Recruitment Isn’t Just About Filling Vacancies

The technical skills obviously matter. If someone doesn’t have the right experience, qualifications or knowledge, they’re probably not going to be right for the role. But once you get beyond those basics, recruitment becomes much more about people than paperwork.

We’ve all interviewed candidates who looked perfect on paper but never quite convinced us when we met them. Equally, we’ve all met people whose CV didn’t immediately stand out, yet within ten minutes of talking to them you could tell they’d be an excellent addition to a team.

That’s one of the reasons we still spend so much time talking to people rather than simply relying on databases and keyword searches. A CV tells you where someone has worked. A conversation tells you how they work.

It also gives us a much better understanding of what they’re actually looking for. Sometimes a contractor tells us they want a higher rate, only for it to become clear that what they’re really looking for is a longer-term project, a shorter commute or the chance to work on something genuinely interesting. Equally, a client may tell us they need someone with ten years’ experience, but after discussing the role in more detail it turns out they’re really looking for someone who can work independently and fit into an established team.

Those are very different conversations, and they’re difficult to have if recruitment becomes nothing more than sending CVs backwards and forwards by email.

I’ve always believed that good recruitment should save people time. Clients shouldn’t have to spend hours filtering through unsuitable applications, and candidates shouldn’t be applying for roles that were never going to be right for them in the first place.

That’s why we ask a lot of questions. Occasionally people apologise for talking too much when we register them. I always tell them not to worry because those conversations are often where we learn the things that never appear on a CV but make all the difference when we’re trying to find the right opportunity.

Technology has undoubtedly made recruitment faster. We can search databases more quickly, advertise jobs more widely and communicate almost instantly. They’re all useful tools, and we’d be mad not to use them.

But recruitment is still a people business.

The best placements I’ve been involved with over the years have almost always come from understanding the people behind the paperwork. In my experience, that’s something no software has quite managed to replace.

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