Why Trust in Your Relationship With Your Recruiter Matters

You start your day, your inbox is overflowing, WhatsApp pinging, Frank from accounts wants a chat, the phone is ringing, your next zoom meeting is about to start and there is an urgent email asking you to ring your boss. Sounds familiar?

Time and focus are at a premium in today´s working life yet being truly present and mindful in your daily interactions is essential, as a HR person and recruiter in particular. So how can you achieve the latter when the world seems to be closing in on you?

How do You Use Recruitment Agencies?

One sure way to get the most out of the resources available and to get the best value from your recruiters is to use them and other agencies in the most effective way. If you chose an agency well and invest in their knowledge and understanding of your business, you should be able to fully trust them and follow their advice without having to question their ideas and decisions much. This saves you time and valuable decision-making energy - after all, that is what you pay us for!

I am never more motivated than when a client really leans on me as a consultant to recommend the right candidates. Interestingly, it tends to be most the senior leaders that I deal with who know how to get the best out of me like that. To quote a senior person: “Rosa – just put three candidates in front of me. I am not even going to review their CVs before I meet them – that is your job. Just make sure they are right for the job and they are motivated, and that they will fit into the culture!”

This motivated me to do a sterling job for him, although I quivered in my boots when starting the search – a healthy dose of adrenaline has never gone amiss! I love it when trust is placed in me, which gives me extra energy and credibility when talking about the client to candidates. I will apply extra filters when looking at CVs, question myself and work hard to get the right profiles and individuals in front of the client for interview. It makes my job more fun and exciting, and it saves time for the client – win/win!

The Cost of Lack of Trust

The opposite is true when suggestions and ideas by me, the recruiter, are questioned harshly by a client who does not trust me although there has been a relationship that is established. We will then spend a lot of time on the telephone justifying decisions and explaining candidates´ CVs, which can take the momentum and the energy out of the process and create doubt and suspicion in the worst case. Am I really nothing more than an average algorithm churning out CVs?

As organizational trust expert Stephen M.R. Colvey puts it in his bestseller ”The Speed of Trust”: “Distrust is costly to businesses, like a burdensome surtax, while trust is universally necessary and productive.” Costly indeed, as time and energy are lost and, on the recruiter´s side, much work is done, and time invested in something that ultimately does not result in a placement and a fee. Do we recruiters like to work like that? No, we do not.

So, the next time you return to your desk to find the phone ringing, devices pinging, post-its smiling and colleagues waiting for your attention, relax and remember that we, your recruiters, have your back. We are here to make your day easier and not add to your workload and hassle, that is ultimately what you pay us for.

We look forward to receiving your call the next time you have a vacancy to fill!