In my blog post last week, we talked about the differences between transactional recruiters and relationship recruiters.

Among the many characteristics defined, I mentioned that relationship recruiters invest time in developing relationships with professionals within the industry/skill set they recruit for and have a lot of "friends".

So how many "friends" do you have?

Well - before you answer that question, I want to define what I believe a "friend" is in the context of this discussion . . .

A friend

• Will call you back within 24-48 hours after you contact them (if they are not traveling, etc.).
• Is a professional within the industry/skill set for which you recruit.
• Will unconditionally allow you access to people within their network.
• Will unconditionally provide you with information and competitive intelligence that can help you recruit top talent for your organization.
• Provides you with names and contact information of professionals that they used to work with at former companies.
• Allows you access to their network on Linkedin. They will either contact folks on your behalf and/or allow you to contact them using their name as the referral source.
• Provides you with attendee lists from conferences they attend.
• Provides you access to the alumni network from their schools.

While most recruiters are building up their "professional networks" on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter, etc., how many true friends do you really have from this activity?

Do you invest the time required to build long lasting relationships that can create a network of "friends" that become an invaluable source of candidates, competitive intelligence, etc.?

The reality is this - If you spent time building relationships and creating a huge network of friends, you would not have to spend as much time "cold" sourcing. Your network of friends would provide you with ample people to either recruit or network with to find top talent for your organization!

So how many "friends" do you have?

If you haven't already done this, I recommend that you create a list (in your ATS, Outlook, Exel, etc.) of all the friends that you have. I would categorize them by the various industries/job categories you recruit.

Every three months, I would make a plan of action to "grow" your friends list. I would dedicate time each week/month (ideally - - say 2 hours a week) to build relationships to grow this list.

Developing a list of friends is not a hard thing to do, but you do have to invest time to the activity.

Trust me - - the rewards are worth it!