It goes without saying that recruiters like certain parts of their job more than other parts. But the question we want the answer to is this one: which part do recruiters like the MOST? Sure, to paraphrase the words of Greg Marmalard in the movie Animal House, “Well, that would be hard to say . . . they’re each outstanding in their own way.”
And perhaps your response would mimic that of Dean Vernon Wormer. In any case, we set out to uncover a more concrete answer to that question with one of our recruiter polls.
Each week, Top Echelon’s Recruiting Network conducts a poll of its member recruiters, of which there are nearly 1,300. The question that we posed to those recruiters recently is as follows:
Which of the following parts of the recruiting process do you like the most?
Results:
The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters who selected each one:
- Sourcing candidates — 17.6%
- Qualifying candidates — 11.8%
- Prepping candidates for interviews — 7.8%
- Marketing to prospective clients — 12.7%
- Maintaining client relationships — 41.2%
- Maintaining candidate relationships — 8.8%
Summary:
This was NOT a close race. That’s because “maintaining client relationships” blew away the field with 41.2% of the vote. “Sourcing candidates” was a distant second at 17.6%. Hot on the heels of that answer were “marketing to prospective clients” at 12.7% and “qualifying candidates” at 11.8%.
“Maintaining candidate relationships” came close to hitting double digits, but dipped just below that mark at 8.8%. “Prepping candidates for interviews” was dead-last, garnering 7.8% of the recruiter vote.
Apparently, opinions varied when it came to answering this poll question, showing the diversity of perspectives and preferences that exist among recruiters. However, one answer was considerably more popular than the rest, which leads us to our . . .
Analysis and conclusion
It’s currently a candidates’ market . . . but clients are the ones who pay recruiters’ invoices. So did that factor into the results of this poll? It depends on how you look at it.
Obviously, in order to keep getting paid as a recruiter, you have to maintain client relationships. And of course, in order to keep getting paid as a recruiter, you have to engage in a ton of recruitment sourcing (of the best candidates, actually).
So the two most popular answers in this poll just happen to be the two biggest ways that recruiters ensure that keep making placements and they keep getting paid. Even the third-most popular answer, “marketing to prospective clients,” speaks directly to getting paid.
So could we then say that a recruiter’s favorite part of the placement process is getting paid? There is ample evidence to suggest that the answer to this question is . . . yes. Some of you might not agree, though. In fact, you might be thinking:
“We’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!”