#516 Leading and Motivating Your Recruiters – Niels Brabandt
Leading and Motivating Your Recruiters – Niels Brabandt
Leading and motivating recruiters has become one of the most underestimated leadership challenges in modern organisations. In this week’s podcast and videocast, Niels Brabandt dismantles one of the most persistent myths in business: that recruiting has become easier simply because more candidates are available.
The reality is the exact opposite.
At a recent HR and People Development Expo, Niels Brabandt encountered a recurring narrative among senior leaders. With more candidates entering the labour market, recruiting must be simpler. More choice, less effort, better outcomes. This assumption is not only flawed. It is strategically dangerous.
More volume does not mean more quality. It means more complexity.
Recruiters today are not dealing with scarcity. They are dealing with overload. Where ten applications once allowed for deep engagement, hundreds now require structured, scalable decision-making. Every application must still be handled professionally. Every candidate expects a response. Every interaction shapes employer reputation. fileciteturn1file0
The consequence is clear. Stress increases, not decreases. Error rates rise. Candidate experience deteriorates. Organisations that fail to recognise this shift risk losing top talent to competitors who operate faster, more professionally, and more respectfully.
One of the most critical leadership failures identified by Niels Brabandt is the structural disconnect between business processes and recruiting processes. In many organisations, recruiting operates as a secondary function, dependent on the availability of hiring managers. This leads to delays, missed opportunities, and ultimately lost candidates.
A three-week delay because a hiring manager is on holiday is not a scheduling issue. It is a process failure.
No modern business process would tolerate a single point of failure. Yet in recruiting, such vulnerabilities are widespread. Candidates move on. Competitors act faster. Organisations are left with frustration and declining employer brand perception.
Leadership in recruiting therefore requires a fundamental shift.
First, implement professional infrastructure. Applicant tracking systems are no longer optional for organisations beyond the smallest scale. Manual processes using email and spreadsheets cannot sustain modern recruitment volumes.
Second, align recruiting and business processes. Recruiting must be embedded into the operational rhythm of the organisation. Hiring cannot depend on individual availability. It must be systemically ensured.
Third, invest in capability building. Recruiters must understand the business. Business leaders must understand recruiting. Only when both sides share knowledge can processes become efficient and mutually reinforcing.
Finally, redefine motivation. Recruiters are not motivated by volume. They are motivated by clarity, structure, competence, and impact. When systems work, when expectations are aligned, and when outcomes are visible, motivation follows.
The organisations that will win the talent market are not those with the most applicants. They are those with the most disciplined, integrated, and professionally led recruiting functions.
Niels Brabandt demonstrates that leadership in recruiting is not a tactical concern. It is a strategic imperative.
Niels Brabandt
---
More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
Is excellent leadership important to you?
Let's have a chat: NB@NB-Networks.com
Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
Website: www.NB-Networks.biz
Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
Recruiting just became easier, right? Recruiting is easier now, isn't it? That is what I heard during one of Germany's largest People Development and HR Expos just last week, where I gave a speech regarding sustainable recruiting and using AI and what kind of tools can support you. Many leaders said, "Well, our recruiting team now must have an amazing time. So many people are on the job market. It must be really easy to work in recruiting in today's times."
Niels Brabandt
We are going to talk about today about how to motivate and lead your recruiting teams, because what I heard during last week was rather astonishing to say. So when we talk about it, by the way, first, of course, thank you very much for all the congratulations on either Facebook or on LinkedIn, especially, and all the messages I received. Yes, you can see it in this tiny box here. I passed my 3rd Master's degree after my Executive MBA in London and my MBA in York. I now passed the Master of Science in Management Research in Salford, Manchester. Thank you very much for everyone taking part in my research, and thank you for everyone for being part of my research here and supporting me on the way. Every piece of content I will give you, not only in the past, but also in the future, will be fully backed by science. This is not just an opinion. This is scientific evidence. So be aware, it will go the same way. And no worries. Some people ask, when you do have 3 Master's degrees, do you actually plan to do more in the education space? Yes, I'm already part of another piece of education. I will update you in the future. But first, thank you very much for all the congratulations.
Niels Brabandt
Getting straight into it, leading and motivating your recruiters. We have to look into the situation, the reality, and how we implement to make it better, because the situation is that people say everything now is easier because the market is easier. When you ask them, "Why is the market easier?" suddenly they say, "Because there are more people on the market." Okay, let's just take this piece. More people on the market means it's an easier market. And usually in the next phrase they say, "Well, because there are more people on the market, it means you have so much choice, and that makes your job way easier." Back in the days when no one was applying, you had to go through lists of people who might be interested, getting them away from actual employers to your employment, and that was really tough. So today it's a rather easy job.
