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How To Get The Best From Your Recruiter…

4 September 2026

How To Get The Best From Your Recruiter…

​I’ve worked in Recruitment (agency side) for a long time…! Over that time, the market and industry have changed significantly. To stay ahead of the changing recruitment landscape, we, as recruiters, have had to constantly adapt our methods and styles to enable us to deliver our clients’ needs. It’s been fun, but it hasn’t always been easy! But throughout my tenure in Recruitment, I’ve been blessed to work with some very talented recruiters and some amazing clients (you know who you are).

I have put the below guide together for Business Owners, HR Personnel, and Internal Recruiters on how to get the most from your recruitment partner(s); working collaboratively to make recruitment more effective, efficient, and enjoyable.


Honesty 

Nobody is perfect, and we will make mistakes. If we do, please be honest with us. If we send unsuitable CVs, tell us. Tell us where we are going wrong. If we do something you don’t like, tell us. Don’t go quiet on us, blank our calls, emails, etc. If you decide you no longer want to work with us (for whatever reason), just let us know. It doesn’t have to be personal.


Collaborate

We understand that you might rather fill the job directly if possible. But when the time arises that you need to utilise the skills and network of a specialist recruiter, don’t play hardball. Let’s work in partnership, let’s work together. If you choose to use a recruiter, you are implicitly trusting them to act as brand ambassadors to your business; communicating and educating candidates on your vacancy and business. Help us, help you!


Hiring Managers

Often, the hiring manager decides who they want to hire (not the HR or Recruitment team). If we are able to speak directly to the decision maker, we can get everything we need to do our jobs more efficiently and deliver your organisation the talent it needs. We appreciate if you are managing the recruitment that you want to stay on top and involved (it often helps the whole process), but it’s also very important for us to get all the information we need from the team the placement is required for. This will help us to explore the boundaries of candidate suitability, get direct feedback, and provide an honest market appraisal.


Speed

Good candidates will be snapped up quickly – sometimes within a day! (That’s our record anyway). Why? Because companies serious about recruiting the best talent, will act quickly and they listen to us. They know the difficulties we face with high demand vs low supply. If we send you someone that looks good… act fast. Think about the impression on the candidate when they receive a quick turnaround – it demonstrates you are serious and it makes them feel important and wanted. If there is a specific reason you can’t turn feedback around that quickly, that’s fine, but please let us know so we can let the candidate(s) know. Please don’t be offended if we chase you for feedback, We don’t want to be letting the candidate down. Delays could also affect your reputation in the market.


Why use a recruiter?

We invest hours, days, weeks, months, and sometimes years into building a network of suitable candidates – we don’t claim to be the best and we are by no means perfect, but we passionately and genuinely believe in doing recruitment the right way; offering honest, consultative, thorough and consistent recruitment solutions to all our clients and candidates.

Thanks for reading!

Thoughts, comments, and opinions are always welcome…

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THE ONE GROUP

Where we're from,
and how we got here

Twenty years of specialist recruitment in the East – and a lot of small decisions that added up.

TOG started in Peterborough in 2004 with a small team and a simple idea: that recruitment is a people business, done best by specialists who stay in their sector long enough to know it properly.

More than two decades on, we've grown into four offices across the East of England and Home Counties. We recruit for finance leaders, HR directors, engineering managers, tech founders, scientists, and the commercial teams that keep businesses running day to day. Between us, we've built up over 258 years of collective recruitment experience across our specialist divisions, and a network of more than 150,000 candidates we've placed, coached, or come to know across two decades in the region.

The founding principle hasn't changed. Recruitment as it should be.

OUR STORY

Key events timeline

2004

Doors open in Peterborough.

Our first office launches with a team of six on Lynch Wood. Cambridge follows the same year, giving us two offices before our first anniversary.

2015

Northampton makes it three.

Our third office opens with a team of five, quickly growing to eleven consultants covering the wider Midlands region.

2017

Peterborough moves across the road.

The team has outgrown the founding office. We move into Arena House on Lynch Wood, big enough for a growing consultant base and the back-office team that supports the whole group.

2018

Cambridge moves too.

Our second office relocates to Cambourne Business Park, giving the growing Cambridge team the space it now needs.

2023

Four offices, three counties, one very good year.

The Hertfordshire & Essex office opens in Potters Bar, extending our footprint into the Home Counties.

In the same year, we're named Business of the Year in Northamptonshire, and Employer of the Year in both Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire at the regional SME Business Awards. Three counties, three panels.

TODAY

Still growing.

Four offices, more than 258 years of collective recruitment experience across our specialist divisions, and a network of over 150,000 candidates.

Same founding principle.

SPECIALISTS BY DESIGN

What we do

We're specialists, not generalists. Every consultant at TOG focuses on one sector and stays in it. Not because it's the only way to do recruitment, but because it's how you build the depth to spot the difference between a strong CV and a strong hire.

It's also why so many of our clients come back to us years, even decades, after a first placement.

01
Accountancy & Finance
→
 02
Human Resources
→
 03
Commercial Office
Administration, customer service, project management and more
→
 04
Technology
→
 05
Engineering & Manufacturing
→
 06
Scientific
→
 07
Sales, Marketing & Creative
→
 08
Executive Search
Across all of the above
→

Beyond the recruitment itself, we produce annual salary guides, regional market reports, and the practical resources our clients and candidates turn to when they want a clearer view of what's happening in their sector.

THE WAY WE WORK

How we work

Four principles show up in every conversation and every process.
01

Be curious.

We stay interested in the market we work in, and in the people who work in it.

02

Keep it human.

We remember your kids' names and know how you take your coffee. That's just how we work here.

03

Make a difference.

We're here to help people build careers they love and businesses they're proud of.

04

Enjoy the ride.

Recruitment is a career, but it should be fun too. If it isn't, we've done something wrong.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

Recruitment
as it should be.

Hire with TOG → Looking for a role →
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