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As companies look to change how they source talent for their businesses and are building internal recruitment teams, some industry experts have declared the end of agency recruitment.

Greg Savage a leader in agency recruitment however feels differently. Greg was recently in Dublin giving a seminar on the new golden age of agency recruitment.

"Greg Savage is probably the most prominent voice in the crusade to bring agency recruitment into the digital age"

Greg Savage is probably the most prominent voice in the crusade to bring agency recruitment into the digital age, with his numerous blogs, insights, and interviews, recruitment agencies across the globe strive to bring some “Savage Truth” home. It is no wonder that when the guys at Social Talent organised Greg to speak we agency recruiters flocked in our hundreds to meet "the bringer of the Golden Era of Recruitment". Personally, I just wanted to meet another recruiter called Greg - good strong name after all!

But in all seriousness, the seminar gave me some serious food for thought, and some key points that I am going to introduce to my own business.

The first, being that agency recruiters are about to enter into a Golden Era of Recruitment, and if you are not ready for it, then, like the dinosaur you are going to go extinct quite quickly. This Golden Era of Recruitment was Greg’s overarching message throughout the seminar; and if we can embrace this change, get out from behind our computers, meet more candidates, meet more clients, and build your personal brand, then we will be well positioned to make hay while the sun shines.

"if we can embrace this change, get out from behind our computers, meet more candidates, meet more clients, and build your personal brand, then we will be well positioned to make hay while the sun shines"

Building your brand however requires some change, the first being the concept of self-management.

As a recruiter we are effectively our own worst enemy, but this is where self-management comes into play. If we can put ourselves into check, and look at how we engage with clients and candidates, the bigger picture will look after itself. A question that Greg posed to his audience and a question I will ask myself every day, “What do you think your job is to do with candidates? Screen? Or Create?” Hopefully everyone answered with the latter to that question and with the idea of creating candidates in mind, this is where recruiters can influence their first touch point with their respective candidate communities.

"What do you think your job is to do with candidates? Screen? Or Create?"

This brings me to my next point and it allows me to use an analogy from a TV show Billions. The show centres around Bobby Axelrod, a hedge fund manager based in New York, and his bouts with the US Attorney. Key to the show are the portfolio managers who work for Bobby. Early on in the show Bobby is giving advice to a junior PM who is questioning a trade Bobby has told him to place, Bobby turns to him and very coolly says, “remember the real money is in the long game.

 Never a truer thing could be said about agency recruitment. As it stands a lot of recruiters look for the short win, usually to the detriment of candidate and client relationships. What we should be looking for is the longer, bigger win.

Key to getting these long wins, will be what Greg calls, Seduction Conversion Rate (SCR), by engaging with candidates now and having general discussions around the market, current industry trends, you will set yourself apart from the stereotype of a typical recruiter. Not alone will this help you build a strong pipeline for months ahead, but people will start talking about you as the “go to recruiter” in your market.What we should be looking for is the longer, bigger win.

Creating your own brand will be your biggest asset in this new era of recruitment, to build a brand however, you need to look at the art of recruitment, and what you need to do differently; how you see clients and candidates and how we treat them. And the ability to look at yourself in the mirror each morning, and ask yourselves, is what I am doing, working?

Written by recruiter Greg Walsh, Morgan McKinley Ireland.