Knowing your industry

As discussed in our previous blog, finding great talent for companies is a big worry for many MDs and CEOs. We established certain questions that should be asked when selecting your recruiter, but what about once you’ve got your recruiter and need them to find that great talent to fill a role you have? This is where the importance of industry knowledge plays a pertinent part in the recruitment process.

When trusting a recruiter to fill a given role, you need to make sure that they’re going to find you the best in the industry. It is absolutely imperative that your recruiter knows your industry inside out. Having a recruiter that understands your business goals, requirements and culture will ultimately result in you hiring the best person for your team. You need a recruiter that will know where to look and who to contact. You need somebody that will be looking at potential candidates throughout your industry, and not just at those that are actively looking for work.

When a recruiter knows their industry, they need to have excellent commercial awareness. At Hanson Search, we know the companies that are doing well, those that are highly respected and those that are growing quickly. We also know those that aren’t doing so well. This knowledge comes from extensive networking; sponsoring and attending awards, attending events, conferences and seminars as well as through building relationships with key people in the industry. Meeting with people in the industry can help to open up doors and can really assist in finding great people for our clients that may otherwise not have come to our attention.

In essence recruiters should be doing everything within their power to enable their clients to achieve their goals, and the way to do this is by being completely absorbed in their industry. Having that innate thirst of knowledge means that recruiters are passionate about their industry, and it’s this passion that you want to see when working with a recruiter.

By Laura Kirby