The Best Recruiter Celebration is the recognition of all the recruiters who have been voted by the security cleared job seekers over the last year at the Cleared Job Fairs. Over 150 recruiters were recognized this year at a breakfast celebration which included a keynote presentation by Gerry Crispin of Career Crossroads. Gerry commended ClearedJobs.Net on launching this program which became the inspiration to the Candidate Experience Awards. “There is no other program like this in the country to honor recruiters for best practices. I am a big fan of this program and enjoy coming to share in the celebration,” says Crispin.

The Best Recruiter Program was started during a time when there was a backlash in security cleared community as the competition to recruit high level cleared talent intensified and companies would only speak to top level cleared job seekers at hiring event. ClearedJobs.Net noticed that this was creating animosity among security cleared job seeker community and created a negative employment brand for several cleared facilities employers.

At the same time, ClearedJobs.Net noticed that there were several companies who already understood the value of candidate experience. What these companies understood was that while there are many recruiting tools at their disposal, the most important recruiting tool is the positive experience a security cleared candidate has with a company that they share with their network.

In the 5 years of the program, thousands of companies have exhibited at the Cleared Job Fairs but only 38 companies have been recognized as having Best Recruiter teams. Many of the recruiters from these companies have gone onto other companies and created Best Recruiter teams at their new companies. Four companies have been recognized each year: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Engility (formerly L3 Communications GSES) and General Dynamic IT.

Best Recruiters have honed the skills and experience to find the best talent to support our country’s most vital mission. ClearedJobs.Net applauds these companies for their commitment and partnership to supporting the candidate experience.

From time to time, ClearedJobs.Net will recognize a recruiter leader for their impact on the cleared recruiting community. This year,we would like to recognize Tim Strike, Director of Recruiting and Staffing at General Dynamics IT. For Tim, winning the Best Recruiter recognition at each of the Cleared Job Fairs has been a mission. In the 5 years of the Best Recruiter program, Tim’s teams have won the most number of Best Recruiter recognitions by winning Best Recruiter 22 times. The recruiters on Tim’s team who have won Best Recruiter have gone on to other companies such as HP, UNISYS, TexelTek, L3, Verizon Federal Network Systems and Engility bringing the Best Recruiter passion into those companies.

We have heard from talent acquisition professionals that have worked with Tim that is was his passion for recruiting that brought them into staffing and led them to eventually becoming Best Recruiters. Several recruiters who have been part of the GDIT recruiting teams have shared that it is Tim’s commitment to professionalism and the positive candidate experience with GDIT that supports them in becoming Best Recruiters.

“The first thing that comes to mind with Tim is professionalism and how he encourages our team to hold ourselves to the highest standards. He often mentions to our team that, it’s not about doing what everyone else is doing or what is generally considered acceptable, it’s about standing out as professionals in our field. That means not only getting the basics right, but going above what is expected to make sure every candidate that visits our booth leaves with a positive experience and impression of GDIT.”

This year ClearedJobs.Net would like to recognize Tim Strike for his recruiting leadership and 5 year commitment to the Best Recruiter Program.