You CAN Make Recruitment Agency Marketing Videos In-house – Part One

Marketing VideoSharing videos online is a great way to help market your recruitment agency’s brand, promote your services and attract more of the best candidates – but how do you create slick, effective video content? Do you hire a professional corporate video production agency, or do you do it yourself, in-house? A professionally shot and edited marketing video is fantastic, but if you simply don’t have the budget, or relish the challenge of creating one yourself, the first in a series of blogs from Shane Wheeler, Marketing Communications Executive, Adapt will arm you with all the information and advice you need to start making high-quality videos which effectively deliver your message.

The Beginning: Pre-Production

Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end, and this series of blogs about telling your story begins with tips on selecting your video recording kit…

[tweet_box design=”box_01″ float=”none”]There are so many video and sound products on the market, making the best choices can be quite daunting.[/tweet_box]When producing video content in-house, especially single-handedly, my advice is to think ‘simple and effective’. Used in the right ways, modest kit and software really can give you great results. The trick is not to overstretch and attempt elaborate camera moves and sound effects when the same content presented in a solid, dependable manner can be just as effective – perhaps even more so.

My mantra is ‘No cheese’. Applying seemingly ‘flashy’ effects on a modest budget can cheapen the look of your video, render it ‘cheesy’ and disenchant the viewer. Simple, nicely-framed shots and subtle effects will deliver quality and your viewers will pay more attention. That way, your videos can rank alongside those of your competitors – even if they’ve splashed-out on professional video productions with all the bells and whistles.

Which type of camera to use?

We’ve grabbed the occasional clip via a smartphone, but because phones are tricky to handle as cameras (and the video quality is just ‘okay’), I would recommend using a camcorder or a DSLR. You can buy camera mounts for phones, but budget is better spent on ‘proper’ cameras – they’re purpose-built and it’ll be easier for you to manage the recorded video files.

A camcorder…

Handycam

While the humble consumer camcorder (think ‘Handycam’, not professional camcorder) is becoming antiquated, they still have their place, especially for shooting marketing videos where time is often tight. A reasonably priced consumer camcorder such as the Sony CX450 Handycam® will deliver great quality HD pictures and serviceable sound.

Camcorders tend to make auto-shooting very easy. They handle well and you can pretty much ‘point and shoot’ and the results will look fine. The image can be quite flat, often with everything in focus, but it will also be sharp and detailed.

…or a DSLR?

DSLR Generally speaking, popular consumer DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras deliver better quality video than consumer camcorders at a (fairly) similar price-point. They’re a lot more flexible and you have a huge choice of lenses. When it comes to image depth and all-round ‘feel-good’ factor, even the kit lens which comes in the box with a DSLR is going to blow-away the lens built into a consumer camcorder.

DSLRs deliver fantastic results, but without elaborate and pricey additional kit such as mounts and follow-focus, they are cumbersome as video cameras. DSLRs are built for still photography first and foremost and they handle that way, so you need a handheld or shoulder mount to really get the camcorder ‘feel’. Also, DSLRs often need to be manually focused during video recording, which is tricky even for the most dexterous users. A ‘follow focus’ built onto the mount will certainly help in this regard, but, for speed, auto-focus can be better and auto-focus features are still fairly rare in DSLR models…although more are being released all the time, such as the Canon EOS 750D. In short, when looking to shoot quickly and cost-effectively, DSLRs are great on tripods, but can be tricky handheld.

The sound effect

[tweet_box design=”box_01″ float=”none”]Do not underestimate the importance of sound.[/tweet_box]In my experience, the majority of viewers readily accept low quality images over low quality sound. Low quality sound distracts viewers and screams ‘sub-par’ very quickly, taking them out of the experience of watching the video – which is disastrous if you want them to quickly receive your marketing message.

