Recruiting in a Competitive Environment

The job market has changed radically in the last four years. It’s now a candidate driven market and Procurement leaders consistently name skills shortages as one of their top challenges. The inability to attract and retain Procurement talent holds companies back, It stagnates growth, market share and revenue. There's a serious shortage of skilled talent searching for a job. That said, there no such shortage of competitors vying to hire them before your firm has the chance.

Many recruiters are asking themselves: How do I stand out and differentiate Myself from the rest?  

Rule number one is to know your industry. This is why it is paramount to have an industry focus and a niche. Without industry knowledge, your credibility goes out the window. And although recruiting is a big world, your reputation -positive and negative- travels fast.  

Whatever position you’re staffing, whatever industry you’re supporting, the actions listed below will help you separate yourself from the others and can turn you from a recruiter into a “power broker.”  

Pick Up the Phone

After you finish a search, pick up the phone and speak to the candidate using a list of position-specific questions. If you can’t reach them, don’t forget to leave a detailed voicemail. If the candidate is a good fit, email them the job description and invite them to connect on LinkedIn. Make sure you use this email to set up a more formal conversation as soon as possible. Figure out when, how and where you can best reach them. I know people don’t always read their emails, but who doesn’t at least get an alert when they’ve received a new message? 

Follow Up

You should make calls to your submittal pipeline at least every other day. It’s not a lot of work, but most recruiters won’t make this effort to keep in touch with their candidates. In many cases, a candidate won’t hear back from their recruiter until they’ve received an interview request. Others will have to wait until they’ve been turned down. A minimal amount of effort to remind a candidate that you’re still alive and working on their behalf can yield significant returns by ensuring candidates stay engaged and accept offers when the time comes. Letting your candidates know they’re valuable builds loyalty and helps you distinguish yourself as a dependable advocate. In a market flooded with recruiters, you’ve got to earn this distinction. Put yourself in their shoes. If you put yourself out there and engaged a recruiter, you would expect – and deserve – that level of attention.

Know the Role

As a recruiter, your subject matter expertise is everything. It’s how you build your reputation and it’s how you deliver results. You have to know enough about the job, company and industry in question to provide details you wouldn’t find on a listing. It’s possible that a candidate could look great on paper but ultimately prove a terrible culture fit. Your insights should help empower you to quickly and confidently make these assessments. The only way you can gain these insights is by conducting research and asking the right questions of the hiring manager. Cover your bases because a bad fit will not look good in the eyes of a client or a candidate.  

It sounds simple, and the reality is that it is simple. Know your industry, stay consistent, follow up and know the role for which you are recruiting.  In a saturated market, you need to remember and excel at the fundamentals in order to distinguish yourself.