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The Recruitment People Podcast is a groundbreaking series that delves deep into the heart of the recruitment industry, offering a wealth of insights for both employers and candidates alike. The podcast is a definitive guide through the world of recruitment, where industry experts and visionaries share their knowledge and experiences. In each episode, listeners will uncover the journey and principles behind The Recruitment People agency, led by the trailblazer Kelly Charity. From Kelly's inspiring recruitment journey to the challenges and successes in the industry, this podcast provides a platform for candid conversations, client-centric approaches, and a laser focus on matching candidates with the right opportunities. Join us on this enlightening journey to discover the keys to successful recruitment and how the right partnerships can transform businesses and careers. Subscribe now for a dose of recruitment wisdom and stay tuned for future episodes filled with valuable insights and stories from the forefront of the recruitment world.
Welcome to the Recruitment People Podcast, the place where employers and candidates unite to uncover the art of successful recruitment. Hi, I'm Kelly Charity, a recruiter and agency owner with over two decades of recruitment experience. In this podcast series, I'm going to dive deep into the heart of hiring and job seeking, sharing actionable insights that can help Expert advice, and of course, a little bit of fun along the way.
Whether you're looking to sharpen your hiring practices or navigate your career path, we've got you covered. So let's get started and unlock the secrets to recruitment success together.
Welcome to another episode of the Recruitment People Podcast with Kelly Charity. In today's episode, we delve into a game changing approach in recruitment.
And this I've actually called it the recruitment people, single candidate strategy. This method champions the idea of quality over quantity by focusing on presenting a single highly matched candidate rather than a multitude of applicants. Now we're going to unpack the myriad of benefits. This strategy actually offers from significant time savings and increased fit accuracy to the promise of long term retention.
Welcome back, Kelly.
Hi.
How are you going?
Very good. Excellent.
Excellent. All right. Now, this is something you're, very passionate about. We've spoken about a little bit before. Can you explain the philosophy behind the recruitment people can single candidate strategy and what inspired you to adopt it at the recruitment people?
It's something that's happened over time just natural progression, in, in terms of knowing clients, understanding their brief and then presenting the candidates that have been shortlisted. More often than not, that would be one candidate because we spend a lot of time sourcing the right person.
So when we get the right person, we're going to put that person forward. And they will more often than not get the job. So 57 percent of the time, that candidate will get the job, one resume. Most of the other time, 43 percent of the time, we've put two candidates forward. And out of those two, one will get the job.
There's only a small number of times where we have to put two candidates. Multiple resumes forward, but that's because we've not understood the brief enough. So
sure.
How about at that time?
Okay. And
when that happens, let's look at this because we shouldn't be doing this. We put one resume, one candidate, they get the job.
Fantastic. So I think what employers need to understand here is that when you go about finding this single candidate, you're taking it on like You, you are their representative finding the right person for the job. You're doing the entire process right through to interview that if you were their employee hiring for that company, that's the one you'd be saying let's on board them.
So you're sure that they're the right person. So why bother doing it with two?
Absolutely. And sometimes the client will say, we need someone else to compare with. I've got you the best candidate. They are 100 percent right. I'm not going to give you the runner up. I can, and there will be a runner up, but why would I give you the candidate that I don't think is suitable for the job?
And if they said, yeah, but there must be a second best. But if the second best, they're not the person for the job. So if you want to interview to your prerogative as a client, and I respect that as a client, but I can't give you two of the best because there's only one winner and the winner is the candidate I'm going to give you, if that makes sense.
So to give you two, actually, I'm just wasting your time because you're now going to see the runner up, which I'm going, I'm telling you, I've already seen them and they're the runner up. They're not suitable. They're not the right candidate, so if the candidate that I give you is not the right candidate, I probably Okay.
I'm not going to give you the second runner up. What I'm going to do is do the recruitment process again so that I get another
top
candidate. Does that make sense? It's what's the point in giving you the runner up?
I love this. It's changing the whole way I think about interviewing and being presented candidates from a recruitment agency.
Cause I think I've mentioned before on this podcast, I had a history back in recruitment a long time ago and things have definitely changed. Yes. Back then it was the three or four best candidates. They really wanted to assess what was out there. And I that just seemed to be the way, but everything you're explaining just shows that the benefits, what challenges have you come across in implementing this Single candidate strategy.
