why when asked). We are afraid that this part of recruitment will not change, as every applicant, or, potential individual will not be right for every role. However, we will continue to provide you with support and guidance wherever possible and are committed to providing as much feedback as we can, to each individual we represent for an opportunity.

A good recruitment consultant might well be paid by their client customer but we have two customers and without the candidate the successful assignment could not be achieved. A trusted recruitment consultant is someone you should be able to call on and speak with, or, get a response from, when you ask for one and this should be the person you trust with your future career and job applications. A trusted recruitment consultant is for life, or at least, hopefully not just this years job search and you should choose yours based on their ability to help and advice as best they can, even if you might not make them a fee that day, or year.

We asked our social network ‘What would be the key factors that would make you choose to register, or work with, (as a candidate) one recruiter over another?’

David St.J Richards posted on Twitter: “Regular feedback, working on your behalf, CV tips, negotiating power, success story, industry respected.” [DavidStJRichards Twitter]

[Simon Jones]

Simon Jones Follow up calls even if the news is not positive, following up any promises made, honesty and so on, the same in selecting any provider of a service in my view. Like Estate Agents, Recruitment Consultants work for “both sides” and it is a fine line, and like Estate Agents some do it very well indeed, and some don’t… I think everyone appreciates it is a high pressure sales business, but the candidates of today are the clients of tomorrow, would you go back and use an agency who you felt didn’t represent you or a role correctly?

[Kevin Carr]

Kevin Carr Interesting enough I agree with Simon. I had a recruiter who tried to use my interview experience to promote another candidate, which didn’t feel like all things were equal and subsequently failed to provide any feedback whatsoever. Bad experience overall

[Stephen Noall]

Stephen Noall It’s all about communication no matter what the situation. It’s also a great idea to have some sort of face to face contact either via skype or a meeting as this helps to recruiter and client to form a working relationship. It’s critical in order for the recruiter to sell the client as a whole package and this is more effective if a meeting has taken place

[Ian Foster]

Ian Foster Definitely communication is key even if bad news, I think talent guys can be scared to rely anything but good news

We would also be interested to hear from you about your thoughts and opinions on the same question, please take part in this quick poll, or post your comments below:

[polldaddy poll=7703235]

We know that we can always improve, so if you feel there is anything else you would like to see us do for you, then please do let us know so we can help make this the year of the candidate.

If you are working within Customer Strategy, Contact Centres and Customer Experience and are considering a possible career move, or, if the candidate experience is really important for your future hires, then why not give us a call and see what we can do for you. Tel : 0845 620 9720

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Douglas Jackson Limited .