This is something every recruitment consultant should ask himself or herself.

Why?

Because analyzing the responses from 50 candidates that have been kind enough to give me their time, the following are some of the frustrations and perceptions they have of their experiences with recruitment businesses previously.

1. You apply for roles and never hear anything back.
2. Roles that you apply for are not real.
3. When you go in for interview you are left waiting in reception for an unacceptable period of time.
4. You meet with a consultant who has not read your CV prior to the interview.
5. You meet with a consultant who seems to have little understanding of what you do.
6. You leave the interview and never hear back from the consultant again.

So what does a candidate want?

First and foremost…our respect!

Without sounding like Jerry Maguire (!) I am a great believer in the “less is more” philosophy of recruitment. This means having a limitation on terms of the numbers of candidates we deal with – and also being selective in terms of whom they are.

What that means is our candidates:

• Receive a service that is unparalleled as we are not trying to spread our time across hundreds of candidates but instead dealing with a smaller amount more effectively
• Will only be invited in to meet with us if we have a specific opportunity to chat to them about. The last thing we want to do is waste the candidates (or indeed our own) time.
• Get continual updates in terms of how we are progressing in assisting with their job search post interview

I have no doubt if I was searching for a role that is the type of service I would expect.

Would you?