Does your recruiting brand really matter?

Imagine this.

You just hung up the phone with a dream client. You identified their dire need for the best hire and sold yourself as the leading recruiter in your market.

Hiring Manager Hannah at CoolestCompanyEver, or CCE Inc., hangs up and feels great about the conversation. While she has a million things to do, Hannah decides to google you.

Your LinkedIn profile is their first search result (ideally) and what do you know, you are one of the standout recruiters who doesn’t have a car selfie as a profile picture.

You’re in.

Well you and a few others who made the cut. You have the chance to prove yourself so you get to work.

If you’re using Loxo to manage your workflow, you are already a step ahead of the competition.

While you and your team of recruiters start to work on identifying the top candidate, your client at CCE experiences the following:

• Recruiter Anne (probably using a second tier ATS), falls off the face of the earth. She may be working on the req but because she’s a tad disorganized, she forgets to stay in touch with CCE Inc.
• Recruiter John starts calling CCE Inc., daily to ask Hannah if she received the five candidate profiles that were sent over immediately after receiving the job req. None of the candidates were the best fit so ignoring John becomes part of Hannah’s work flow.
• Recruiter Molly sets up a site visit to learn more about the office environment. She shows up to meet Hiring Manager Hannah in person, discusses the company culture and identifies the missing skill set for the team in need. Molly meets the company leaders and team so she can report back to her candidate. She heads back to the office and confidently begins to identify the best candidate for this role.
• Recruiter Ryan meets with the hiring manager at CCE immediately after Molly leaves the office. Ryan also learns about the office dynamics and personalities on the team. Later that evening Hiring Manager Hannah runs into Ryan at a job fair where they are both networking with local job seekers. They tackle the crowd together and Hannah leaves the job fair with a handful of resumes and a memory of Ryan’s dedication to finding the best candidate.

John and Anne spent hours recruiting for this position only to miss the mark on relationship building with their client. Molly nailed her introduction to the client and Ryan took it a step further.

After a few weeks, Hiring Manager Hannah at CCE Inc., selected Molly’s candidate — a rock star and perfect hire for the role. A few weeks later, Hannah had a new job req and her first call was to Ryan- someone she trusted to go to bat for her new search.

Hopefully you are Recruiter Ryan or Recruiter Molly in the above scenario. Molly made the placement, but Ryan earned Hannah’s future business.

Does your recruiter brand earn future business?

Here are a few ways to ensure you are a new client’s first call when they have a hiring need:

• Stay organized with the leading applicant tracking system and CRM.
• Use the same high-res professional photo for all of your public social profile pictures.
• Publish consistent and useful content in order to engage with your clients and candidates. Communicate your values, successes and personality in all of your content.
• Build relationships beyond the phone call. You’re busy but so is your client. Getting to know the client team by name sets you apart from recruiters who sit behind their desk. You become an extension of your clients’ teams.
• Control your speed to market by using tools like Loxo Connect to find the personal contact information for your industry’s purple squirrels and unicorns.
• Participate in community events, job fairs, industry workshops, etc. You set yourself apart when you consistently show up to industry events. Your constant presence builds both familiarity and trust as a go-to recruiting resource. Don’t just rely on your team for presence- they are building their own personal brand, not yours.
• Did you place a rock star candidate? Ask your client AND candidate to leave a LinkedIn review. This builds your credibility for when you reach out to that purple squirrel tomorrow.
• If you work for an agency, remember that you need a personal brand in addition to the awesome agency brand you work for. People want to connect with people before they connect with a company.
• You may have been recruiting for decades but curiosity keeps you relevant. Keep asking questions and humanize the hiring process by exuding your passion to learn.

Do you have a story of how you went above and beyond to connect with a client or candidate — and it paid off? Are you a corporate hiring manager that has been impressed by a recruiter brand?

We want to raise the bar when it comes to the recruiting industry’s reputation. Help us do so by sharing your story and building your excellent brand. Share your experience in the comments below or email our team to be featured in a future blog post. Your story matters!

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