Our relationship has changed, we have changed, and I now need more from you.

Looking back, it has not always been this way. In the beginning you needed more from me and I was happy to give it. Now though times have changed and I need you to change. What happens if you don’t change? We can’t carry on I’m afraid.

When I started in recruitment the world was very different to how it is now. I’m not talking about Covid or a jobs bounce, my market was busy anyway, but the relationship between me as the ‘recruiter’ and my ‘clients’ was different. Clients wanted and expected more from me.

You will have probably seen me and all the team at Digital 51 team continually talking about partners, partnerships, and partnering. This is because we have moved away from the transactional relationship of getting a job and trying to fill it for a business, we believe in partnership. Whilst we like to think we are different, what we offer is different, we are also realists. The reality right now is every good recruiter knows how difficult engagement and attraction is currently and working closer is the key to success. Everyone is trying to move towards a partnership, talent as a service, retained models, but again the reality is I believe few know how to do this properly.

I do. I know how to be different and how to make this work. We can make this work.

During the past 8 months it’s been my partnerships, and more importantly those who I have partnered with, who have taught me how to meet their expectations and deliver consistently. What was the key to this? They gave me more.

‘In the good old days’ the sell in traditional recruitment was heavily based on settling for the minimum amounts of time a client could offer you, and the recruiter sell was heavily based around saving the client time in their recruitment without ‘bothering’ the client too much.

This is no longer a sell, why? Because it no longer works. What works? A real partnership.

We make partnerships work, I know because we have already.

I believe partnerships are based on more of an equal engagement towards a mutual goal, with clear expectations put upon each partner. This engagement becomes equal when you, the ‘client’ are working with me, the ‘recruiter’ to build a brilliant sell of your business, the role, the opportunity, and your team. This is how we attract the best people, by working together, in partnership.

We will work together. We will invest consistent time to not only build the attraction model, but we will continually leverage each other’s strengths to draw our candidates through a successful hiring process. We are united in our approach and our support throughout is consistent, to build confidence with the ‘candidates’ that we are legitimate, the real deal, and we take recruitment seriously.

You know deep down what you currently have is not working. You know something is not right, you know a real partnership would benefit you, but to build a real partnership you need to give more.

In a true partnership we will work together to manage risk and opportunity throughout the process, it is no one’s sole role to manage the risk or opportunity. We are in this together, as a team; knowledge is shared and that sharing becomes our strength when managing your candidate through a successful interview process.

 

The time to be fully transparent is here. There is no place for sheltering each other in a partnership, yes we are united, and support each other, however to successfully deliver solutions we have to work with each other in full transparency.

I have worked in partnership with some outstanding people and organisations over the past 8 months. These partners have seen the value in giving more time, resource, access, and respect to build an equal partnership. They have taught me how to be successful in what is commonly agreed as one of the toughest recruitment markets to have ever existed by giving me more.

Thank you to all our partners, changing to something new can be exciting and exhilarating, however it can also be scary. You trusted me, we changed, and look at where we are now; stronger and better than we were before.

To those still in the old world, you know it’s not working, you know it’s not right, you know it’s time for something new.

I am something new, Adrienne Howlett Product Partner and Co-Founder of Digital 51. You can contact me, so we can share some time on