Mike Richards, who runs a treasury recruitment company, argues that recruiters need to attract candidates by understanding what they want, not just what hiring managers need. If you don't put candidates first, you won't fill your role.
Hi, everyone. I'm Mike Richards and I run the treasury recruitment company. I'm here today to try to bring to life some of the advice we've been giving through our recent blog posts. The most recent one you might have seen is it's not about you anymore, it's about them. What do I mean by that? Well, I don't know if you've read the article, but I thoroughly recommend it as a decent lunchtime read. But what I did, I wrote the article because I wanted to try to explain to some of our clients why they need to stand in the shoes, if you like, of some of the candidates when they're applying for jobs. I want them to, for some of them, remember quite a long time ago what it was like for them when they were looking to their first role, think about the candidate first. And a lot of my clients don't seem to have that thought process and it's quite frustrating. They have this kind of me mindset, if you like, about, why wouldn't someone want to come and join us? Well, we're amazing. We're a great. Well, you might be a great, amazing company. I know that. And some of our clients do have amazing opportunities, but in some of the job descriptions you give to me and the adverts you write, it's like you then expect people to flock to your door and it's not like that anymore. The world's changed. You need to try and think about your. The candidates, if you like, and sell the role. Imagine you're sitting there, you're a Treasury analyst or manager, and you're looking for your next opportunity and where you're going to go to next. You need to sell that dream and attract someone to come in the door and join you guys. So tell them what makes you special? Why would they come in and join your company? What will be career enhancing for someone to join you, if you like? One of the practical example I gave in the actual article, I've got a great consultancy client, they give some great advice to treasury teams and departments and they're looking to recruit some consultants. And they said to me at the beginning, mike, what we want to do, first of all, give these guys a case study how they're going to approach a tricky problem. I was like, what if you're mad? They were like, no, we're going to give them this or show us their thinking. And everything else went, I don't care. You've got it the wrong way round. As a client, you need to entice someone to join you in the room, first of all, not turn them away. I said to them, look, we need to change the process round. And it proved to be very successful. Because what I said is that we'll find you some great people, get you sitting with them over a coffee and explain to them what consultancy is about. That way they buy into the process, they understand consultancy. You don't actually waste your time because if they're not interested in the role after that, you don't go through a big process and everything else. And I know you might have some trepidation and nervousness about what do they do next, but, you know, would you, like, come in, get them in for a coffee? You have a coffee, they like you, it's an equal sharing thing. Then you move them and say, oh, this person will be great for consultancy or no, they're not. And actually, nobody's lost out because their time's not wasted. You've got a cultural fit, they've got the same, and you can start to assess the person. So then you do that case study and it's worked very well. And now that's the hiring process of the employee. So, as I say, I know there's a bit of a long video today, but I wanted to try and get it across to you that make their needs primary, your secondary. And as I say, candidate comes first. It's not about you anymore, it's about them. Thanks very much.
