Attention Recruiters: For a Competitive Edge — Do This For Your Clients

Just because something has been working for you for a long time, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t constantly be trying to grow, progress and learn.

It’s football playoff time and when the Baltimore Ravens were upset by the Tennessee Titans in one such game, it got all of us thinking about how football compares to the recruiting world. The Ravens entered the game as 10-point favourites with home-field advantage so how is it that they lost to the Titans?

Easy, the Ravens were too good.

When you are used to dominating, you can end up taking it for granted, and it becomes almost expected. That’s when you let your guard down and become vulnerable.

Similarly in recruiting, it’s not always the best firm that wins. You might have a longstanding relationship with a client, but suddenly get undercut by a competitor and lose that business.

Just because something has been working for you for a long time, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t constantly be trying to grow, progress and learn. If you put yourself on cruise control, you’re going to get edged-out by someone battling for your business.

If you do a Google search to discover different ways to stay competitive, you will see numerous articles providing all the same recommendations. So if you’re firm is implementing these tactics along with everyone else, you aren’t really gaining a competitive edge.

To get a real competitive advantage, you need to think creatively and do something completely different — something none (or very few) of your competitors are doing. Something that adds real value to the recruiting process so that your clients feel you bring something special to the table. I am talking about including employment background checks as part of your service package. All of your clients have their own background checks vendors and they will all run a pre-hire background check before they onboard a candidate, but how cool would it be if you could send them a candidate that comes with a completed background check?

First, it will help make their hiring decision MUCH easier because they will know there is no risk of a failed background check.

Many of your clients will simply forgo their own background check on the candidate, saving them anywhere from 3 to 10 days in getting the candidate onboarded. This is HUGE!

Some may still run the candidate through their own background check process but they will still have much greater peace-of-mind that the candidate will pass the background check and be onboarded so they can properly manage expectations internally.

And what about those rare situations where the candidate fails a background check. If you and your client jump through all the hoops to get a candidate to this stage of the hiring process, and then the candidate fails the employer’s background check, this will definitely leave a bad taste in their mouth. But if you pre-screen candidates even before the interview gets scheduled, then you can catch these outliers up front and move on to the next qualified candidate, saving your client some serious heartburn.

What Do You Include in the Background Check?

A decent background check will look at a person’s criminal history and verify their past employment. If you really want to add value, you will tell your clients that this is now part of your service package and get them to tell you exactly what searches are included in their background check so that your process mirrors theirs.

How Much Will it Cost?

The total cost of something like this will run anywhere from $40.00 to $70.00. You can either absorb the cost or figure out a way to build it into your pricing. Whichever way you decide to handle this, it’s a creative tool that you can use to attract new business and prevent existing clients from taking an interest in your competitors.

Happy hunting!

Originally published at https://recruitcrm.io.