Adrian Thomas told Recruiter that the credibility of his own resourcing team was boosted by using terminology such as “meeting objectives, order fulfilment and making efficiencies”.

He continued: “I think it is beneficial because senior managers see a value in talking to you because it indicates that you are going to help them with their objectives.”

Thomas said that part of the reason why resourcing was taken seriously at Network Rail was because “the way that we talk about recruitment has given us an easier route into those meetings [for example, with Network Rail’s executive committee] because we are talking about delivery, we are talking the language they understand”.

And Thomas attributed his own career success in part to being “very numbers driven” and being “very comfortable talking the language of business”.

He said it was also important for recruiters to adopt a business-like and professional approach when dealing with senior executives. “They know my team is not going to shy away [from answering difficult questions] and tell them to go away and write a report; we are going to answer it there and then because we have prepared properly.”