Your camera of choice will most likely also record sound, however I referred to sound from a camcorder being ‘serviceable’ above because a few simple factors often result in sub-par sound from the built-in mic. Probably due to the size and quality of the mic, camera-recorded soundtracks often have some underlying ‘hiss’ which might cast your mind back to listening to tape cassettes! Also, some cameras record the sound of their internal mechanics along with the sound you actually need, i.e. your subject. But don’t worry, there are a couple of good, cost-effective ways to record great quality sound, free of hiss, cogs turning or fingers pressing…

External mic? – plug it in!

You can record good quality sound via the camcorder or DSLR by attaching an external microphone. Simply slot the mic into the ‘shoe’ on top of the camera and plug the cable into the ‘Mic in’ socket. A directional (also known as ‘shotgun’) mic such as the Rode Video Mic will pick-up sound from the direction the camera is pointing, effectively ‘listen’ to the speaker and mostly ‘ignore’ the ambient sound to its sides and rear. This way, the camera will prioritise the external mic over the built-in one and your video will look and sound good.

Separate sound recorder = great idea!

There are some slight drawbacks to the external mic solution described above. When the mic is attached to the camera, you are unable to place the mic closer to your subject to make sure they’re recorded loud and clear.

To record from the best possible position for the sound, not just from the position of the camera, I swear by my Zoom Handy H4N sound recorder. I can place it wherever I like to get great quality sound, separate from the camera. In doing so, not only do you have a better chance of recording the sound (some people do have naturally low voices), you also have two sound recording options to choose from in the edit – the sound from the camera and the sound from the external sound recorder. If the camera sound is from the built in mic, that’s not ideal of course, but with an external mic attached to the camera and separate sound, you have the best of both worlds. Then you can pick the best sound to use depending on the quality and how appropriate it is to the content. If the person is speaking too softly – no problem, if the camera’s mic happens to be touched by accident – no problem.

Now you’ve selected your kit, what’s next? In Part Two, I share my advice for setting-up the kit and conducting great interviews with company spokespeople…

Jump Start Your Social Media Strategy

Social Media Strategy FeaturedLess than a decade ago, recruitment agencies were urged to join in with social media and conferences and webinars were dedicated to teaching people how to setup accounts. Fast forward to 2016 and you might struggle to find a recruitment agency that doesn’t have a presence on at least one social media network, but do they have a recruitment social media strategy?

What you might find instead is a surprisingly large number of recruitment agencies that don’t use social media beyond having a minor presence. Perhaps you will find a page without any content or a profile filled only with job opening posts. It isn’t uncommon to come across a company page on social media that actively posted for several months, but then completely stopped. I saw a website the other day that proudly displayed 6 social media icons…none of which actually linked to a social media site. If you are sheepishly hanging your head because I am describing your company’s social media reality, then it’s time to think about your social media strategy.

Pick a Network or Two

Having a social media strategy does not mean you need to be present on every single social media platform available. Most likely you won’t have the resources to keep up with all of them. There are two things to consider when picking a social media network – what is your goal and where is your audience.

[tweet_box design=”box_01″ float=”none”]Having a social media strategy does not mean you need to be present on every single social media platform available[/tweet_box]

To start, determine your goal for participating in social media.

  • Are you trying to engage candidates and employees?
  • Are you trying to attract new candidates or clients?

The next step is to determine where your audience spends their time.

  • Facebook is the most popular social network with 1.65 billion users. Engagement may occur outside of typical business hours.
  • Twitter has fewer users and users spend less time here than Facebook.
  • LinkedIn is a professional network and is used to exchange industry information.
  • Both Snapchat and Instagram are primarily composed of millennial users, but these two networks aren’t the only places to find millennials.
  • Pinterest users tend to be female and are more active outside of typical business hours.

Once you have identified your goal and where your audience spends their time, pick one or two social networks and focus on being really active on those sites.

[tweet_box design=”box_01″ float=”none”]Pick one or two social networks and focus on being really active on those sites[/tweet_box]

Plan Your Approach and Measure Your Results

Once you have picked your network, determine the type of activity that will occur on your page. Your activity should be both proactive posts sharing with your audience and reactive posts engaging with your audience. Perhaps some of the following would be good content for you to share?

