The future of recruitment
Ginnette Harvey has worked with Specialist Staffing Group for more than 15 years. And she’s been a huge part of the success story for Real Staffing in the states. We recently spoke to her about her career accomplishments and what it means to be successful within the recruitment space.
Now, she’s sharing her stories of working with Real Staffing, letting us know about some of her most inspiring partnerships, discussing how the recruitment landscape within life sciences has changed, and making her predictions about what the future holds.
You have been in the recruitment industry for 17 years total now. What inspires you and keeps you in the industry?
It’s definitely the sense of purpose that comes with being in the recruitment industry. At Real Staffing, our purpose is bringing skilled people together to build the future – and that absolutely resonates with me.
Our careers are so important to us and the direction they take can have a profound impact on our lives. It’s hard not to feel a sense of purpose when you consider the difference you can make at an individual level. Facilitating professional growth and helping candidates reach their goals and full potential is so rewarding! And knowing that we’re connecting professionals across life-changing industries is incredibly motivating.
Secondly - and on a related note - I would say the people. I have met some extraordinary individuals during my time in recruitment and many of them I am in touch with to this day. The opportunity to build meaningful relationships and become part of their story is extremely motivating. I’ve had the opportunity to meet people in companies who are creating life-saving drugs, building innovative and game-changing medical devices, and manufacturing products that can protect our world – how can these kind of individuals not leave their mark on you?
Finally, when we’re talking about recruitment as a whole, I would have to say the pace of change in the industry is enthralling. The world of recruitment is forever changing and evolving – that is what keeps it exciting!
Can you tell me about some of the most inspiring stories of candidates or clients you have worked with?
I am very lucky working in this space because I genuinely get to feel inspired on a daily basis – and that’s because of the candidates and clients that I get to work with. Every project that we work on is going to save or change the lives of people in one way or another – to know you’re playing a part in that is overwhelming.
It’s definitely a privilege to play our part in connecting skilled professionals with these extraordinary organizations – because every time you bring these people together, you know they’re going on to do such impactful and important work. We are quite literally connecting people who’ll be developing life saving drugs or a creating devices that will change the quality of someone’s life.
We recently ran a feature on the heroes in our industry and shone the spotlight on one of our candidates, Noel - she’s a clinical research consultant by day and then during her spare time she volunteers to help mental health patients in crisis. So inspiring!
In these last few months alone I have been inspired by so many people. Whether it’s our contractors - the essential workers who have been so dedicated and brave in the face of a global pandemic. Or whether it’s our recruitment consultants – seeing them work tirelessly to bring skilled people together at such a pivotal time, and hearing the deeply personal stories around their motivations.
There are so many incredible things happening every single day across our industry. And we are getting to work with these heroes. I don’t know how anyone could fail to be inspired by this.
On the subject of change in the recruitment industry, how has it changed and what are your predictions for the future?
There has been so much change over the last 17 years so I will focus in on three areas that have already changed the landscape and I believe will continue to drive further evolution.
The impact of technology
Naturally, technology is a big one - specifically the impact that automation, AI, and data analytics continues to have in changing all aspects of our industry. For me, the great thing about automation and AI is the layer of efficiency this sophisticated technology can add to the process by removing some of the more laborious and manual tasks. This technology can never replace the personal skills a recruitment consultant has – there’s an art to connecting the right people with the right organization and this could never be done by a robot – but it does free up recruiters to spend more time on the most impactful part of the process.
We can expect to see automation and AI continue to play a bigger part in the process for organizations moving forward, factoring in areas like onboarding and E-Learning. Data driven metrics is another trend that is firmly embedded into the world of recruitment – it’s a key driver of many recruiting strategies. The use of analytics really enables firms to make smart decisions around their hiring plans, understand engagement and retention pain points, as well as discern areas for improvement. With this as a frame of reference it absolutely makes for a better conversation when we then partner with businesses to help solve some of those challenges – it gives us a much better appreciation of the unique challenges and opportunities facing each organization and allows us to create a plan that caters for this.
Social recruitment
Social recruitment would be another thing that has absolutely changed the game for recruiters. Seventeen years ago, the key components of good recruitment were deep industry knowledge and a “market map” – essentially knowing who did what and where. That is absolutely still true, but now recruiters have other digital tools at their disposal.
In the days before LinkedIn, it could often take years to build a strong network of businesses and professionals – especially within the niche markets that make up the life sciences. LinkedIn and other social platforms have made it so much more accessible to map that out and understand who the right contacts are within an organization. However, knowing who the right people are and nurturing talent are two entirely different things – and that’s why digital tools are just that, tools. Resources like LinkedIn are extremely beneficial, but they’re only useful in the hands of a skilled recruitment consultant.
Fortunately, that is where the good recruiters still get to differentiate themselves and add true, authentic value to businesses and candidates. LinkedIn is a platform for recruitment consultants and it empowers us with the ability to elevate our personal brand and create powerful candidate communities through social recruiting. The key to creating great candidate communities and building value in your personal brand is having interesting content to bring to the table that offers a distinct point of view. And that’s a massive plus for the candidates and clients we’re looking to reach out to as well – they can instantly know whether that recruitment consultant has something to offer them and whether this is the appropriate connection to make.
This is a huge nod to how much the role of the recruiter has changed – it’s no longer sufficient to simply provide resumes to an organization or be a great salesperson. Social recruiting has resulted in increased transparency - the expectation is so much greater now. This makes the role all the more challenging and separates good recruiters from great recruiters.
Employee experience
The third distinct shift is the importance of employer branding and the employee experience. Both of these go hand in hand. Employees want to work for an organization that has a sense of purpose and a value system that they can get behind. Take the life sciences specifically – if you work in medical device manufacturing, it’s critical that you choose a company whose values align with yours. You want to make sure they’re are working on a project you truly believe in.
Simply put, it’s just not enough to be better than the competition or hide behind a good paycheck – employees want to work for an organization they can feel proud of. And it’s not enough for companies to simply talk the talk, they have to walk the walk. The rise of social media and platforms like Glassdoor empower employees – they’ll tell the world whether the promises a company makes on their website are actually authentic.
If businesses want to attract the best talent, they really have little choice but to care sincerely and authentically about the candidate experience. And the candidate experience starts sooner than you may think - the moment our recruitment consultants reach out to someone at the organization, it begins – and it continues throughout the entire recruitment process, then the onboarding process, all the way through to this person’s active journey as an employee until they depart from your company.
How a business treats someone on the way out is just as important as the way they’re treated on the way in. So how does this impact our job as recruiters? I believe that when an organization works with an external recruiter, that recruiter is often viewed as an extension of the employer’s brand. We are incredibly aware of this at Real Staffing and I think this is one of the most important reasons that companies need to choose wisely around who they want to represent them and their employer brand – because depending on the experience, the impact could be drastic.