The best results in recruitment come from building a strong positive relationship with candidates and clients. Personal touches throughout can make all the difference nowadays and the relationships you build with candidates and clients can make or break the recruitment process.

Recruiting can be difficult, the lack of direct access between candidate and client can cause suspicion and a lack of trust towards the recruiter, making your job immediately more difficult.

So, what can you do to build a positive relationship with candidates and clients?

Understand their needs

When it comes to finding a job for a candidate, or finding a candidate for a client, having a thorough understanding of their needs will help you make the best hire. Knowing what drives your candidate, what their career aspirations are and what they are looking for in a role will benefit you both throughout the process. If a candidate feels heard and understood, they will trust and respect you more. This ensures they are communicating openly with you and trusting you to deliver. After all, a new job is a huge moment in someone’s life that can be very stressful, having you to support them can be extremely helpful to them.

The same goes for clients; understanding exactly what kind of person they are looking for to fit the role and the organisation will help make your process easier. A client will be more likely to use you again in the future if they have a great experience first time round.

Be personable

Sometimes recruiters can come across as blunt or aggressive, particularly over the phone. This is understandable, you have a job to do and are usually under a lot of pressure but building a rapport and being personable can help build a positive relationship with a candidate. Offering personal information about yourself helps to identify common interests between you and allows your candidate to feel more comfortable with you. Taking candidates or clients out of a professional setting and meeting in person can also help get to know each other better. If you can’t meet a candidate or client in person for whatever reason, making use of video platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams can provide you with a much more valuable interaction than a phone call.

Communicate openly

Figuring out a candidate or clients preferred method of communication can be a great thing when building and maintaining a positive relationship. As a recruiter, you can get overloaded with emails and messages and most people are so easily reachable that there are several methods of communication you can use. Finding out what your candidate prefers and having a general understanding of what times they are readily available or not can really help build a strong relationship. Simple things such as knowing their working hours will help ensure you aren’t trying to reach them when they are unavailable and potentially causing frustration for both of you. Similarly, be open and honest with candidates. If you have no news or updates yet, acknowledging you have received their message will make you seem reliable. Additionally, breaking bad news is unpleasant but necessary. Your candidate will respect you and you may be able to find them another role, or they will come back to you in the future and ask for help.

Share feedback

After interviews where possible, give the candidate feedback on how they did. Sharing feedback on what went well and what they can improve on next time can help strengthen your relationship. Your candidate is more likely to feel valued if they receive feedback and be more open to further opportunities. When candidates aren’t successful, and you don’t follow up afterwards, it can leave a bad impression and make them hesitant to look for other jobs or work with you again. This can also give you a bad reputation and negative reviews of you or your company which would undoubtedly be bad for business.

Prioritising candidate and clients will improve your hiring process, success rate and business reputation. If you’re looking for a recruiter to help you with your job search then get in touch with us!