  • Job openings (just be sure it isn’t the only thing you post).
  • If you are attending a job fair, conducting a webinar, or attending another type of event, don’t forget to let your social network know about it.
  • Photos of happenings at your office or employees on assignment.
  • Information about your industry.
  • Career advice
  • Retweet or share the work of others. Nothing says that the content on your social media feed needs to be your own. If you come across content that you think is relevant to your audience, share it.

Your reactive posts are just as important (sometimes more important) than your proactive ones. If someone comments on an item you have posted or shares your post, engage them. You can respond to their comment or simply acknowledge their share with a like. The important thing is to engage.

Engaging Candidates Through Education

Educating Featured ImageKeeping candidates engaged is tough. Although they might not be the best fit for one of your open positions right now, you may have the right job for them in a few weeks. How do you make sure they keep your recruitment agency in mind for future job searches?

Not only should you be offering more than your competition, but also making sure you are offering something of real value. To set your agency apart from its competitors, provide your candidates with continual educational content. Here are five ideas on how to get started:

  • Hold free webinars online once a month. Webinars can be conducted using services such as GoToWebinar, AnyMeeting or ClickWebinar. Although there are costs associated with these services, they do have recording capabilities and will allow you to build up a webinar portfolio where candidates can access your content in a library. Webinar videos are great for posting on your YouTube page too.
  • Consider creating a series of webinars directed towards candidates in different industries. For example, for lawyers you could provide information on new and changing legislation in the law field. For medical, discuss any new certifications that might be of interest. For something more general, discuss interview skills, what to wear, and share motivational tips to boost the confidence of candidates during the interview process.

[tweet_box design=”box_01″ float=”none”]Set your agency apart from its competitors by providing candidates with educational content[/tweet_box]

  • You can also use free social media tools to host informal chats or Q&A sessions. Facebook Live, Google Hangouts and Blab all allow you to host live streaming sessions with candidates at a scheduled time. These can also be recorded as videos and added directly to your Facebook or Google+ pages for viewing after the event.
  • Ask people ahead of time what content they would find useful. This is helpful if you are stuck for ideas and also makes sure you are giving candidates what they need. If you are hosting a Q&A session post about it on social media in advance. Ask for candidates to submit questions they would like answered. This gives you time to prepare and make sure you are addressing questions in as much detail as possible.
  • With all the information you are gathering from Q&A sessions and webinars, you can create a lot of great content for newsletters and blog posts on your website. This will also provide candidates with informative and educational material.

The goal is to keep creating content that candidates want to come back for. Make it easy for them to sign up and register for new content. Even if they are not currently active job seekers, make sure you and your agency are top of mind when they are.

Recruitment 101

In the fast paced world of recruitment it can sometimes be easy to forget your manners and ensure that all candidates are treated with the same respect and courtesy. In this blog, James Payne, Sales Director, Adapt suggests going back to the basics with tips for recruitment 101.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

It can be a long process to head hunt a candidate to fill a specific role, ensure the profile is a perfect match and employment history ticks all of the boxes. So what happens when contact is made and you are faced with a negative response – they just aren’t interested in the role? Using basic skills and responding with a thank you email at this stage is vital to ensure that when the candidate is ready to make the move they contact you – not someone else. It shows you respect and value their time, and an appreciation that they made the effort to respond.

Ultimately, listening to your candidates is key. They may not be ready to change jobs just yet, your vacancy may just be that little bit too far away for them to happily travel or the role may not be the right fit for their skill set or career goals. Respecting your candidate goes a long way, and listening to them and contacting them at the right time will pay off in the long run.

Pick up the phone

There is such a heavy reliance on email nowadays. It is quick and efficient and can save precious time spent on fruitless phone calls, but it can be seen as impersonal. Unless you know a candidate really well it is hard to personalise an email with the kind of sentiment that can be used during a phone call. Finding out that Mary has two children and she takes them to football on a Tuesday is much easier via a phone call. It helps to build a relationship and provides an immediate reference for any future interactions!

