Suky explains why, despite problems with work-life balance, recruiters should dedicate a few hours a week to working after hours.
Transcription
Hi I’m Suky from Professional Selection. Today I’d like to talk about why recruiters should be prepared to work after hours. Again, you hear all the time all work-life balance and so forth but I’m talking to recruiters who are managing candidates here. I can think of at least two reasons why you should do that. One, you’re new to the business or you’ve got new job orders and you actually don’t have the right candidate pool. Spending an extra hour, half an hour, two hours over the course of the week getting prepared for the candidates you’re going to call the next day will definitely improve your efficiency. It allows you to come into the office and start making a candidate calls without sitting there wondering “who do I call?”
The other reason is not all candidates are available to speak during the day, so they may work shifts and so forth, so speaking to them out of hours actually will increase the number of candidates you’re able to touch. MNow what I am going to say is I always try to speak to candidates during the day. If they’re a great candidate and for whatever reason I can’t make that happen absolutely I’m going to speak to them in the evening. I’m going to arrange a time and I’m going to call a candidate whether it takes me half an hour to talk to them or an hour. But here’s what you’re going to get from it: you’re going to get candidate loyalty, and an opportunity to really build that relationship with that candidate. They’re going to be extremely appreciative that you’ve taken time out of your personal time to speak with them.
In my experience, more often than not, those same candidates that could only speak to you in a day will then give you permission to communicate with them during working hours via text, email and so forth. So it really is going to help you. Again, as always I know people talk about work/life balance and you shouldn’t take your work home with you, but at the end of the day that’s personal choice and I’ll respect if you don’t want to do that.
But what I’m also going to say is if you try that even if you just dedicate one day a week from 6:00 to 7:30 for argument’s sake.
Try it, see what happens. You will find your efficiency will definitely go up. More candidates are talking to you, therefore the pressure that’s coming to you during the week to fill these orders has slightly reduced and you’re making commission. So your family’s going to be happy because now you’re making commission, and of course your boss is going to be happy so it’s a win-win all around, candidates have got the job.
As always would love to hear your comments, feel free to leave them below and look forward to speaking to you soon.
