Working with candidates and clients

Whilst job descriptions and organisational structures can vary greatly across individual businesses within the recruitment industry there are essentially two fundamental areas of responsibility that define the type of job you can do within a recruitment business.

The first area is of course working with candidates and clients, making sure you find the right people for the right job, managing and developing a strong database of current and potential candidates and developing a strong in-depth understanding of the immediate and future needs of your clients.

Whether you’re a senior recruitment consultant or a resourcer supporting the team, you’ll focus on winning new business, identifying suitable candidates, managing client demands and meeting your agreed commercial targets.
Whether on the phone or in meetings, whether interviewing candidates or meeting new clients for the first time, it’ll be up to you to make sure that both the company and the industry for which you work is represented in the most professional and effective way possible.

Confidence, resilience, integrity, drive and determination are essential pre-requisites for these roles. You’ll need, or have the ability to develop, exceptional interpersonal skills and above all else you must continually demonstrate a genuine respect and understanding for the people who look to you for help in finding suitable employment and for your clients, whose ongoing business is essential to ensuring both personal and business success.

Administration and management

So, we’ve dealt with ‘the front-line’ of recruitment. Managing candidates and clients, developing relationships and building business. But to do all of that, you need to have a strong team of people in our second fundamental area of responsibility – commonly refereed to as Business Services and Support.

Essentially, these roles are primarily concerned with the smooth running of the business and cover a diverse range of roles from Finance Manager to Receptionist. Each role plays a critical role in ensuring that those in the frontline can do there job, support their candidates and serve their clients safe in the knowledge that pc’s will work, wages will be paid, invoices will be raised, business operations and processes will be in line with current legislation and the crucial management of financial and business planning will be confidently undertaken.

Whilst such roles can often be described as ‘back office’, the ability to work effectively as part of a team, providing mutual support and assistance is essential – as is a thorough understanding not only of your particular area of expertise but of the key roles of colleagues in the frontline. Interpersonal skills are also key to these roles as they will have not only internal customers to satisfy but will also represent the business and the industry in all their dealings and interactions with clients, candidates and suppliers.