Yes, email is effective but phone calls are better for building and strengthening relationships. It is, of course, essential to speak to candidates at a time that works for them – ensuring you don’t call them at a time when they are at work is critical. If not, you could end up creating an incredibly awkward situation for them with their current employer.

The same applies for the candidate pipeline. While maintaining candidates that you already have and while developing newer candidates, personalising your approach is something that will set you apart from other recruiters. Yes, a vacancy needs to be filled quickly but finding the right person to fill it and taking the time to find the right fit is critical to both the candidate and the client.

Don’t leave ‘em guessing

After weeks of calls and emails an interview is finally in place, but is your candidate prepared? Providing your candidate with the necessary information and ensuring that they are confident and feel supported is vital to a successful interview. An unprepared candidate can reflect badly on the recruiter. Your client will potentially be asking you some tough questions if the interview is a disaster and could look to use another recruiter for future roles. Leave nothing to chance, preparation is key.

After an interview it is essential to follow up with the candidate and the client – having the candidate feedback will be really helpful when asking your client what they thought and vice versa, provide them with the interviewer’s feedback, and gear them up for the response whether positive or negative.

Don’t leave people guessing, let them know whether they have got the position they have applied for, and also provide them with feedback where they have been unsuccessful. Offering feedback will put them in good stead for other interviews and help to develop skills.

Ten Steps to a Successful Staffing and Recruitment Software Implementation – Part Two

Implementation Featured Part TwoIn the second instalment James Payne, Sales Director, Adapt, shares the final five steps for a successful staffing and recruitment software implementation.

Step Six: Understand the migration process

Moving your existing data to the new software isn’t always the right decision. Rubbish in one system is just rubbish in the next. Sometimes a fresh start is a good idea. Be sure to have someone with technical knowledge of the database you are moving from and the application and business workflows involved in the process.

Step Seven: Consider your training objectives

Have you thought about how you are going to train your team? Do you have trainers already in place and ready to learn the new system? The right approach for you can depend on the size of your organisation. Less than five users, you can most-likely have them all trained online and ready to go in a few weeks. For a large organisation with multiple branches or lines of business it would make more sense to train several key people who in turn will train the rest of your staff. Just make sure you discuss this beforehand to know how to approach your training in the most time and cost effective way.

Step Eight:  Assess your reporting needs

Do you have reports you run on a daily, weekly or monthly basis? Is there a report you just can’t run your business without? Discuss those with your Project Manager at the start of the implementation project. Don’t assume your report is a standard one that every other agency uses. It could be unique to you.

Step Nine: Plan a thoughtful go-live

Your staffing software go-live should be a well-planned and executed event. Every go-live has many moving parts and many opportunities to fail. Your go-live can be smooth with just the right attention to all the details. Be sure to celebrate the success of launching a new recruitment software with all of your users.

Step Ten: Commit to ongoing education and improvement

Continually train new and existing staff. As staff turnover slowly erodes your agency of your internal software champions, you may find that knowledge and use of your software declines. Continual training plans can mitigate that issue and sometimes they don’t require a lot of time. For example, AdaptUX users are offered access to software tips, documentation, and training videos.

New recruitment software is an exciting investment and provides you a great opportunity to improve your business.  With the right team, planning, and execution, you can maintain the excitement and ensure continued success throughout the implementation and beyond.

Ten Steps to a Successful Staffing and Recruitment Software Implementation

Implementation Featured Part OneSelecting your recruitment agencies’ new CRM system can be a challenging process. You need to make sure it’s right for your business and can help it grow AND make money. Once selected, the next step is implementation. To be successful, this must be done right.

In the first of two posts, James Payne, Sales Director, Adapt, takes a look at the top ten steps for a successful staffing and recruitment software implementation.

From minor to major, there are many different reasons why your implementation can fall short. The project can fail if you are unable to prioritise and make time for the implementation. Make sure you are ready to focus on the project, embrace change and get ready to go live!

Here are ten tips you can use to help exceed everyone’s expectations and realise all the benefits of your new recruitment software.

