Get Results From a Recruiter Client Relationship

Being a recruitment consultant or an IT recruiter can be a complex and challenging job; you have to be the primary intermediary between the client and candidate, keeping them both happy and informed throughout every stage of the process. Maintaining strong client relationships and building a network of exceptional candidates is the bread and butter of your industry, and we want to help you get the most bang for your buck out of each Recruiter Client Relationship with these simple tips.

1: Communication Is Key

In our fast-paced industry, it is more important than ever to establish authentic and honest connections with the client, IT recruiter, and candidate. The key to this connection is through consistent, direct, and open communication from the first interview to the final stages of the hiring process and beyond. The first step should be getting to know each respective party’s needs right away by practicing effective listening: does your recruiter have positions that needed to be filled yesterday? Do these positions have highly specific requirements, such as certifications? Does your new candidate have accommodations that need to be met by their employers?

Understanding a company’s needs, their timeframe, and communicating with your team to fulfill those needs is the foundation of strong client relationships. Furthermore, communication must be consistent throughout the process; frequent check-in and follow-ups make each party feel recognized and reassured that their needs are being addressed.

2: Be Positive, Accessible, And Responsive

A client’s perception of your attitude and abilities is vital in retaining them. A client needs to feel like you have their best interest at heart and that you can deliver on those interests. Nothing helps build this perception better than positivity, accessibility, and quick responsiveness.

Having a positive, results-driven attitude from first contact helps build confidence; this should come from a place of expertise, doing proper research about a client’s goals and industry, or a candidate’s skill sets and abilities can go miles in your client’s perception of you.

It should go without saying that clients should be able to get a hold of you, but doing and saying are two different things; make sure your clients have your email, at least one phone number, and any appropriate online profiles (such as LinkedIn) for communication. You should also check each of these communication sources multiple times per day. Following up on these check-ins is key to curating good responsiveness. Even if there’s nothing to report, just letting the client or candidate know that work is being done and their needs are being met keeps the line of communication open and helps reassure them that you’re on the job.

3: Move Candidates Quickly

As recruitment consultants, your positions have many different facets; research, communications, interviews, onboarding calls, application reviews, and much more. Because of the myriad of tasks you need to juggle, the ability to appropriately prioritize critical duties and expedite them is essential in making your IT recruiter, candidate, and clients happy.

An IT recruiter needs to move candidates into proper positions continuously, candidates balance upon tightrope-like excitement from the beginning of the application to placement, and clients need their position filled ASAP to meet deadlines; any lag in the hiring process lowers confidence in all parties. Because of this, every placement-focused task should be considered urgent and moved upon immediately.

The best way to achieve this is twofold: One, good responsiveness and followthrough. As we mentioned earlier, responding to communications is important for maintaining good relations, but it’s also important for a speedy and efficient candidate placement. From locking down interviews as soon as possible to providing candidate feedback to your recruiter post-interview, keeping speedy communication throughout all parts of the hiring and placement process helps keep the gears oiled and the system running smoothly.

However, be sure not to rush clients through; diligence and promptness are essential here, so correctly researching client needs and ensuring candidates are a proper fit should still be priority number one. Even if a client isn’t a good fit, contacting them and their recruiter quickly so they can be moved to a more fitting position benefits all parties; combine this with the professionalism displayed with a prompt response time, the client and recruiter will likely keep you in mind for future placements and applications.

4: Be Transparent On The Hiring Process And Set Expectations

Clients often want their positions to be quickly and almost magically filled; however, they often do not realize the amount of time and effort needed to find reliable, applicable candidates. During initial communication with a client, it’s best to set a clear and realistic expectation for the hiring process. Don’t be afraid to go into the hiring timeline, your general strategy for finding the right client, and the current state of their industry and competitive nature of the IT market. You don’t want to dissuade the client; instead, they should walk away with an understanding of the process you will be going through and the expected wait times involved with that process.

5: Consider An Exclusivity Agreement

The phrase “it’s all about who you know” is accurate for many industries, but for recruitment consultants, “who you know” is your industry. While technically a matter of preference, we have found that it is often beneficial to limit your IT recruiter pool to a small but highly targeted group, meaning you Recruiter Client Relationship is well-oiled one.

Often working with a small group who knows each other’s industries, has a pool of talented candidates, and is more familiar with one another’s preferences and client obligations lead to more effective placements. Of course, you will want to research these recruiters thoroughly first or selectively choose from those you have worked with previously with a good track record of success.

We hope these tips are helpful in your recruiting; if you have any questions, you can contact us here, or if you are interested in our services, please feel free to register here.