Ah, communication. The heart of all relationships, both personal and professional. Relationships thrive with good communication and they die due to a lack of it.
The problem is that many relationships, if not most of them, suffer from a lack of communication. Now, that lack is on a sliding scale, from just a small lack at one end all the way to a glaring lack at the other. This is why some people claim that you must “over-communicate if you want to communicate enough.”
And if you’re a recruiting agency owner and/or the manager of a group of recruiters, you are probably keenly aware of the truth of these statements. After all, it’s your job to maximize the potential (not to mention the production) of these recruiters and ensure that they’re making placements and generating revenue for the agency.
Recruiter communication: being a good ‘soundbiter’
According to recruiting industry trainer and speaker Scott Wintrip, leaders are often frustrated that they have to repeat themselves when addressing their team of recruiters. So what’s the problem? Why is this happening?
“Short attention spans have gotten shorter,” said Wintrip. “We have just nine seconds to capture someone’s attention. And only 30 seconds to share our full message being tuned out.”
According to Wintrip, less is more when it comes to recruiter communication and being masterful in your conversations with your recruiters. Wintrip calls this being a good “soundbiter.” You’ve no doubt heard of “soundbites” before. These are small snippets of information that only last several seconds, yet people are intrinsically drawn to them and listen to them in their entirety.
“Being a good ‘soundbiter’ will have more of your direct reports listening, wanting to understand, and retain the valuable things you have to say,” said Wintrip.
Internal communication with recruitment agencies
According to Wintrip, being an effective “soundbiter” begins with three simple steps for compelling your recruiters to listen:
Step #1—Listen to how people communicate.
This includes all the different ways in which people communicate. In terms of the spoken word, it includes in person, on the telephone, via Zoom now that the coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that everybody conducts business, television, and even radio.
“Pay particular attention to those that capture your attention while keeping their comments brief,” said Wintrip. “Notice how they convey their ideas through their selection of words and use of volume, tone, and inflection.”
Step #2—Conduct a personal debrief.
Specifically, conduct a debrief after conversations that you have with others, including your direct reports and other recruiters in the office. This is all done with continuous improvement in mind. Effective recruiter communication is all about evolving the way in which you approach situations and engage other people.
“Pick statements you made during the conversation and develop alternative ways you could have made your remarks in more of a provocative, soundbite fashion,” said Wintrip.
Step #3—Strive for progress, not perfection.
You might have heard this before. After all, perfect is impossible, and striving to be perfect most likely will make you miserable. So, “progress, not perfection” is the rallying cry, and it is also the rallying cry when it comes to recruiter communication. According to Wintrip, the goal is to communicate as effectively as possible with as few words as possible and in the shortest amount of time possible.
“Using select conversations can be an opportunity to practice saying more with less words,” he said. “Personal conversations are often a safe and easy place to start.”
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has made recruiter communication even more difficult. That’s because not all of your recruiters may be in the same physical location. Everybody might be working remotely. Perhaps half are in the office and half are remote.
Regardless of the logistics involved, communicating effectively may have become more difficult, but it has not become any less important. In fact, it might be more important now than it’s ever been. But according to Wintrip, leaders don’t complain about the obstacles and challenges. Instead, they do what is necessary to overcome the obstacles and meet the challenges head-on.
“The job of being a leader is challenging,” he said. “Leaders make it harder than it needs to be when they talk too much.”
To throw yet another quaint saying on the quip fire, “God gave us two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we talk.”
Recruiter communication and a better ATS!
Of course, not all internal communication in recruitment agencies is verbal in nature, of course. There are plenty of non-verbal forms of communication, including email and instant messaging. And don’t forget about recruitment agency software!
Top Echelon offers such a software to professional recruiters and executive search consultants, and this software offers a ton of great features. Among them are job order pipelines, resume parsing, and business development Hotlists. However, this top-notch ATS and CRM also boasts robust email marketing functionality, an activity planner, job posting, and easy reporting for larger recruiting agencies.
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