Step One: Create a staffing software implementation Project Team

Having the right team in place will help you succeed with your implementation. Your chosen software provider should have a Project Manager in place for you, but no one knows your agency better than you. Assemble a team you know will champion the system and motivate and encourage the rest of the company during the change.

Step Two: Provide internal communication

Implementing new software can be a very straightforward process.  However, without updates and shared information, anyone not involved in making decisions can be left feeling in the dark, worried and anxious about what it might mean for them. Celebrate the implementation process along the way!

Step Three: Measure your progress

How do you keep everyone on track? If you aren’t getting them from your provider, ask for regular updates. Key tasks and milestones will be set for you and the team you are working with, and it’s important both sides meet their goals.

Step Four: Internal Project Management

Failure to complete your project tasks can lead to project delays, increased costs, and sometimes even project failure. There are project management best practices you can use to ensure your staff are on track.

Step Five: Review your processes

Truly successful software implementations are done by staffing agencies that go beyond simply installing new software; instead, they incorporate the new software into their business and processes from day one.  In order to achieve this success, the changes must be managed throughout the implementation and your users must be represented with each step.

In the next instalment, we look at the final five steps for how to successfully implement your new staffing and recruitment software.

Preventing the No Call No Show

Nothing frustrates you more than wasting your time putting an employee on assignment just for them to fail to show up. Certainly there are legitimate reasons for the absence – car broke down, child is sick, etc. but the reason doesn’t prevent you from scrambling around to find a replacement or make up for the disappointed client. This phenomenon isn’t new and affects staffing firms all across the country. We compiled a list of the best solutions that we have heard for preventing the no call no show.

  1. Clear Attendance Policy – most importantly, have a clear written attendance policy establishing the expectations with the employee.
  2. Monetary Incentives – incentivizing employees to maintain good attendance records pushes employees to try to overcome whatever causes them to be absent such as finding alternative transportation or childcare. Setup an attendance program providing the employee with a bonus if they have good attendance.
  3. Fun Incentives – some employees may be more incentivized by a big prize than a small monetary bonus. Increase the fun factor by creating a raffle for a noteworthy prize. Each day, week, or assignment when the employee has good attendance results in an entry into the raffle.
  4. Competitive Incentives – if money and prizes don’t incentivize the employees towards better attendance, then perhaps friendly competition will instead. Reward the employees with the best attendance across the branch or company. If the assignment is big enough, the competition could even be narrowed to that level too. Announce the leaders in the attendance “race” as the contest runs.  The competition could inspire employees to improve their attendance or keep up their good attendance.
  5. Be the Better Assignment – some employees don’t show up for an assignment, because they receive a last minute call from another staffing agency offering them better pay. Offer competitive wages in order to win the last minute war for the employee.
  6. Call Ahead – a call placed to the employee the night before reminds them of the upcoming assignment and ensures there is no confusion over schedules.
  7. Wake Up Call – a call placed the morning of the assignment may serve as a wake-up call to an employee who may have otherwise over-slept. The Call Ahead and Wake Up Call methods seem like significant extra effort, but technology can help you. Call-Em-All is an automated call and texting service that allows you to alert and remind your employees. With this service integrated to your staffing software, you can pull your employee lists easily and the overall effort to call ahead is minimal.
  8. Overbook – no matter how much effort you put in to preventing the no call no show, you may always experience it. Instead of spending your time and money on prevention, you could plan for the inevitable event. Overbook the assignment. If the assignment calls for 10 employees, assign 11. It may cost more, but it eliminates the need for last minute scrambling and avoids disappointing the client.
  9. Employee Standby – if overbooking each assignment is overkill, keeping several employees on paid standby helps cover the no call no shows of multiple assignments.
  10. Reputation – when an employee has poor attendance, do not place them on future assignments and let them know the reason. When called for employment checks, share the poor attendance record. The poor reputation will eventually get the employee to improve.

The solution to preventing the no call no show may not be found in one single approach. Instead try combining several complimenting approaches to help reduce the occurrence and maintain happy clients.

