Keep the personal touch

As your business grows and develops it becomes more and more important to automate certain administrative tasks to keep on top of the growing workload. You’ll probably need a CRM database to hold your customer contacts and sales details instead of a pen and paper, for example, and an automated invoicing system to manage your cashflow instead of spending hours on the phone chasing outstanding payments.

We live in a world where automation, technology and even AI are part of everyday life, but in the rush of a successful business’ growth, it’s important not to lose the personal touch where it matters.

I was reminded of this just last week. We’re in the middle of switching to a brand-new CRM system ourselves, one that will introduce valuable new features to the business and allow us to even better support our clients.

But while it would be easy for us to largely automate our candidate searches, like so many other recruitment agencies have done, that’s something that we at SOS Executive Search will never do.

When you’re trying to find the right candidate for a client vacancy, it’s important to remember that you’re dealing with people’s lives. The decision to change roles or search for a new job is a very personal one, and can be right up there with moving, getting married or getting divorced in terms of the stress and uncertainty it can create if things don’t go well.

That’s why the personal touch matters right from the first time you reach out. An email informing them of a possible job opportunity may be quick, but it can also be impersonal and cold, unless it’s followed up with a phone call or discussion that can help better explain the vacancy, what’s involved and to allay any concerns they might have. The personal touch also allows us to get a better sense of what the potential candidate is looking for, their salary needs and what will help them to take that step, so that we can better match them with the right business and ensure a successful conclusion.

Last week I was working on finding possible candidates for a particularly interesting job in the HVAC sector. Rather than relying on computers to send impersonal emails and contacts, I picked up the phone and actually spoke to the people I wanted to contact. 24 hours of solid conversations and messages later, I had 19 very interested, high quality potential candidates to take through to the next stage of the process.

It just goes to show that you don’t always need to have fancy technology or computing software to be able to do your job, and do it well. Sometimes you just need to pick up the phone, get the basics right, know your market, and speak directly to people instead.

For more information about how SOS Executive search can help you find the right candidate to fill your next vacancy, visit www.sosexecutivesearch.co.uk or call 07815 009 524.