Caroline Wilson - 15 minutes with a recruitment mentor

Welcome to the Recruitment Mentors Podcast. My name is Hishem Azzouz. This is another installment of the 15 Minutes with a Mentor series where we spend time with some of the mentors from inside the Recruitment Mentors community and ask them 7 questions in 15 minutes. I'm excited to be joined by Caroline today, but before we go into the questions, Caroline, if you could introduce yourself for those that may not know who you are. And then we'll get into it.

Sure, thanks Hishem. My name is Caroline, I've been in recruitment for— this is my 15th year. I had a job change in 2020 and I joined Oscar Associates as their Contract Director UK and Europe.

Amazing, so I want to know from you then, first question is: what was your biggest challenge in 2020, how did you overcome it, and what did you learn from it?

Sure, so biggest challenge, as many people will agree, you know, we're plunged into a pandemic, you know, and the working from home culture wasn't established, wasn't embedded in many of our businesses, so that just brought a whole new set of challenges, whether like myself you're a working parent or, you know, you live on your own, everybody felt the, everybody felt the challenge, and very tough to get used to those first few weeks back in March 2020, I guess how I overcame it as a leader at my business at the time was, you know, getting used to these tech tools straight away, making sure that you've got that team interaction from the off, and, you know, not really sharing the problem and just getting it sorted so that they weren't losing out on face time with you. I think for me as well, how I overcame it was made a lot more noise about future goals, future ambitions of the team, so everything felt more real. So making more noise about that was definitely an idea, you know, accepting that, you know, there's gonna be flat days, there'll be really high days, and we need to pat ourselves on the back more than often because We're in a difficult phase. I love that. All of those, yeah, all of those little tactics helped me, and empathy, of course. Everybody had different challenges.

Amazing. So, on the sort of working from home piece there, my second question for you is, what working from home tip could you share with other recruiters listening to this that's had a real positive impact on your own productivity when working from home?

Sure. I think the tips I would share: have a plan the night before, okay? So you need to make sure you're closing off the day on a good note and you've got a real sense of achievement that day, because otherwise you're going to be sat there in the evening thinking, "Well, what did I actually achieve?" So, you know, make sure you finish on a high. If it's not a deal, you know, it's have you learned and have you put yourself in a great position within your business for the next day? Have a plan all set and ready so that then you can have a bit of downtime in the evening, know how you'll hit it hard the next day. Mindset, positivity, what is going to put you in the best frame of mind whilst at home? Is it outdoors? Is it exercise? Are you gonna get out on your bike at lunchtime? Are you gonna cram in a yoga session before work? You need coping mechanisms because staying in the same room, under the same roof, with the same family or, you know, partner or children, it will drive you insane, and that's completely natural. So what are you going to do for yourself? What I struggle with is I miss the morning commute. Now, the morning commute was, for me, it was time to listen to podcasts, have a read, you know, and have a think. You know, that's gone. You basically throw breakfast at the kids and run in the room and get on a scrum. So I thought, that's not working for me. So, you know, religiously in the morning, I'll get up, go to the gym, go running, no matter what the weather, because otherwise, when do I get that creativity thinking time?

Yeah, love that. So what I wanna know next, and I know you've been on a bit of a transition, but I wanna sort of ask over the whole 12 months to share what sort of comes up for you, but what's been the most effective way for you to win business in the last 12 months, either you personally or what you've seen through the teams that you've managed?

Perfect. Okay. So I think first of all, making sure everybody has a market, is in a niche, and they know what they are trying to sell. Okay. And when you are at that point, understanding how you will map that out and then learn how you will start to capture a circle of influence, whether that is your candidates or whether that's your clients. How can you bring some traffic into you? What are you going to do every day? That will, you know, you know, I don't know, make people think of you and land on people's desks, you know, a great email, speak to candidates, give them that wow factor service. And for me, winning business in this, you know, current day is about, you know, giving them the X factor. So giving them what they can't find themselves, whether that's an amazing candidate or whether that's an amazing service with a client. And, you know, looking at the client's roadmap for the next 3 months and plug in where you can add value. More than ever, it's about standing out from the crowd. It's not enough now just to know your market. You need to know your competition inside out. You need to follow them and you need to know what they're doing and you need to be very brave.

Hmm. Nice. Give them the X factor. I love that. So, be interested to hear this from you. What habit or hobby did you start in 2020 that you're going to continue in 2021?

Good question. I've always been a keen runner, and I love my, you know, cycling as well, and my resistance training. But for me, I really stepped up the running this year. So now it's quite normal for me just to, you know, roll out of bed and do a 10K. Basically, I said to myself, put on a podcast and listen to Audible, download a great book, and As long as it's an hour long and I keep running, then yeah, around 10K.

Got any big running goals this year that you want to share with us that you're going to commit to?

I think I'd like to try a half marathon, absolutely, and I think I'd like to, yeah, I'd like to push myself towards the end of the year doing something like that. It's become the norm now and I'm ready to go. Got some new trainers, so ready.

