Sounds familiar? Trust your recruiter
Naturally, all this success means that there is immense competition to secure talent. Demand outstrips supply. Subsequently, there has long been a shortage of talent in Germany, which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This is where having a good recruiter on your side can make a world of difference.
Here are three methods your recruiter will use to help you shorten your search.
1. Bring passive candidates to the interview table
This is without a doubt the biggest advantage of using a good recruiter. They will use their skills, experience, and network to find the best candidates, including those who are not even looking. These passive candidates might not be actively searching but may be willing to have a conversation about a new opportunity.
This helps widen the talent pool available by adding passive candidates to the recruitment process. These candidates might also help improve the quality of the talent pool you are recruiting from.
Passive candidates are content in their work, making them valuable assets for their current employers. They are less likely to interview elsewhere, reducing the risk of a refused offer. They are also less likely to stretch the truth on their capabilities because they don’t feel they need to because you reached out to them first.
2. Building a talent pipeline that provides a constant flow of good candidates
Ploughing through a large stack of CVs can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Yet, this is what most of us do during the recruitment process. What a good recruiter provides is a strategy. Rather than staring at a talent pool, a good recruiter can build a conveyor belt of talent that automatically comes your way.
Just like how a sales team will have a sales pipeline to funnel business opportunities, the same can be applied with the recruitment process. This requires more than simply filtering through a stack of CVs and instead funnels the right candidates to the company over time when the right opportunity arises to hire them. Sometimes these conversations with candidates take place over years and can involve both the recruiter and the company involved.
This approach can ensure that the right candidate is hired at the right time. The investment made to bring that candidate onboard is also likely to pay off in the long run, as it is more likely that this candidate will stay with the company for the foreseeable future.
In essence this is a long-term recruitment strategy that requires a HR team to build a portfolio of talent which they can recruit from. It’s an approach that is much more likely to deliver the right candidate, especially in an industry where there is a talent shortage.
3. A good recruiter can bring a valuable marketing or sales angle to your candidate search
This might seem strange, but it does make sense. A recruiter finds candidates for a living and is rewarded for their success. Therefore, their ability to market a job opportunity should come naturally to them. This might involve improving the job title or making the job description more appealing and just generally improving the overall marketing strategy to help you find the right candidate.
A good recruiter will also have well-rehearsed scripts and conversations that they know will work with candidates because they have been tried and tested. They can make that impossible conversation with a passive candidate actually happen. Their overall approach to find the right candidate is more of a long-term business development strategy, rather than a CV sifting exercise.
Do recruiters really make a difference?
The answer to this question is subjective and depends on your situation, plus the skills and experience you need. If you are struggling to find the right candidate, then it can make a difference. In a market like Germany where talent is scarce across many industries, it makes sense to get more out of the recruiter you use. They are likely to use tried and tested methods that you may not be aware of and reduce the length of time you need to find the right candidate.