War on Talent

You’ve heard of ‘battle of the bands’ a contest for mainly rock groups to make the biggest noise with most outrageous costumes well the recruitment market is bit like this at the moment. The prize isn’t a recording contract and major bragging rights but simply talent. Most recruitment agents are all jostling to have the ‘closest’ relationship with a ‘certain’ client and in some cases are very protective of this relationships and rightly so. This is one of the ways they can garner a market position to attract the best talent.

One of the areas around which there is a lot of debate at the moment is Social Media, Talent Pools and Web recruitment and this is in deed where some of the battle lines are drawn. I’ve tried to see things from a candidate perspective and thought through the basic premise: If there is all this supposed information available via the web what value are Recruiters actually offering and I realised still quite a bit.

Top 5 reasons to use a specialist recruiter.

1. Confidentiality

When you are in role it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. You are bogged down with reaching SLAs, KPIs, Targets etc whilst trying to find time in the day to search for roles, work out what is next, research companies you might like to work. A good recruiter can take most of the burden away.

2. Time Saving

I think this is a phrase I say almost once a day. ‘I haven’t got time!’ You’ve heard the phrase ‘Cash-rich, Time poor’ People don’t ask ‘How much is that going to cost.’ They ask ‘How long will it take.’ Recruitment co.s like ours are calling clients daily so we know the latest trend to hit the markets or the newest company with the greatest plans.

3. Advice

Looking for a role and knowing what to do next is daunting. A sounding board at this stage can help and in deed can give some much needed perspective on your market worth and how quickly you should expect to find something.

4. Talent pools

In time I am sure these types of tools like Facebook will become more prevalent. However we are still in an ‘early adopter’ phase here and these type of communities may only be effective for certain types of roles. I’m not saying they are not useful but sometimes a good recruiter in your market can do more.

5. Social Media backfire

Sometimes Recruiters can help to make a professional introduction. Visual CV or LinkedIn profiles are great but what happens when you’ve had an unexplained career break or a bad move that didn’t work out. Sometimes a few calm words from a recruiter can make a difference.

If you are talented and want to deal with professionals for exactly these reasons check out some of these great roles:-

Senior Account Director

Marketing Analysis Executive