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Never before have recruiters been required to be so creative and imaginative with their work. In the current age of disruption, standardised thinking is becoming a disadvantage, and the left-field influencers are coming into the mainstream.

Increasingly, recruiters are talking about the candidate’s potential for the future of the company rather than where they fit into the job description of today. This requires a close partnership with their clients, and the best recruiters are truly becoming partners rather than providers. On a daily basis, recruiters are making the “long-shot” judgement calls that will make or break their clients. Playing the percentages and presenting the safe options is no longer an option. The safe options don’t tend to last the distance – the tough business climate will chew them up and spit them out with impunity as regulation skills and knowledge are relatively easy to procure and don’t offer competitive advantage to the Enterprise.

Encouragingly, companies are increasingly giving their recruitment partners the ability to think laterally. Recruitment as an industry has long been searching for a “meaning.” It seems to me that with the unpredictable nature of business these days, headhunters are truly starting to earn their stripes in the search for these non-standard candidates. They are far from “purple squirrels”, but going against the mould is what is giving companies the competitive advantage.

In the age of ATS technology, social media sourcing and keyword induced madness, recruitment is going back to its roots. ‘Gut-feel’ is on the way back as a weapon in a recruiter’s armoury. Recruiters are becoming more commercial, as those who don’t truly understand their clients are left empty-handed. The days of fresh-faced 21-year-olds making 100s of phone calls and matching CVs with job descriptions are long gone. Now you have to think about the wider impact of every candidate – why are they a fit and what could they add to a business? It is not about them fitting into the jigsaw any more – they have to create new parts of the jigsaw themselves. Experienced recruiters are welcoming this trend of modern corporate Gestalt theory and application….. 

When recruiting for left-field candidates, recruiters must also influence the candidates themselves. Candidates might be understandably conservative in their choice of future employer in this uncertain world, and without them meeting and having discussions with prospective employers, the potential will never be fully understood – I couldn’t begin to contemplate how to go about calculating this massive opportunity cost equation. Recruiters need to be trusted by their candidates – if they say that it is worth “having a chat” with a particular company, the candidate has to take their word for it. I emphasise trust as the key word here.

Of course, not all clients are this forward-thinking, and not all recruiters feel comfortable with this approach. However, the next time that you are presented with a slightly “different” candidate for the role, it is worth digging into the reasons why they have been presented before you totally dismiss them out of hand.

Left-field candidates will take your business to the next level.