Getting to know your recruiter in 5 easy steps

You’ve got an important role coming up in your company and you’ve decided it’s time to bring on a recruiter to do the hard work for you. But, how do you do it? What’s the best way to learn about your recruiter and whether they’ll work well with your business?
Read on for 5 great ways to help you choose your potential recruitment partner.
1. Check out their LinkedIn Profile – Jump on LinkedIn and get the low down before you do anything. For starters, if they don’t have a profile, they’re missing a huge opportunity for finding candidates! Secondly, by looking at their profile you can ascertain their experience and, if they’re posting content you’ll get a good idea of their knowledge and their values.
2. Find out their specialty – while LinkedIn may have already given you a good idea of this, by talking to them directly, you’ll be able to test their knowledge. There are likely some generalist recruiters out there but they won’t know your industry as well as someone who has specialised. It’s kind of like going to one of those restaurants that has a huge menu with food from all over the world. It’s simply not possible for someone to be able to cook every single dish perfectly, neither is it possible to know every industry intimately.
3. Get an understanding of their communication style – ideally it would be similar to yours. If you’re the kind of person who likes a detailed conversation to feel like you understand what’s going on, working with a recruiter who sends an email every now and then is not going to help you feel comfortable. Be clear from the outset what your expectations are and give your recruiter the opportunity to meet them.
4. Ask for their stick rate – a misconception about recruiters is that they’re just looking to fill roles. Of course you want someone in the role as quickly as possible but that will all amount to nothing if you’re finding yourself having to replace that person just a few months later. If your potential recruiter can tell you their stick rate, you’d have a better idea of the likelihood of finding a long-term employee. Ideally you want someone who sits around 80-90%.
5. Find out what their process is – do they have a database? How many interviews will there be and how will they be conducted? What reporting will you receive and how often? How involved do you need to be? If you can get this information up front, not only will you know if you and this person will work well together, you’ll also know what to expect once your recruiter has come on-board.
Sometimes it may feel that when you’re working with a recruiter, they’re just sending CVs over. However, there’s so much more going on in the background that, if you’ve got yourself a good one, you simply won’t have to worry about! The more information you can gather about your potential recruiter before the process starts, the better equipped you’ll be to trust that every CV you receive has been especially chosen using the knowledge and experience your business deserves.

Shannon Wood, Managing Director S8 Expert Recruitment Solutions. I have over 14 years recruitment experience specialising in the animal health industry across the ANZ region. Areas of expertise include sales and marketing, technical roles (Quality Assurance, Quality Control & Regulatory Affairs) and operational & financial positions. I work extensively in the veterinary, ruminant, monogastric, aquaculture and the pet specialty industries and I look forward to the next 14 years.