Great recruiters are right under your nose

I know where you can hire great recruiters, and virtually no one else is looking there.

This is not a lecture. This is an eye-opener that slowly dawned on me. And it needs to become apparent to owners and managers of recruitment companies.

Those same owners and managers are bleating loud and long about the shortage of quality recruiters. They also moan privately (and sometimes not so privately), that the ‘newbies; they invest in lack focus, resilience and resign at the drop of a hat, like if the cappuccino machine is on the blink’.

In just about every Board meeting I have, or cup of coffee with a recruitment agency owner, I sip, the topic of recruiter shortages arises.

How can we hire them? How can we develop them? In Australia, it has even boiled down to a pathetic debate about why the government won’t let us have special visas for ‘ready-made” UK recruiters on reasonable salaries, so we can just ‘import’ to solve our problem. (they have a massive shortage there too by the way).

But there is a vast pool of potential great recruiters eager and ready for upskilling and cross-training.

The only thing you need to do is shift your age paradigm.

That’s it. Your ‘newbie’ recruiters do not have to be aged under 28, you know!

What about that vast reservoir of talented, energetic, commercially savvy, articulate, sales orientated, slightly more senior professionals, looking for a career change, or having had one forced on them by a changing world of work?

Yes, 40-year old’s. Or 50-year old’s. Or even older.

Why not? They have all the business ethos you want. They are often not looking for promotion or endless affirmation.

They are mature, understand business, resilient, and probably better judges of people than 90% of your current recruiters.

From advertising, PR, marketing, real estate, retail, hospitality, even finance, logistics, and sales of course

Think of the contacts, the in-depth sector knowledge and the credibility they will bring!

I am not talking about age discrimination here, although we all know it exists.

I am talking about opening your mind to approaching people in this demographic. Targeting them, bringing the idea to them!

Yes, there are hurdles. Cultural fit. Salary expectations.

But they are not insurmountable.

Last month I referred a 50+ year-old friend with 30 years media experience to a recruitment company who specialises in that space. They loved her, hired her, and a career is changed, and a business improved (and I got a bottle of wine, so what’s not to love?)

She never thought of recruitment when she chatted to me about her desired career change over a glass of wine. It had to be suggested! And explained. But once she got it, she was excited, and now the rest is history.

She is 20 years (or more) older than the team average, but she smashes them on energy and work ethic. And when it comes to industry knowledge and contacts in her sector, they flock around her like bees to honey (Hold on? Do bees flock to honey? Or do they make it? Never mind. You understand me. )

Think about it. Why not?

Let’s go grey!

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UK RECRUITERS! SERIOUSLY. IT WILL SELL OUT

The Savage Masterclass returns to the UK! London, Manchester and Glasgow.

250 signed-up already. Venues will sell out!

#SavageSell. Book now

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