The following is a real life example on the canvassing email sent by an Irish recruitment agency. You might use it as a template, but then again you might read this post to the bottom, and this might change your mind – not to use this as a template, but rethink you recruitment canvassing strategy altogether!
Dear (candidate name)
(your name) here from (recruitment agency), I hope this email finds you well. Apologies for the email intrusion – if this does not apply to your circumstances please feel free to forward to anybody who might be interested. You have previously registered your CV with (recruitment agency). I am contacting you to see if you are currently looking for a role and if I can be of assistance to you.
I specialize in placing (inustry) Contractors throughout Ireland and in the UK also. Please send me a copy of your up to date CV along with your required daily rate, availability and preferred locations. I will give you a call to discuss further.
Note that we also have a permanent recruitment team so if you are only looking at permanent opportunities please let me know also.Kindest regards
(your name)
(industry) Contracts Recruiter
(recruitment agency)
(slogan)
(address)
(phone)
(email)
(web address)
Winner of the National Recruitment Federation Award: Very Small Agency Category – Superb Agency of the Year 2006/2008/2009
All listings in the (recruitment agency) website are automatically deleted after 2 weeks, ensuring that there are no old vacancies on the site. This means that every role you see as a candidate is active and current. Check out our referral scheme on: (web site)/referral.html
That sounds just lovely doesn’t it? Kind of like the fake mails from the banks, or mails offering you different products that will help you to please your partner.
Dear (Candidate)
Joe Blogs here from (recruitment agency), I hope this email finds you well.
Candidate: This is a classic opening sentence of the American canvassing letters. Joe from Company here, I hope you are well buddy! Well the style does not travel well. The message just does not sound right. This is the basics of the localisation – making the message sound right locally. This does not. And it sounds like you link exchange request, or a mail from the lottery in some far country announcing you just won millions, and they just want €100 for the cost of transferring it to you.
Apologies for the email intrusion…
Candidate: Off so you do feel bad do you? Well you should!
if this does not apply to your circumstances please feel free to forward to anybody who might be interested.
Candidate: Let me get this straight. You feel bad by sending SPAM and I feel bad that mi SPAM filter didn’t block you, and now you are suggesting I should forward it further? As a chain letter perhaps? You forward this to 10 of your contacts in next 10 minutes and you will feel happy! – kind of a thing??!!!
You have previously registered your CV with (recruitment agency). I am contacting you to see if you are currently looking for a role and if I can be of assistance to you.
Candidate: Did you find me a job in the first place? You failed? And what now? You want a second chance? Worming up the cold soup? What’s the story here???
I specialize in placing (industry) Contractors throughout Ireland and in the UK also. Please send me a copy of your up to date CV along with your required daily rate, availability and preferred locations. I will give you a call to discuss further.
Candidate: Ehm,… didn’t you just say that you have my CV. And that is the fact that I regret. Since you did not help in finding me a new job, but instead are sending me stupid emails like this?
Note that we also have a permanent recruitment team so if you are only looking at permanent opportunities please let me know also.
Candidate: Right… And in some different industry, and different country you say? Different continent? Actually a different planet?! What good dies it make me in finding a better job where I live. Here on our green planet? In our Green country? (who said Green Party?!!!).
Kindest regards
(your name)
(industry) Contracts Recruiter
(recruitment agency)
(slogan)
(address)
(phone)
(email)
(web address)
Winner of the National Recruitment Federation Award: Very Small Agency Category – Superb Agency of the Year 2006/2008/2009
This is like a bantam weight category then? NRF is a bit like the boxing scene. There is so many belts and boxing organisations that there are probably more winners and titles available than professional boxers. In recruitment in Ireland if you do not have a few titles every year – you are nobody!
All listings in the (recruitment agency) website are automatically deleted after 2 weeks, ensuring that there are no old vacancies on the site. This means that every role you see as a candidate is active and current.
One would thought that you actually remove the vacancy when you fill it, but not have it online for two more weeks?
Check out our referral scheme on: (web site)/referral.html
I get a an iPod when I make you earn your monthly salary? Or in other words I get a six pack or two, for sourcing the candidates to be placed in the positions that will pay your annual salary?
Well, that is how it to someone looking for a job. Or someone that was actually looking for a job some years ago. So think how are you going to structure your recruitment canvassing email…
2 replies on “Canvassing in Recruitment”
Dear Ivan,
First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your views on the recruitment industry in Ireland. It is quite interesting to hear about practices (or malpractices as posted above) used to attract potential candidates past the door. Having been on the other side of the fence on many occasions, I was never aware of such practices or at least I always never understood how these practices were in fact rather typical rather than exceptional. I did get one of these emails as well.
And as such, I often found the experience of using recruitment agencies rather troublesome (warm welcome for getting your CVs onto a database but no follow-ups leading to unexpected outcomes). And it was not up until very recently-and thanks to your blog as well-that I realised how vital the role of recruitment agencies is.
I agree with you and in most cases, recruitment agencies are vital to help job boards (monster, etc.) prosper and people find jobs. However, there appears to be a different reality for some and another for others which is why I wanted to have your opinion on.
First, it appears that recruitment agencies are essential to act as a buffer zone between the candidate and an employer. In other words, recruitment agencies have a reputational effect and can help filter good candidates from “bad” candidates. This was already known. However, there is a second issue which is not as acknowledged as such. In effect, it appears that finding a job through a recruitment agency may not often depend on your qualifications and previous experience. Rather, it appears that those who find the best jobs (or are offered with the best jobs via a recruitment agency) have often spent more time than a newcomer (in other words, someone the recruitment agency does not know).
Would you agree with that?
Y
Hi Y,
Thanks for your comment.
To answer the question – it really depends on the recruitment agency, and sometimes on the recruiter you are dealing with. There simply are as in any profession – better and … those ‘others’.
Recruitment agencies certainly have a vital role(s) in various recruitment process types.