Interested in More Roles from Internal Recruiters?

I’m sure you work with some great internal recruiters.  But, for the sake of this post let’s look at worst case scenario; the times when you get stonewalled and hit with the phrases “We do everything in-house now,”, “Do not contact line.” and “We’ll call you if we need you.” – OUCH!

The New Rules

It’s no secret, in many cases (not all) it seems to be getting harder to “get past HR”.  Sometimes you may find yourself in the position where you have worked with a company for years and all of a sudden have to play to a new set of engagement rules.

“I don’t know many businesses that recruit for hard to find talent that don’t use recruiters at some point; in fact, I don’t know any.” – Belinda

We are Using Your Competitors

“We do everything in-house”, 99% of the time, just isn’t true.  Translated it means they go to your competitors before you when they are unable to fill a job themselves.  So, if you decide that a particular company is worth recruiting for and you are finding it hard to make friends with the internal guys – here’s a strategy for you.  The long and short of it is, once they know, like and trust you MORE than your competitors they will call you first.

“So how do we do that?”

1 – Create an Opportunity to Start a Positive Relationship

Create a meetup, or think tank morning, or invite an industry speaker you know they would like to hear from.  It doesn’t really matter what the format is, but it must be face to face.

2 – Pick a Topic

There are so many topics relevant to internal recruiters from how to make their company stand out at interview to wrapping their heads around AI. 

Pick a topic that you know will resonate with your market.

Here’s a few ideas to get you started.

• AI, still very much a hot topic
• The gig economy and what that means for internal recruiters
• Low cost ideas for brand engagement
• How candidates choose employers in the XYZ market
• What are the best talent advisors doing?
• Bring in a lie detection expert to do a presentation (I’ve been to one of these – loads of fun!)
• Q&A on where is recruiting heading in 2018 and beyond?

If it’s a topic you can present great, if not invite a guest speaker…perhaps a senior People and Culture expert they would look up to.

3 – Invite Internal Recruiters from your Top Clients First

Once you have your allies locked in – then invite your target internal recruiters.  Let them know some of the other guests that are going so they feel like they will be missing out if they don’t go.  Your credibility and value in their eyes as a key recruiter in their space will be clear and you are on your way to building a stronger relationship with them.  This works. It helps wash away the us and them and shows them how you can help them.

You need to do something live, it can be small and intimate or bigger it doesn’t matter, but what makes this work is the face to face interaction and experiencing your credibility for themselves.  Make sure you allow time for mingling and people to get to know each other… 

4 – Thank you

Call them to thank them for coming.  How did they enjoy it?  What other ways can you support them?…..BOOM your relationship is now on the RIGHT foot and you are far more likely to be briefed with their next role.

Let me know if you’ve already tried a strategy like this or if you have other ideas to share.  I’d love to hear.  Or equally, if you’ve tried and failed, let’s see how we can make sure you get a better result next time.

Thanks for reading!

Belinda