Top 10 Texting Tips, and how to avoid SMS howlers – with Text Marketer

We are excited to announce our next webinar, this time in conjunction with Text Marketer. Text Marketer are one of the UK’s first business SMS companies and their wealth of knowledge in the recruitment sector is second to none.

They are the SMS supplier of choice for many of the UK’s biggest and best known brands, because of their fantastically simple easy-to-use platform but also their incredibly low prices and amazing support team.

Join us with Paul Spencer, Director at Text Marketer to get 10 Top Tips on using text messaging effectively in your recruitment business. Also, how to avoid some real SMS howlers along the way! If you want to know how to send messages in an engaging way, increasing your response rate, this webinar is one to attend.

Subject: Top 10 Texting Tips, and how to avoid SMS howlers – with Text Marketer
Date: Thursday 30th June
Time: 10 am

Register here

Paul SpencerAbout Paul:

Paul has over 13 years’ experience in all things SMS. He is responsible for the overall running of Text Marketer and growing the business, especially with the recruitment industry sector.

 

Text MarketerAbout Text Marketer:

They have been living, eating and breathing SMS since 1999. Text Marketer were one of the first business SMS providers in the UK. So whatever your angle or application for SMS – there’s a pretty good chance they will have come across it before and can help!

 

Fast-Moving Temps: Handle the Curves and Stay on Track

Fast Moving TempsAs fast-moving temp recruiters, how do you take pole position and win repeat business? Oliver Perilli, Senior Sales Executive, Adapt, explains how dynamic technology can help you avoid the pit-stops…

Two very important factors in temp recruitment are how quickly you can react to new requirements and how quickly you can find suitable workers – and there are certainly challenges in succeeding on both fronts.

New assignments can come in at any time of day or night, especially in sectors such as nursing or teaching. You may be told in the early hours of the morning that a teacher is unable to work that day or a nurse is urgently required to cover a shift. On a fast-moving temp desk it can sometimes be about working 24/7, that’s how quickly opportunities can come and go.

Fire-up your CRM – whenever, wherever

You may not be in the office when you learn of a new requirement, you may still be in bed or having your breakfast. If that’s the case you need fast remote access to your recruitment CRM and this begins with the cloud and Software as a Service; being able to fire-up a web browser and access your CRM wherever you are – via your laptop, tablet, or the mobile phone you were holding when you took the call or read the email.

You need to find your contact’s record then input the details ASAP. As you know, client requests can range in complexity from ‘We need someone today, between these hours…’ to ‘we need someone for a varied range of shifts with different patterns, times of day and pay rates…’, so depending on your access and the level of your CRM’s usability, you may face challenges when inputting requirements.

If you’re a fast-moving temp recruiter, you need a fast-moving temp desk – a set of calendars, the ability to input different variables, rates, hours, days on, days off, overnight, compliance requirements, on-boarding checks – one place to manage everything. The ability to create complex shift patterns in a simple way is imperative.

Quickly find a solution

Once the clients’ requirements are in your recruitment CRM, that’s only the first step. The next step is finding a solution. In order to have information regarding suitable candidates ready at the click of a button, pre-requisites are needed – a key one being the candidate’s ability to easily specify their availability. You probably have access to a substantial candidate base and all those candidates should be able to say ‘I’m definitely available this day’ or ‘I’m definitely not available at this time’, or ‘I can’t work Friday afternoons because I’m looking after my kids.’ and all availability information needs to be compiled within a calendar for each individual to be used as part of the searching and matching criteria.

All the information should be easily added to the CRM and simply accessed and viewed by you – a one-click mechanism for full visibility. When you input a client requirement, your temp desk should be powerful enough to find suitable temps with the right availability, skills, location and pay. The solution presented to you should contain temps available and willing to work right now or when the requirement dictates. It should also contain details of who’s previously worked for that client and who you should never send back there.

