The comparison between marriage and recruitment has been made over and over. For two things that have no intrinsic link, they offer a multitude of similarities, and not just because 1 in 3 ends in failure. It is probably not surprising then that one of my colleagues moonlights as a marriage celebrant by the weekend. A good chunk of our Monday morning team meeting is usually dedicated to her report of the previous weekends wedding including the good, the bad and the sometimes ugly. She finishes with a judgment on whether they will, or they won't  make it as a married couple. According to her you can always tell:

 "The best ones are when you can see that they both just get each other".

If you consider this in terms of a Recruitment Consultant it is not just a case of understanding the other person in the relationships (clients and candidates), it is also the ability of those people to do the same. Now, I consider myself a good judge of character and I find it quite easy to accurately form some basic understanding of a person quickly. In short I think I ‘get’ people. Above everything else I think this makes me a good recruiter. But what about the other side of the equation, the bit where they have to ‘get’ me to make the relationship work. After all, if this is missing then it doesn’t matter how good a judge of character I am, the relationship is on a slippery slop to becoming one of the 1 in 3 statistics.

So how can I be sure that my clients and candidates are ‘getting’ me?

 The short answer is that you can’t. But there is something you can do to help them along; be genuine. Now, before you reach for the vomit bucket and bemoan another recruiter preaching on the importance of values, this is not one of those blogs (nor am I one of those people). The reason for being genuine is simply that it will give you better outcomes. Of course you can portray yourself as anything you like, as long as you can back it up. But even if you have the acting ability of a young de Niro, sods law is that at some point you will not be able to follow up on your bravado. Do it more than once and you quickly lose credibility, and probably a client and candidate too.

It sounds simple but it can be very difficult to be genuine. We are all social chameleons to a certain point, changing our character to suit the environment or person we are with. We are also all probably guilty of painting a more attractive picture of ourselves than is 100% genuine. But being honest about who you are, and being that person consistently will mean your clients and candidates are far more likely to ‘get’ you and therefore be able to work with you .

Similar to my colleagues weddings’, recruitment relationships are made up of the good, the bad, the ugly and some that just shouldn't have started in the first place. But the best ones are when everyone in the relationships just 'gets' each other.