Recruiters - the new Mad Men

To work in recruitment you have to be a Mad Man

Most CEOs realise the importance of securing the best people in their industry. Having the top talent working for you gives you a huge advantage over your competition. Whilst most companies will have developed a compelling message that they are ‘the’ place to work, the reality is that majority don’t do much with it. It is often left sitting in the “Why work for us’ section of their website hoping that someone will stumble across it and contact them. Some are a bit more pro-active and will use things like social media to spread the word. Whilst some efforts can be effective, for most it is more of a hit and hope approach and this is typically true of smaller companies. Whether it is due to budgetary constrains, a lack of in house expertise or just a flippant approach, few effectively get their message out to their target audience.

What they really need is an on going campaign that constantly engages with their target audience and builds a strong brand presence. It might sound like a job for someone in marketing. The reality is that this is where the future of recruitment sits. After all, there is no one better positioned than a recruiter to do this job. They will know who the top talent is and more importantly have easy access to them. They will be speaking to the target audience all day, every day. They will also be actively engaging with the competition so can provide valuable and up to date market information. They will know how the brand is really perceived in the market place and be able to advise if changes need to be made.

As the competition for top talent increases, those companies that actively and consistently promote their employee brand will have the advantage. Similarly, recruiters who can provide this service become far more important to a client, and vital in a market that is increasingly sceptical of the value that agency recruiters provide. To achieve this recruiters and clients need to adapt the relationship they have with each other. Recruiters need to position themselves not just as an extension of HR, but also be a part of the marketing function, experts in engagement, brand development, communication and market analysis. Equally, companies who continue to use a recruiter to just fill vacancies will be missing out to their competitors that are actively engaging with the same talent pool.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on December 2, 2011 at 11:33pm: Excellent points Stephanie. You are correct that the term did come from the Madison Ave. "ad men" and i can attest they were sharp and fun and extremely creative. They could sell and charm the paper off the walls and they knew their stuff and their clients. I worked with some of them with what was then Doyle Dane and Bernbock DD&B and that was in fact almost 50 years ago. We did call them the M Ad Men. They had the ability to get the best buys for their clients in the top time slots. The spots they sent were the best produced.

I have to laugh at all this "branding" stuff. It's advertising and marketing and PR and selling your client. Call it what you will but think advertising and promoting our clients to get them the best. It won't help your client to dump his spot into the late night "run of schedule" time slot.

Comment by Craig Watson on December 3, 2011 at 9:41pm: @Valentino - sorry I haven't been around for a couple of days and just saw your comment directed towards me and thought perhaps I should respond - I don't believe I ever suggested you should only make positive comments, nor did I suggest you should keep your opinions to yourself if you didn't agree with blog content - and I would certainly never ask anyone to stop contributing to RBC. I merely pointed out an observation that I didn't think I'd ever seen you write a positive comment, and that I thought your comments generally are very very boring... I stand by that observation.

It is also extremely difficult to take seriously advice, commentary, rhetoric (call it what you will) from someone who has an overwhelming dependance on Wikipedia.....

Comment by Sudawan Kumar on December 6, 2011 at 12:26am: Very true, its time companies see recruiters as the source of updated solid market intelligence rather than a tool to meet the yearly hiring targets.

Comment by Andrew J Klimek on December 6, 2011 at 11:41am: Most people seem to be commenting about the "Mad Men" analogy, which shows its success as an intriguing headline. Excellent article, Luke, I could not agree with you more.

Comment by Noel Cocca on December 21, 2011 at 1:00pm: Not sure why this post was hijacked and taken so far off topic....for this I am sorry Luke... but for the blog, good post Luke, and thank you. This is indeed a topic being widely discussed and one that we will all sure be hearing more about....

And great headline, the key to any blog post....