Fax, telegrams and patience
When I first started working at NAJ International, one of our main tools for communication in recruitment was the fax machine. We used it to send documents, confirmations and information between clients, candidates and consultants.
There was no email yet, so exchanging documents required patience. Every message had to be prepared carefully. Making a correction was not a matter of a quick click. You had to change the document, print it again and send it once more.
We also used telegrams to contact candidates. They had to be very short because you paid for every word. Today, this may sound like a curiosity from another era. At the time, it was a real form of fast communication.
It required discipline. You could not send a long message, explain everything in several paragraphs or follow up an hour later. You had to know what really mattered.
Today, we can send a job description, information about the company and a calendar invitation within minutes. That is a major improvement. Faster, however, does not always mean better.
Speed alone does not make a message clearer. A candidate still wants to know why we are contacting them and what the opportunity is about.
Contact started with a person and a lead
In the past, recruitment often started with a person, a contact and a lead rather than a candidate search engine. There was much less information available. Sometimes a consultant had to work a little like a detective. Referrals, conversations and knowing which question to ask the right person mattered much more.
If a company was looking for someone who spoke French, the first step might be to find someone who knew people with that skill. One conversation led to another. Only later would we verify experience, organisations, motivation and the actual fit for the role.
Today, the order is often reversed. We first see the industry, job title, languages and career history. Only during a conversation do we start to understand the candidate’s personality, way of working and expectations.
That earlier way of working taught us to pay attention. A referral was not a ready-made recommendation. It was the beginning of a path that still had to be checked. The consultant had to distinguish between a friendly suggestion and a genuine match. We also had to understand the difference between knowing a language and being ready to work in a particular role.
Some searches were even more demanding. In one recruitment project in the agricultural technology sector, candidates literally had to be found out in the field, by bicycle. Nobody had the telephone number of the manager of a remote farm.
It may sound funny today. At the time, it was simply another day at work.
That example says a lot about the profession. Successful recruitment has always required determination. Today, we have more data and more ways to make contact. But we still need to know how to reach places where others are not looking.
Newspaper ads and handwritten letters
In the early years, newspaper advertisements were an important way of reaching candidates. In Poland, they appeared in printed newspapers such as Gazeta Wyborcza. There were no online job boards, LinkedIn or platforms where you could quickly check who worked for a particular company.
Telephone identification was another important research tool at the time. Today, this would no longer be possible, including because of GDPR requirements.
A candidate would respond to an advertisement and send their documents by post or fax. Preparing an application took much more time than it does today. You could not simply complete a profile and click “Apply”.
For a period of time, we also worked with graphological analysis. Candidates wrote their cover letters by hand, and the original was sent to a graphologist we worked with. A fax was not enough because the pressure of the pen on the paper was also part of the analysis.
Graphology is not a standard part of professional executive search today. Historically, however, it shows how many different tools were used in an attempt to understand and assess a candidate’s potential.
First interviews were usually held in person
Candidates had to find time during the working day, travel to our office and make sure their absence did not attract unnecessary attention.
We also had to be careful that someone waiting in the corridor did not unexpectedly meet their own boss, who happened to be coming to another recruitment meeting with a different consultant.
Today, many first meetings take place online. Candidates do not have to spend several hours travelling. It is also much easier to run a process with people living in other cities or countries.
A conversation can start sooner. Yet a candidate will still notice very quickly whether the consultant knows their background, understands the role and can answer basic questions.
Technology helps. It does not replace preparation.
Landline phones and confidentiality
In the past, confidentiality required particular care. Candidates often included their home landline numbers on their CVs. The phone could be answered by another member of the household, a small child, a mother-in-law or an ex-spouse.
And the consultant was still responsible for discretion. Even asking whether it was a good time to talk had to be done without revealing too much.
Today, candidates have their own mobile phones and private email addresses. Communication in recruitment is more direct. However, there are new situations we need to watch out for.
A message may appear on a screen during a meeting. A calendar invitation may be sent to a company email account. Someone may notice a LinkedIn notification.
The importance of confidentiality in recruitment has not changed. What has changed are the communication channels and the digital traces they leave behind.
It is therefore still worth agreeing at the beginning when it is safe to call, which email address should be used for materials and what can appear in a meeting invitation. These may seem like small details. For someone who has not told their employer that they are taking part in a recruitment process, they can matter a great deal.
More channels for communication in recruitment
Today, we can contact a candidate in many different ways. We can use email, LinkedIn, text messages or messaging apps. We can call or invite someone to a video conversation. Contacting a person working in another country no longer requires days of organisation.
At the same time, candidates receive far more messages than they used to. Mass outreach is common in the market. These messages are often generic and do not explain why the opportunity has been sent to this particular person.
At NAJ, we work differently. We first select candidates whose experience genuinely matches the profile of the role. Only then do we send a message or invite them to a conversation.
The first contact should be brief but specific. A candidate wants to know what in their experience caught the consultant’s attention and why the role being presented could be relevant to them.
Good communication in recruitment does not start with choosing a tool. It starts with understanding who we are writing to and why.
Technology can help us prepare and send a message. AI tools can organise information or help create a first draft. Before sending it, however, we still need to check whether the message fits the individual person and whether all the information in it is true.
Communication with the client has changed as well
In the past, sending a report or a set of documents took more time. Today, information can be shared continuously.
But a client should receive more than numbers showing how many people have been identified and how many conversations have taken place. Candidate reactions also matter.
Why are they not interested? What concerns do they have? Do the proposed terms reflect what candidates are seeing in the market?
This information helps assess whether the assumptions behind the project are right. Sometimes the way the role is presented needs to change. Sometimes the profile or terms need to be clarified. In other cases, more time is simply needed to reach the right people.
Are you planning to recruit a leader for your organisation?
Good communication in recruitment still requires attention
Fax machines, telegrams and paper document circulation have disappeared from everyday work. Today, information reaches people faster and more precisely.
Having more communication channels does not make careful judgement any less important. A consultant still needs to know what to say, when to make contact and how to protect confidentiality.
Candidates assess more than the role and the company. They also pay attention to how the process is managed. An unclear message, lack of information or a long silence can discourage someone who was initially interested.
The consultant is usually the first person through whom a candidate gets to know a potential future employer. The quality of that first contact can influence whether they want to continue the conversation.
Technology has made communication in recruitment much easier. But there is still a person on the other side of every message. They want to know why we are contacting them, what the conversation is about and whether they can trust us.
That has not changed over all these years.
Frequently asked question
How should the first contact with a passive candidate look?
The message should be brief, specific and refer to the person’s actual experience. The candidate should understand why the consultant is contacting them and what the opportunity concerns, even if not all information about the project can be disclosed at that stage.
How can confidentiality be protected when communicating with a candidate?
At the beginning, it is worth agreeing on the preferred way and time of contact. Information should not be sent to a company email address, and calendar invitations should not contain details that could reveal the candidate’s participation in the recruitment process.
Can an online interview replace an in-person meeting?
An online conversation works well in the early stages and makes it easier to speak with candidates working in different locations. In management recruitment, an in-person meeting is still necessary at a later stage, particularly when the candidate needs to meet their future manager, team or see the organisation’s working environment.
Communication in recruitment can therefore use different channels, but each one should match the stage of the process, the candidate’s situation and the required level of confidentiality.
Will technology replace the executive search consultant?
I don’t believe it will. Technology helps us analyse the market and organise the process more quickly. It does not replace relationships, trust, understanding the context, conversations with passive candidates or recommendations based on a consultant’s experience.
