The other day, I was having lunch with a longtime friend and client. He’s one of three people I contacted for his opinion when I was considering entering the recruitment business. He encouraged me to jump in and asked me to help him find a senior manager in our first meeting. Over the years, he’s provided me with outstanding business advice and Reimer Associates has placed key people in various roles within his company.
During our lunch, he talked about the value we add to his business. He summed it up in one line: “There’s nothing like being plugged in the way you are to our industry.” He recounted a time when he was very close to making a hiring decision. We had provided a strong slate of candidates for him to choose from and we were in the process of doing reference checks. Typically, candidates will only put forward references that speak positively about their accomplishments. In this case, one of the references was an individual I’ve known for many years who was willing to share openly. When I made the call, he was quick to alert me to an issue that would have caused a significant problem going forward, had my client hired that person. It was information that was dependent upon our trustworthy relationship. It saved us and our client from making a significant hiring mistake.
It is clear that our extensive and valuable network paid off in this situation. My client reiterated that it’s exactly these types of situations that bring high value to our work. It was encouraging to hear that as we continue on our mission to be the most competent and trustworthy supply chain recruiter in Canada.