There’s an excellent article today by Ken Forrester over at ERE titled Bond With Your Candidates that boldy asserts that “before the Internet, Recruiters successfu...

Imagine that!

All kidding aside, he’s absolutely right and this reminder - slash - piece of advice can also be extended to not only our candidates and corporate business partners (i.e. employers and customers), but also to anyone and everyone that we come into contact with over the course of a single day.

In other words, this should be applied to family, friends, co-workers and strangers alike.

Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

“This is also the job of a professional Recruiter; he must emotionally connect with the Hiring Manager and the Applicant to be successful in filling job requisitions.”

“Recruiting is a relationship-building business in which one must continually practice his verbal and interpersonal communication skills to be successful.”

“Any reason to interact is an opportunity to build on your relationship with that individual.”

It seems so simple and yet I can admit that there have been times when I’ve strayed too far off the beaten path and relied too heavily on anything but personal and direct contact (i.e. the glue that forges friendships and binds us together).

Take email for instance. In Sales and Recruiting there will unvariably be times when a person becomes so overwhelmed and stretched too thin that they’ll fall back on email as a primary form of communication. I have been guilty of this myself over the years.

However, we need to realize that an relying on email too much is counterproductive to establishing the type of emotional bonds we need to in order to be extremely successful at what we do.

Take some time out of your lunch break today to read his piece as it’s well worth it.