You want me to actually talk to someone???

Now I believe that most recruiters truly understand that they need to get to know their potential and active candidates but more and more I'm finding that people have truly forgotten how to speak to people. I've come to notice a tendency from far too many people to e-mail or instant message first. Now don't get me wrong, I love me some technology, I have always appreciated the nickname I was known by at my previous company (IGB - Internet Geek Boy) due to my prowess with finding information on people, companies, etc. I also insist that my team mates have their IM on during the day so that we can attend to issues asap that may arise. It's not unuusal that a traveling nurse calls in with an issue and one of the recruiters will IM me with questions, it lets us get real time answers to our valued field employees. I also believe in e-mail for a number of reasons. Documentation, lack mof response from a call, etc. However with my professed love for these tools and for social media in general I'm finding more and more that people just don't know how to talk to someone. I can't tell you how many times I've heard back from team mates over the years "I e-mailed them but I haven't heard back from them". The first words out of my mouth is usually "Did you try calling them?" or "Did you go see them?". I can't tell you how many times I've heard the answer ummmmm No. I know it's quite an unusual concept and calls for some effort but e-mails and IMs as much as they are a blessing are also a curse. It's so much easier to ignore or oops, miss an e-mail or an IM. Sing along if you've heard this line before "oh I never got that, hmm I'll have to check with IT" or "yeah my e-mail has been acting funny lately". Now I'm sure I've been guilty of this behavior myself but I strive to remind myself regularly to pick up the phone or if it's an internal employee I need info from, to get off my seat and go see them directly. Nothing new as far as a concept here just a moment to stop and remember what works and how to get things done. So I'll cut my first ramblings off here with a final reminder to all, especially those in our community, we're recruiters, don't forgot to talk to people.

Comment by Linda Stokes on February 17, 2012 at 12:49pm: I have to say "Amen" to that. I cannot tell you how much spam I get, as does everyone these days. I like to send emails first and then call. When I do, so many candidates never received the email or it never registered with them.

Comment by Betsy Park on February 17, 2012 at 12:55pm: I second your post! Depending on the situation, I will call first, then email as a back up. If someone is at their desk or has their phone, they will answer. Email can be very passive. While I respect that some of my Managers perfer email, some things just don't communicated as clearly or can be confused with crossing email communication... and then you get the "email is down" response... Just pick up the phone!!!

Comment by Peter Leibowitz on February 17, 2012 at 1:16pm: Repeating myself but it truly is a blessing and a curse. I guess technology is like the old saying that many men use about women "Can't live with em, Can't Live Without em" Then again it may be closer to the one my wife uses about me. "Can't live with him, Can't shoot him"

Comment by Leigh Cosgrove on February 20, 2012 at 4:56am: Having moved out of recruitment on a secondment to another part of our business I can say that this is happening even in the team I am currently managing (contracts team). We have a system that sends the contracts to the contractor and reminds them a couple of times if they don't respond within 10 days then it withdraws the contract so it can be allocated to another contractor. This is great but it also means that the team sit and wait to see who will accept rather than chasing it up by phone and contracting quicker. I am struggling to understand why these people wouldn't want to complete their work quicker and why they are so afraid to get on the phone to speak to our contractors. Recently I hired a new person into the team who is very bubbly and has great communication skills so we asked her to chase her contractors by telephone and the results speak for themselves. She managed to confirm 80% of her contracts in the normal 10 day window whilst others that played the waiting game didn't even break the 20% barrier. It doesn't matter what your role is, if you want something from people then you need to speak to them. FACT.