But welcoming Kelly to the team gave us cause to stop and think for a moment about what the word ‘consultant’ actually means. It comes laden with expectation: consultants are the last word in terms of factual accuracy and skill, someone you turn to when you need really well-informed help.

Traditionally, recruitment agency staff are seen more as facilitators: rather than guide or inform, they merely act as a conduit through which your CV gets funnelled towards appropriate vacancies. Certainly the agency employee can consult regarding the jobs he or she has on his or her books, and which ones your CV matches, but beyond that the finding of a post that’s right for you is probably more down to good luck and a following wind than anything else.

And recruitment ‘consultants’ are not alone in the appropriation of swanky terms that perhaps promise more than they confer – it’s become a veritable trend to ‘upvote’ what you do in order to suggest greater talent or responsibility. This is why, at Recruit Mint, we only call ourselves ‘consultants’ because… well, because we feel we’ve earned the right to do it.

For every person walking through our doors, we have the knowledge, the contacts and the experience to sit them down and talk to them as someone in need of job-seeking expertise, rather than as a square peg we might be able to jemmy into a round hole. For every client who comes to us seeking the perfect employee, we have so much more to offer than an in-tray propping up the latest batch of CVs. In short, we call ourselves consultants because people consult us. Our customers, many of whom return time after time with all their recruitment needs, trust us to not only help them build their businesses, but to be part of future-proofing their time, hard work and investments with solid, reliable and appropriately skilled staff.

So, in truth, it’s not really a secret after all, more like common sense. If you want someone who can really do what they promise, who lives up to the title on their lapel badge, go by the walk, not the talk. And if it’s excellence in recruitment you need, on a long-term basis, provided by consultants who actually consult? You know what to do…

www.recruitmint.com/contact/