It's a challenging one. So I have to be very well partnered up with particular companies to take this approach. But when a new company comes along, I try to talk to them about their recruitment process and strategy because of the way I work and there are still companies out there like back when you did recruitment, whereby they say I've gone to four recruiters.
That doesn't work for me because what you're asking for when you go to four recruiters is quantity over quality. And whilst the company would say, but I need a comparison. But what you're doing by giving the vacancy to four recruiters is you're saying, go and find me the best resume. throw it on my desk as fast as you can, because if you've got four, if you've got four recruiters working on it, it's fastest person, right?
So it's whoever gets the person in for the interview fast, the fastest. That doesn't allow me to go through my process because it's compromising the process. So when you talk to clients about this and educate them and say, you are compromising your own process by going to four recruiters, because they're going to give you the quality Quantity over the quality.
I have to take the time to do the process. And if I'm fighting against other recruiters, it's a race to the finish point, so I don't compromise. So if you're going to work with other recruiters, maybe we're not aligned to work together. Sometimes I will take on a role. I'm dependent on the role with the client to prove ourselves to the client because they're your client.
I want to work with, maybe they're aligning with our candidates and the industry, et cetera. But a lot of the time. You need to work with me because I'm working very hard and very thorough to get you that candidate.
Sure. How many candidates would you on average interview to, to find that one candidate?
It can just depend on the role. You know, We get many applicants come through from job ads. A lot of them aren't suitable. A lot of them from, overseas don't have a visa. So you're going through all that process. Then we go through a telephone screening situation. And so we're, screening the candidates, speaking with as many as we think fit the bill in terms of ticking the boxes on paperwork.
And then we shortlist on Attitude Culture, just on that screening call. And then we start doing it, the face to face interviews. You're paying us to see the candidates bef Before they come to you. So we have to take the time to see the candidates to find the needle in the haystack.
And I'll give you an example actually of how the, how it goes to show working with the recruiter can really be successful for you. So we were working with a national company and they had They were, they'd been advertising themselves, so they'd had all of these resumes come through. And so we'd gone through the process with our candidates, applicants, headhunting every, everything that we do.
And we had this particular candidate who I'd spoken with on the phone. His resume wasn't very good. Our job is to go through people. So we'd spoken with the candidate and he, on the phone, he was a superstar. So I got him in for an interview. He was amazing. So his resume was not amazing, but that's what you're paying us to do, right?
Find, the people. And so we presented the candidate to the client and the client said, Oh no, we've already had his resume. We're rejecting him. And I said, but I'm your recruiter and I've interviewed him and I'm telling you, he's the guy. Wow. And they were like, Luckily we'd worked with them before.
So they, they know if I'm saying he's the guy, he's the guy.
They trust you.
Absolutely. And so they were like okay, we'll see him. And anyway, they saw him, they hired him. He's been there for four or five years now. He's now their national wow Stake sales manager. But on paper, his resume just wasn't strong enough.
But that's why you use a recruiter because you haven't got time to ring everyone. So it's us. They only saw that guy and they, he rang me. He said, you're right. I said, I know it was a great story. And yeah we laugh about it now. Cause he was like, I'm not seeing him.
Fantastic. Yeah. How do employers react?
I guess, especially new clients that you get when you're talking with them about the process you're going to undertake and you say to them, Yeah. I'm only going to give you one candidate. What's their reaction?
What we talked about earlier, I want to, I need a comparison. And look at that.
That is their prerogative. If they want to, okay, I'm going to, I'll give you the runner up. If you want to waste your time seeing the runner up, see the runner up, because that makes my candidate look even better. The one that I know is the right candidate. But most of the time I'll say, look, why don't you see the candidate that is the one?
If you then want to see another, we'll have that conversation. I love
that too. So you're not wasting their time.
They're just going to see the candidate. That just makes sense. Then they're going to go, actually, you were right.
Most employers know when the right person's there. And if you're absolutely confident.
Absolutely.
And they'll come back and say, you're right. No need to send in number two.
Correct.
