What Makes a Strong Client / Recruiter Relationship

By: Jessica Gerber

Here at Germer International, there is a criteria and behavior from our clients that help us determine which jobs are a top priority. As you can read in Catherine Stier’s blog, 3 Ways to Become Our Favorite Client, she identifies the top criteria: setting expectations with all members involved in the process, giving specific, timely, and reasonable feedback, as well as the company being a great place to work. While these are all important behaviors that make us as recruiters want to prioritize that client, what behaviors from the recruiters’ side can strengthen the relationship?

  1. Understanding the pain points of the position:
  • Before we start on any position, we have a scope call with the hiring manager. While we know that the hiring manager is busy, this scope calls ensures that we are identifying and sending candidates that align with the team’s expectations. The time spent going over why the position is open, challenges of the position, and target questions to ask potential candidates, ultimately ends up saving the hiring manager’s time. This increases the quality of candidates being submitted, while Germer’s recruiters screen out resumes that are not a fit.
  1. We hold our clients accountable:
  • We value feedback. Positive or negative, feedback is the only way to ensure that we are sending over solid candidates. We ask clients ahead of time if they can give specific, reasonable, and timely feedback. Once a client assures us that they can provide this type of feedback within a certain amount of time, we will hold the client accountable. And we expect them to hold us accountable to use that feedback to find more qualified candidates.
  1. We provide insight into the market:
    • We understand that everyone wants the perfect candidate, and we will do everything in our power to find that candidate. The problem is, sometimes that professional does not exist. Therefore, it is our responsibility to communicate what trends we are seeing in the market and what is realistic. Not only with salary expectations, more recently we’ve seen trends around in-office flexibility expectations. Just as we look to you, the client, to give us insight into your culture and environment, we will give insight into what we are seeing in our environment.