For the last 20 years, I’ve been running a recruitment business, a recruitment agency, a recruitment consultancy, whatever you want to call it, I’m in recruitment.
It’s a business that’s grown year on year, serving global clients, and making a profit. On the face of it, it’s a good business.
But hiring conversations with clients slowly started to change in recent years. And this caught me off guard at first.
Conversations became more about using HR, Talent Acquisition, internal recruitment teams…and less about external recruitment agencies.
More and more companies were starting to hire using internal teams because they felt they could do it better and more cost-effectively themselves. And by doing the hiring themselves, Talent Acquisition Leaders became better positioned to talk more about changes and trends impacting the sector.
However, two things weren’t changing:
- The views of external recruiters…
- And how external recruiters were viewed
Recruitment doesn’t always have the best of reputations. I get it.
Why would an organisation trust a recruiter driven purely by commission, or who’s selling the same pitch to your competitors? Or a recruiter who only advises with no accountability?
And more importantly, why would companies use external recruiters who bring no approach, methodology, structure or confidence to what they do?
With the advancement in technology and organisational thinking, on the face of it, recruitment is getting easier – sourcing, engaging, selecting and on-boarding. So why would you pay a recruiter to bring talent to the table that you can probably find yourself?
Looking back, it’s no surprise to see the growth of HR and internal talent teams over the last 10 years.
Companies are nervous of relying on their talent agenda being executed by external companies who really don’t care enough, don’t understand enough and who are not part of their bigger picture. Which is why they’ve decided to go it alone.
But when I started to speak to more HR & Talent Leaders globally to understand this shift, it was clear they still had recruitment challenges. Understandably, they couldn’t do everything.
They certainly didn’t need any help from more recruitment companies, but what I identified was they needed help from a business that does recruitment.
By looking closely at how we were working with our clients and listening to their feedback, we created a new approach, in fact, a new category, that we’ve defined as Recruitment Process Intelligence.
It was a real light bulb moment for us.
But even more so, it’s been universally understood and accepted by our clients.
For years we knew we were different, but we didn’t have the guts to speak up and shout about it.
We weren’t a contingent recruiter who worked with no commitment. We weren’t a retained recruiter who worked with too much commitment. We weren’t an RPO who wanted a multiyear commitment.
Solutions Driven was a business that delivered recruitment results, a recruitment process and real intelligence – all based on mutual commitment and accountability.
We provided Recruitment Process Intelligence™. Recruitment PI.
But what is Recruitment Process Intelligence™?
Well, it’s obvious now we’ve categorised it. Simply put, it’s what external recruiters are not commonly known for – a structured methodology that guarantees delivery of the best talent to organisations whilst making hiring teams and candidates feel great about the results achieved.
Simply put, Recruitment Process Intelligence™ changes the way external recruiters are viewed.
Recruitment Process Intelligence™ defined:
First: Let’s start by saying it’s a process
We’ve all seen so many examples of hiring processes being kicked off with no structure and measures of success defined. Why does recruitment not follow a structured process like any other business function, when you’re dealing with your most valuable asset?
We not only deliver the hire, but we work with the client to define what great looks like from the outset. We help support any gaps they have in their hiring process, providing data to give confidence in our ability to deliver and agree who owns what when it comes to delivering success. Our internally developed 6S™ process delivers a 97% right-first-time success rate against an industry average of 45%.
Second: It’s based on guaranteed results and not promises
We’re flipping traditional recruitment on its head. We commit, we deliver, we guarantee. We grab hold of accountability and deliver 100% of our shortlists on time and 60% faster than the competition based on customer feedback. 92% of the candidates we deliver are passive, meaning we find people – not resumes. Oh, and we offer a 12-month guarantee on every placement. Yep, that’s right, you read it correctly – 12 months!
Third: Intelligence with a capital I
You’re not adding value if you’re not bringing intelligence – fact. We support our clients with real-time data on hires being made and insights into the candidate drivers against the value proposition. This is achieved through our 6F™ methodology. This dramatically increases the chance of the right candidate fit. We share intelligence on the quality of the hiring process, the quality of the recruiter and hiring manager interaction, and post-hire data to drive continuous hiring improvements.
Last: Sssh…we love being the silent partner
The days of external recruiters being the life and soul of the party are gone.
We know where external recruiters should be placed. In a quiet spot, usually working on projects that internal teams don’t have the time, energy or brain space to focus on, but need someone who can apply Recruitment Process Intelligence™ to get results. That’s us, that’s where we play. We spend our time making our clients look like heroes internally because we know they’ll come back to us again in the future.
We’re proud and excited to have created Recruitment Process Intelligence™. We believe it positively challenges the traditional views of the recruitment sector and enables everyone to benefit from a continuously improving hiring partnership based on best in class processes and intelligence.
In simple terms, this new way of recruiting makes it easier.
In fact, it’s as easy as PI!