Niels Brabandt
Okay, and when I now tell you, let's say you work in the harvest industry, you work in agriculture, and you get 1,000 apples per day. And as you work in quality control, I tell you, "I need to find the best apples out of these 1,000. You have 8 hours of work per day to find the best apples here." And now I tell you, "Look, look, look, we had a really good harvest. Your job is now easier." So the whole market and the whole job is easier because you don't get 1,000 apples per day. You get 10,000 apples a day. Most people now will say, "Well, I have to go through all of them. It's actually not easier, is it?"
Niels Brabandt
And here it gets to the point. People think that we are now saying there is a lower demand for recruiters, really never sat on this chair. And believe me, especially back in the days when I started working, this whole recruiting professionalism with recruiters only didn't exist back in the days. I had to do it besides my main job. It was a massive nightmare. So the lower demand theory that you say there is a lower demand, and that makes your job easier, does it really hold up to scrutiny?
Niels Brabandt
Let's check reality. When I tell you there is suddenly more apples, 10 times more than before, you will say, "Look, there's an overflow of work suddenly," and that's the same here. But every single applicant has the right to get dealt with properly. And when you now say, "Look, look, look," no, they don't. No answer is also an answer. That's what I heard just last week. No answer is also an answer. And people then also told me, "When we don't answer, it clearly shows we're not interested," and you know that no answer means we're not interested. That's obvious. I mean, we get back to you. We're interested, and we don't if we are not.
Niels Brabandt
Okay, look, here are the news. When you deal with people this way, people will go on platforms such as glassdoll.com or in the German-speaking space, Kununu, which is the equivalent, and they will go there and they will tear you apart. They will put you like a fillet in slices and then dice you and throw you somewhere where you do not want to be. And by the way, rightfully so. As soon as you have more work to do, it doesn't mean that you suddenly can make mistakes. We, of course, know that when there's more work to do, more mistakes happen. When you tell your people, "Look, we produce 10 cars per day. Now you have to produce 50 per day." More mistakes will happen.
Niels Brabandt
And that's exactly where we come to the core issue. When you have recruiters there right now telling them your job is easier, it might be easier that you have more choice. However, the stress just recently went up. Back in the days when you had 10 applicants for a quality manager position, you could really focus on these 10 people. You could really have calls with them almost on a daily basis, could send tailored emails to them, tailored offers. Today you suddenly have 300 people, and every single one has, by the way, rightfully so, the expectation to be dealt with according to their position in society. Of course, sometimes you will say some of these applications are wildly unsuitable. Absolutely. We sometimes get applications which are completely unsuitable. However, then you can also very quickly say no, send a polite email like, "Hey, look at your profile. Not a match. Very sorry. Wishing you all the best for the future. Goodbye," and just send it off. When you ghost people, you cannot complain about anyone else ghosting you. It's called reciprocity.
Niels Brabandt
However, the whole main issue here is that quite often, especially today, we have the business process and the recruiting process still almost separated. Separated. I give you a very simple example, and people have shown me the evidence because after the Expo I said, "I cannot put this on my podcast without the evidence." So they showed me and sent me the evidence. People being in a recruiting process where suddenly someone said, "Oh yeah, look, the person you have to talk to, it's the department leader. However, they are on vacation right now, so we get back to you in 3 weeks' time because no one else can do the interview."
Niels Brabandt
Three weeks later they call back, and the candidate, of course, said, "Look, another company took care of me, made me a great offer, so I signed up with them. I just signed a contract almost a week and a half ago." So 50% through your 3 weeks doing nothing time where you didn't keep in touch and didn't do anything. I signed up somewhere else because I didn't know if you'd get back to me at all. And then they were extremely offended by this. "Oh, how dare you? We told you we need 3 weeks." That's not the point here.
Niels Brabandt
When you say we need 3 weeks' time, it means that in the recruiting process you have a single point of failure, which is with one person. You would never design a business process in a way that you say there's this one tiny bit. When that falls apart, nothing's working. You would never, never, ever design it that way. But still, people do it with their recruiting processes. So the first thing you have to do when you want to lead your recruiters, you need to be able that the recruiting—you simply cannot have this moment of, "This is the business process," and then the recruiting process somehow has to fit in, but it really doesn't. So you somehow have to jump in here and hope that someone has time for you. That's not how any recruiting process will work ever.
Niels Brabandt
So how can you do that to make things easier for your recruiters? As a leader, take care that when you have, let's say, a not completely tiny organization, always check that you have an applicant tracking system in place, a professional applicant management system. When you do not have software—and look, when you are now listening and you say, "Look, we roughly receive 10 applications. We are a really small business, and I just administer all of these applications in Microsoft Excel." Perfect. There is no issue with that. On that level, you don't need an external software.