Flexible booking and re-booking

But the challenges don’t end there because now you need to book workers into positions. If it’s one person working shift patterns, that should be a simple case of dragging and dropping them into shifts on your CRM calendar…but what if fifty people are needed, or a hundred people in a warehouse, all with complex dates and times? Your temp desk needs to display available workers and have a quick and easy way of booking them into jobs in one click or drag and drop, without the need to do everything individually because, well, time is money.

Your next challenge comes when the client calls and says ‘Those temps you booked in, I need them the following Thursday and Friday at specific times…’ – your temp desk must be able to extend and re-book all, or just a few, of those workers. Alternatively you may need to just carry forward the requirement so other temps can be sought to fill the gaps.

Compliant, booked and delivered

Your CRM also needs to take into consideration the compliance requirements. With fast-moving temps, it’s all about making sure checks are done upfront so when an assignment comes in, your list of suitable candidates are already compliant. Your temp desk should provide full visibility of the checks required for the role, including site and job specific ones, and display the candidate’s compliance details.

When it comes to travel, two temps in London for example could live the same distance from a clients’ location but, depending on the transport links available to them at that time of day, it could take one of them considerably longer than the other to arrive.

All these things need to be considered and easily visible to help you make the right decisions and quickly notify the client; giving them the comfort you’ve found the right people, they’re booked-in, they have the right skills and they’re compliant.

Dealing with fast-moving temps is complex and challenging, and these are just some of the tools your CRM temp desk should provide to ensure you remain effective, productive, competitive and profitable.

Mastering the Art of Client Retention

client retention in recruitmentClient retention is critical to all organisations; after all, retaining customers as well as a healthy pipeline is what keeps the business’ cogs turning. But how can you ensure that your agency is keeping ahead of the competition when it comes to service provision? In this blog, James Payne Sales Director, Adapt, offers his top tips for client retention.

Providing value

We all know that when it comes to providing value for clients, finding a good candidate with the right skillset and work ethic is top of the list. But this is the level of service that the client expects; so what else can the recruitment agent do to prove their worth?

Every agency should be demonstrating additional value. This can be done quite simply by a recruiter showing their understanding of the client’s business. Flagging relevant news stories that discuss industry trends or legislation changes, as well as proactively keeping an eye out for breaking news that could affect the customer’s business and playing a consultancy role through offering advice on how to manage these changes can really cement the client/ recruiter relationship.

While this can sound like a lot of additional work it really needn’t be. Subscribing to RSS feeds, setting up Google alerts and simply reading the news each day can provide recruiters with a wealth of knowledge that they can share with clients to help them manage changes and stay abreast of industry changes.

Clear lines of communication

Communication is key to a healthy relationship, but for many it is often overlooked in the search to find the right candidate. After all, the client has provided a role which needs to be filled; heads are down and all energy is ploughed into finding the best candidate for that role. Without any updates, the client is left wondering what is happening.

Keeping the client updated at all stages of the recruitment process is key. Given that clients typically have more than one agency looking to fill a role, it is most critical at this that communication lines are fully open. Providing status updates as to which job boards have been used, the candidates you have in mind and generally managing client expectations is a very different experience to that offered by a recruiter who remains mostly silent until a match is found.

CV – send to all?

For many recruiters, keeping clients updated to potential candidates through a blanket CV share is a good way to fill potential vacancies, but we all know that one size doesn’t always fit all. Receiving a bi-weekly email from a recruitment agent may mean that when a client is looking to fill a role the CV for the perfect candidate goes unnoticed due to being marked as spam.

Tailoring CVs is a good way to ensure that the perfect candidate stands out. Ensuring that all points from the client specification are met on the CV and sending an email supporting why you believe the candidate is a good fit is a great way to demonstrate that you are sending a well thought through candidate pitch, while also showing that you understand the company’s requirements.

Conclusion

For many seasoned recruiters the tips above will come as second nature; knowing how best to provide not only a good service to clients but also build a strong relationship is something that comes with time and experience. By taking these points into account and weaving them into daily activity for all members of your team, recruiters can ensure that customer satisfaction and retention is at the heart of the organisation’s goals.