And that's what we
hope for because we believe that the candidate is right.
Do, when you're looking for these candidates for these jobs, do you let the candidates know that they're the only one going?
No.
Okay.
No, we don't. Talk me through that. Never thought about it. Sometimes candidates will ask how many other people have you got in the process? And we spoke about this in one of our other podcasts Adam, how the candidate asks at the end of the interview, how did I go?
How did I do?
Lots of candidates don't ask but I feel as a recruiter, We should probably provide feedback because a lot of the time they're interviewing for a specific job.
So I'll say to them, I think you're a great match and we'll have this whole conversation about the culture and why it's right for them and why they're right for the role. And so I've prepped them that I think they're really good for the job. They might then be open enough to say to me, is there anyone else?
And I'll tell them, yes, there is another candidate that I'm speaking with but you're very different or, we'll have that conversation about the comparison. But because we only put one candidate forward, generally we're sticking with you or the candidate, but they don't ask. And I wouldn't share that they are the only candidate because I think it puts the candidate in a compromising position and under pressure, Or too confident, maybe?
I don't know. I just, I wouldn't unless they asked, I wouldn't say you are the only candidate. You are my candidate. I'm, you're going to get the job, but I would be confident in them.
Absolutely. So I gather this is something that's not too commonly used out in the recruitment world that everyone's been used to.
putting forward more than one candidate. Can you see this is something you've adopted and it's something that you're very passionate about and I can absolutely see the benefits. Do you think others will follow? Do you think this will come become more prevalent in the recruitment world?
As it evolves?
I don't know. I don't know that it will become something that lots of people do.
Look, one thing that stands out to me is you've got to be passionate about and I'm really darn good at what you do and darn confident and absolutely know your stuff backwards and that's really what's come through in this podcast Kelly, is that you are, and you know what you're doing.
You do, and you can only do this if you are a top notch recruiter and can find that one and stand around and say it, Yes. This is the right person.
Yeah. We actually had a a client a local client actually about a year ago and I gave him the, the candidate that I thought was the top candidate.
And he said, I want to see someone else as well. And I had this conversation with him to say, this is the top candidate. And she she wasn't in a rush, so it wasn't like he was going to lose her by, seeing other people. So it's the client's prerogative.
Sure.
And so I gave him two other people. And they were all very good.
Equally could do the job because I don't give them runners up. I give them people who can do the job and match all of the requirements. And and he called me after he'd, and he'd seen three people, which I don't like, but I respect my client's wishes. And so I'd given him these three people and he said, can you help me decide which one?
And I was like it's your pick because you have to connect with one of these people. I've given you the more because I know that they can do the job and they fit and he could, it was so difficult for him to choose. And and he ended up choosing the one that went forward first, the original the one that he said I need a comparison to.
So that was interesting. But But he literally, it took him days to decide. And so we reference checked them all because we thought maybe the reference checks will give us a bit of an insight into the weaker link, maybe. I don't know, like the, the less favorable candidate out of the three, but all of the references were great.
And he was just like, and I said who do you connect with the most? Who can you work with? We know they can all do the job. And so he had to make that decision himself with a little bit of guidance, but it's. He has to work with them, so it's his decision, yeah. Yeah.
Look, thanks again, Kelly.
Today's episode is of absolutely love because this was one that when we were talking about doing, I'm thinking, really? Only one? I want to compare. But now that you've. You've explained and shown just why this is a winner. It absolutely makes sense. And it comes back for me to you knowing what you're doing and you being the best at what you do.
And when you are, you can confidently stand there and say, this is the right person. Don't waste your time. And I'm back. And there's not a lot of recruiters out there that can actually do that. Look it's clear to me that the recruitment people, single candidate strategy, why quality over quantity is a winner.
is absolutely the way to go. We've uncovered the transformative power of focusing on a single highly matched candidate and how this strategy will revolutionize recruitment practices for the better. So a big thank you to our listeners for joining us on this journey today and look forward to you joining us on future episodes of the Recruitment People podcast.
Please do subscribe, listen, give us a comment, a a share. We we appreciate. All of that to help us grow this podcast and help others in their journey to getting the right people or finding the right job. Kelly Charity, thanks once again. Thank you.