Recently I went to a seminar on the Future of Recruitment with Greg Savage as the keynote speaker. He is one of the most motivational and inspirational speakers of our industry and always speaks with passion, enthusiasm and honesty.
He challenged the notion that the way we have typically recruited in the past will not be the way of the future and what we will need to do to keep up with the industry going forward and to continue to be leaders in our field.
It has alot to do with social media, branding and marketing; not only our company brand but our own personal brands.
My MD and GM are very passionate about these very topics; the need to build our own personal brand through blogs, linked in, twitter and various other forms of social media.
I hear it and know it is important. But why did it really ring true and sink in today?
IS IT BEING AFRAID OF CHANGE?
Being a Specialist Accounting Recruiter in the Brisbane market for over fifteen years, you get used to the way you do things. You work hard and build some great relationships.
Sitting in a room with many colleagues who have been in the industry for as long I have if not longer, really struck a chord with me.
I am not on my own!
Collectively we need to change the way we do things.
Why?
To continue to be successful.
To keep up with the times.
To provide premium service and differentiate ourselves in the market.
To be able to capture candidates that come on the market that no one else has access to. When I started in the industry and I was given a telephone, a headset and a yellow pages telephone book.
COLD CALLING. MARKETING. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT.
Hated it. I am an Accountant not a Sales person. I couldn’t sell even if I tried!
What I found over time was that giving people honest, genuine advice whether they are candidates or clients, showing them that you care about them and their career, being humble and really listening to what they wanted, was more effective than picking up the phone to a stranger and asking them how big their finance team is and if they had any jobs. (Yes this is how we were trained in cold calling back then).
Gone are the days of advertising in the newspaper to attract candidates. Job boards are still being used but social media is prevalent in our society.
Recruitment is often a market where we want to do work and get results straight away.
You need to get to know people, what they are after, what industries they enjoy, what makes them happy.
Today is no different. People want premium service. People want honest advice. People want to be listened to.
So when you cut to the core, nothing has changed with the way people want to be treated.
It is the landscape around us that changes. Keeping up with the times and making connections through the use of social media will be instrumental for the recruitment industry in the future.
When you look closely, it’s not as scary as it seems. Embrace the change and push through!
Marianne Savas – Divisional Manager