As we enter our ninth year of business, we at Seldon Gill have reflected on the great clients we have worked with and the amazing career paths we have helped our candidates to navigate.
Year in and year out we have been lucky enough to work with repeat business clients who know that we "get it" and that we offer more than just a placement service. In some instances, we have placed more than eight people in one firm in a year, and have now become critical to the success of the firm’s talent strategy.
We contrast this with some of our newer client enquiries who simply want us to send "whose on your books”. Invariably this type of recruitment service doesn't bode well for a future consultative relationship - it’s a quick fix, nothing more, and isn't providing your firm with value or with an eye to future talent searches you may need.
If the following scene reflects how you brief agencies; then you are likely to be in for a disappointing outcome.
Client : Hi, we need a marketing manager, send us whoever you have on your books.
Recruiter : Can I come and meet with you to get a full understanding of the role and also the organisation?
Client : I am too busy, can't you just send through cv's?
Oh dear, you can guess what the likely outcome is going to be. Time wasted on both sides and a downward spiral of knocked confidence ending in the sorry line "I briefed the agency and they were useless".
Just so we are clear, the above interaction was not a brief. It was just brief! Spend the time to educate us fully on your recruitment needs and we will be better placed to help you.
Retained recruitment is the method favoured by leading firms to recruit high calibre staff. It involves a single recruitment agency commissioned to complete the campaign and work until the assignment is complete. We totally appreciate the sentiment that in a candidate-tight market the client needs to "cast the net widely", but this assumes that the person you want is sitting on a database somewhere. For specialist roles it is more efficient to combine database searching with a fully focused search campaign i.e tapping talent on the shoulder. Also think of the message you send to the market when you list your jobs with everyone in town. It doesn't exactly make you look selective does it?
Of course, for generalist roles, or positions when we know there are plenty of candidates available, we are happy to use our very extensive database software to source a selection of people for you. However the rule of thumb is that if you want a market review of talent and you are keen to assess the appeal of your employment brand, retaining us to run a full campaign is a worthwhile exercise (and it doesn't cost any more!).
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