We’re asked for creative ideas to help recruitment companies reach the perfect clients and candidates all the time and so understand how difficult it can be to differentiate, but one of my favourite solutions to this challenge is from my first recruitment role (as a Resourcer for Computer People, Redhill) in 1996.
A few people had mobile phones back then, but it wasn’t guaranteed and one of my colleagues (Stuart) was desperate to contact a candidate who didn’t.
Every time he called her home number, the line was engaged, and he came to the conclusion that she must have accidently left the phone “off the hook” – remember when that was a thing!?
As she lived on the other side of the country, popping round wasn’t an option, so he did what any determined recruiter would do, and ordered a pizza from a local delivery firm with a special note for the driver to ask her to check her phone.
And it worked!
They eventually spoke, discussed the role and her CV was put forward to the client.
I’m not sure if it had a truly happy ending and she got the job, but it goes to show how important it is to think outside the (pizza) box sometimes.