Niels Brabandt
Are there software pieces for small businesses? Yes, there are. However, these pieces of business—these pieces of software are usually designed for midsized or larger businesses. So from small business to midsized to enterprise, there are different solutions on the market available. The whole getting the applicants an outlook and then in Excel is really what you do when you have a tiny, tiny business. However, what you really now have to do is give your recruiters business knowledge so they know what is the friction you have between the recruiting process and the business process, and then vice versa. You have to give your business people recruiting skills.
Niels Brabandt
So suddenly you see, "Okay, here we have the business world. That's our business process. Here we have the recruiting process." And suddenly they are not just next to each other trying desperately to fit in. Suddenly they are connected. There's an interface, and they work together step by step from the beginning to the end, from prioritization, from communication, from anything, any deliverables being delivered on time. When you do it that way, people will be way more motivated. Your applicants will be way better treated, and the organization will achieve greater results with way less employees leaving your organization. And of course, with also way happier employees who are way more motivated. If you do it this way, everything will become better from that and from that point in time. And I wish you all the best doing so.
Niels Brabandt
And when you now say, "I think I need to discuss that a bit more," very happy to do so. So first, when you're now watching me on YouTube, feel free to leave a like here. When you, of course, listen to me on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, that's also great. By the way, when you watch on YouTube, subscribe to my channel. Leave a comment there. Always happy to have the discussions there. And when you listen to me on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, feel free to leave a review there, 5 stars. Thank you very much for that. And always recommend we put a lot of effort into this. We offer all of this with no charge whatsoever. Lots of research done here, all of this completely for free for you. So thank you very much for the 5 stars. And recommend this channel, either the YouTube channel or the Apple Podcast, Spotify channel, anywhere online, offline, friends, colleagues, anywhere. Thank you very much for doing so as well.
Niels Brabandt
And of course, when you now say, "Is there a bit more available?" Yes, it really pays off that when you go to the YouTube channel, you do not only subscribe to the channel, you put in this tiny little bell, this tiny little bell, because then you get a short notification when something new goes online. We have one video per week. However, what we have is the YouTube Shorts, one leadership tip per day for the whole year. That was the goal. I promised people on January 1st, and we are still keeping up with it. So our YouTube Shorts are there, and they are thriving. Looking forward to seeing you there as well. And of course, you can also follow me on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Niels Brabandt
When you now say, "Hey, what are you actually doing?" feel free to go on my website, NB-Networks.biz, as soon as you go there and you say, "Hey, we need a professional trainer, speaker, coach, mentor, consultant, or we need a project intro manager. Contact me anytime. Looking forward to speaking with you." And of course, when you now say, "I have something, but I really can't put this in the comment section. It's too company specific. It's really too confidential." Most people still choose the way of sending me an email. Feel free to send me an email, NB@NB-Networks.com. I'm looking forward to hearing from you there.
Niels Brabandt
And when you now wonder, "Do we actually have live sessions to get this live interaction?" Of course. So when you now say, "Hey, I'd like to have a live session with you," please go to expert.NB-Networks.com. Put your email address in there, and no worries. You only receive one email every Wednesday morning, 100% content, ad-free guarantee. Anything I do is completely ad-free, and it's 100% content because anything else is just obnoxious and a nuisance for the people watching.
Niels Brabandt
So when you go to expert.NB-Networks.com, sign up there. You receive one email every Wednesday morning. It's 100% content, ad-free guarantee. You get full access to all the podcasts, to the video cast, to all the articles, absolutely anything in the English and German language. And on top of that, you see the date, the time, and the access link for the next live session. We only communicate the live session via that link.
Niels Brabandt
And when you now say, "Hey, I'd like to join a live session, but it's really confidential what I have to talk about," then just drop me an email and we get a special appointment in for you. Let's do a private session, and then we take it from there.
Niels Brabandt
And of course, important, feel free to connect with me. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Do the proper connect, not the follow thing. Looking forward to seeing you on LinkedIn. Follow me on Instagram if you like. Leave a like on Facebook if you prefer. And of course, subscribe to the YouTube channel and put the little bell in there.
Niels Brabandt
The most important thing, however, is always what I tell you at the very last bit. The most important thing is apply, apply, apply what you heard in this podcast, because only when you apply what you heard, you will see the positive aspects and the positive consequences, the positive outcomes that you obviously want to see in your organization. So by the way, when you get in touch, feel free to get in touch anytime. I answer every single message within 24 hours or less. So I'm looking forward to hearing from you at the end of this podcast as well as at the end of the video cast. There's only one thing left for me to say. Thank you very much for your time.