Recruiters should think “lean” to give their candidates and clients the most value possible.

By applying lean manufacturing principles to recruiting, recruiters can create more value for their clients with less work, suggested Glen Cathey, vice president, recruiting, for US professional staffing company KForce.

At TRU London 3, he said a recruiter can source, contact, screen/interview a candidate and submit the best to a hiring authority within 24-48 hours of getting a green light for a role - all without a traditional pipeline of candidates that have been ’kept warm’.

“Keeping warm” a traditional pipeline of candidates not only wastes the recruiter’s time but provides little value to the jobseeker, Cathey argued. “Ask your candidate, what is the thing I can do that is of most value to you?”