As a seasoned recruiter, I’ve met some amazing clients and candidates in my time forming relationships based on Face to face meetings (don’t listen to what anyone says, I’m a real charmer when you meet me!). Most of the time we manage successfully to book both candidates and clients in for meetings however there are times when people can’t fit us in their busy lives. I try to explain our intentions as follows:

A CV tells you what someone has achieved in their career, an interview face to face or on Skype will show you what they are like as a person and if they’ll fit in your team. The same applies the other way round. A job description tells a candidate (and us) the duties of a role, but an interview will allow them to see the offices, meet the team and the line manager and get a better feel of the working environment.

A recruiter is the first stage of the talent selection process – we’re here to make everyone’s lives just that little bit easier, so it’s important to meet us too! A meeting enables us to really delve into a job description or a CV and gives us the opportunity to share market intelligence and our expertise to shape expectations for everyone. As recruitment experts we can help guide both candidates and clients in what to expect in processes, talking about skill sets that match or don’t match a role, discuss salaries and budgets. We don’t claim to be as skilled as our clients at being marketing managers, but we are experts in marketing recruitment and talent management and have a wealth of experience to help guide you along the way. At Better Placed we call this “The Real Network” and we live and breathe this as much as we possibly can.

So how can we make things less painful for you and your diary?

FOR CANDIDATES

Meetings at our office

We’re always happy to be as flexible as we can with our candidate meetings – our offices are in Central London and very discreet. Meetings can be generally any time between 8 and 6 and we can keep them brief if you are short on time.

Meetings in town / close to your work/close to home

We’re happy to meet candidates closer to their work if you can’t get to our offices. We try to be as flexible as we can to grab that suitable time with you to really get to know you properly!

Skype calls or scheduled phone interviews

These are pretty common these days especially for candidates who work out of town and really can’t get into London. A scheduled call or Skype meeting gives us enough time to dig deeper into your background and your skills and get to know you as best we can when not meeting face to face. These enable us to start to build that relationship with you that we need to be a credible consultant!

FOR CLIENTS

Agency days

Last week we were invited to a very well planned agency day with a key client – they bought all the “marketing and creative” suppliers in for a 3-hour meeting to be with HR, Talent Management, Head Marketing and Head Creative. With a person from each team speaking for 20 or 30 mins about their team, their output for the year ahead, growth plans etc it meant that we got to ask questions to our future line managers and rec team in a brilliantly organised structure. We also got to see the offices – win-win all round!

Coffee meetings at your office

A meeting with a recruiter doesn’t need to take much longer than half an hour if you have a busy day! The key for us to be able to commute to the office, experience the building and atmosphere if at all possible (best organised on a day when more people are in the office than traditionally working from home!) and sit with the relevant hiring manager and HR to run through a hit-list of questions so we can sell you to our candidates. It really isn’t a box-ticking exercise, it’s super important!

Coffee meeting in town

Sometimes it’s just not convenient to meet at your offices – maybe you don’t have the space at the moment, you’re renovating, or relocating? We can still meet for a coffee in a coffee shop or in our offices or anywhere mutually convenient. Again this is about us getting to know our clients better so we can share this feedback with our candidates. 

Briefing calls with line managers

Worst case scenario if a meeting with a team or line managers isn’t possible but a role is being recruited, a briefing call is always appreciated. Having the time to speak to the decision-maker is critical in ensuring that we can make it the best process for you. Many clients do this as an integrated agency briefing call with Q+A at the end. We can ask the important questions needed and be able to educate our client!

So when your consultant harps on about a meeting with you – whether you’re a client or a candidate, it really is with everyone’s best intentions at heart. We want to be your preferred agency of choice. We want to be the intermediary who can promote you the best to your key audiences! And as the title says, it’s always better in person!

So if you’d like to arrange a meeting please contact [email protected]

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