Words of Wisdom From Big Billing Recruitment consultants

You will generally find that big billing recruitment consultants are very dynamic, highly active individuals many of whom possess great attention to detail. These are attributes that help them through the complicated process of recruitment. These consultants typically work with an enormous funnel into which placements are dropped. Many reach the narrow end of the funnel whilst many are discarded along the way. The loss of placements that could be prevented, may well add up to quite significant amounts in fees. Here’s what top billing consultants have to say:

• As recruitment is so highly competitive, the minute you hear of jobs, post them on jobs boards. New vacancies are more than likely to land on a host of desks including your own and the people who post the adverts first are most likely to have the cream of candidates responding. If you are last by the time you contact candidates they will already have the details and applied for the role. It’s certainly true that the early bird catches the worm in recruitment.

• Maintain contact with candidates even after they’ve taken up the position. It’s easy to lose out on fees when a client doesn’t pay because the candidate leaves the job within a few weeks. By speaking to them in the early weeks to check that they are happy you may well get an early warning that things aren’t panning out as planned. It’s possible that counselling your candidate and advising them to stay put for a little while and give the role a proper try will save your fee.

• Discuss the salary your candidate expects before they have an interview with the client. As high quality as they may be many candidates don’t understand the dynamics of salary expectations and their interview. Even the most perfect candidate could arrive at interview with expectations that are totally unrealistic causing the process to collapse quickly. If you can handle this aspect beforehand you can possibly save some of these placements.

• Always confirm details of an interview both verbally and in writing and ask the candidate to confirm they have received the information. It’s easy for details to be recorded incorrectly when given verbally – they might mishear the time, the venue, or the date – but if you post written details there can be no future misunderstandings. The simplest mistake could cost you money in the long run, so put confirmations in writing for the sake of clarity and for the sake of saving your fee.

• Don’t wait for clients to call you with new vacancies. If you speak to them regularly chances are you’ll be the first to hear new information and in turn can reach your candidates first. By waiting for them to call you the competition can beat you to the best candidates before you even begin.

• On the day before the interview telephone your candidate. If for any reason your candidate decides not to proceed and you only discover this on the day of the interview it could damage the relationship you have with the client. If you find out beforehand you can spare yourself some embarrassment and if you’re really on the ball you could possibly replace them with an alternative candidate.

Because competition is so high amongst recruitment consultants you need to devise as many ways as you can to add to your billing. These tips are given to help increase your placements.