Love that. Right, so probably the most important questions out of these 7 What do you think is better, the first coffee in the morning or the first pint post-work on a Friday?

Seriously tough question. It's got to be a Friday night, it's got to be a drink, yeah, it's got to be a half-five, half-five cold beer or, um, nice glass of Prosecco to toast the week.

Nice, fair enough. Right, so next question, slightly different. It's a scenario which I want to sort of hear your thoughts on, on how you'd approach it. So the scenario is a particular business that you've been trying to get sort of hold of. They've been on your target client list for quite a while. And during that time they've been on your target client list, you've had several touchpoints with different people in that business. They may have seen your content on LinkedIn, may have engaged with it. You may have sent a couple of them a message on LinkedIn or sent an email, but you managed through your candidate network to get one of the hiring managers' contact details. So I just want to sort of hear you do if you call that person, they pick up, say, "Hello, who is this?" How would you approach that sort of first interaction with that hiring manager?

Sure, okay. Given the fact that you've already learned about the company, I think you'll be thrilled when you get this person on the phone because what you're going to do, you're going to draw on everything you know about him and his company to really spark his his or her attention. So the first thing I want to do, I want to introduce myself, and I want to say, you know, I'm thrilled that I've got you on the phone, and, you know, I'd really welcome a chat to you about your business. So far I've learned XYZ. So I'm going to go into the call knowing, has the company had any investment in the last 12 months? How many hires have they made? Who in my network has given me the heads up they've been taken on, or anything like that? You know, has there been any attrition? Have they developed new products? I'm going into call with that knowledge, so I'm gonna tell them I know that, and I'm gonna say that I work with their competitor, and I'm going to tell them all about the great work that I'm doing for my clients at the minute. Now, I'm coming across as credible because I've done my reading and my listening, I've also got a good handle on the market. I appreciate where his company's positioned, and I'm showing them an active interest in the product that they're developing, the investment they've had, or, you know, news about them in the press, you know, Twitter, what has been out there from their company. And I think being inquisitive and showing an active interest in them, I think that for me starts you out on the wrong foot. And of course, ends up being a really, really good business conversation. And I love those types of interactions. And, you know, I'm not going to go in and start, you know, selling them TVs on the first call. I think for me, spark interest, clarify that, you know, they are the right person to speak to, and tell them all about the service that I provide. But finishing the call on a high, with confidence, with a call to action, and, you know, you've had that dialogue, So much so that you can send a follow-up email, thank them for the time and say, you know what, I'm even more interested in you as a company now. You know, I think that's how I'd play it and that's worked for me in the past.

No, I really like that. I can envision it now, how thrilled you'd come across. And I think that's great. And I really like the line around, let me tell you what I know about you so far and showing that active interest. I really like that. I think that's great advice. Final question. So I want you to sort of imagine that the recruiters, the obviously the recruiters listen to this podcast, you're speaking to someone that has set their goals for 2021. They have written them down, they're feeling extremely motivated. They want to have a better year than they did last year. And I just want to sort of hear what your advice would be to the recruiters listening to this that you think would give them the best possible chance of actually achieving the goals that they've set.

Brilliant, okay, so for me, you know, it's a hard year, you might have made a plan and you're kind of veering off track every now and then, and you know what, that's quite normal, so the first thing is not to panic, okay, and I think remember as well, you know, you are the pilot, you are in control of your plan, right? Don't leap without a plan, And certainly don't leap without sharing it. Nobody creates amazing work in isolation. Let's be honest, we want to take all the credit for our work, but come on, we have to draw on each other and have the humility as well to know you're not the finished article. If you plan, your plan might be going on track, you might go off track, but have humility to be able to think, you know what, I'm learning, right? You've got a plan, you probably want to make more sales, you want to bring in revenue, you want to build a new customer base. Okay, so that's fine. So obviously mapping out your business and knowing your niche, looking at how you can shut out the noise on everything else that's tempting, you know, jobs that aren't in your patch, or, you know, old relationships that, you know, think they can give you a bit of low-hanging fruit. Be disciplined and, you know, have an unflinching belief in your service and what you can offer to your patch. As soon as you start to breed that confidence, you start to step outside of yourself and look at how you want to be perceived, and with that comes really confident conversations with candidates and clients where you can say, look, you know, I am not a technical expert, but I am really, really invested in getting to know you in this market more What do you look for in a person like me? You know, this is what I look for in someone like you. And I'd start it being really honest. What that's going to give you is great mapping, great control, great conversations, you know, conversations with candidates. You know, you can turn them into credible conversations with clients. But yeah, I'd say plan it, plan, you know, good plan, share it, be open to learning, you know, all that growth mindset. Stuff and enjoy it. Don't think that it's a to-do list. See it as an execution of what I know I am capable of.

Love that. Absolutely love your energy, Caroline. Thank you. Oh, 50 minutes of a mentor. Thank you.

Brilliant. Thank you so much, Hishem. Good luck.