Recruiters on Reality TV?
There’s a “hit” web-reality series called “Top Recruiter: Miami Reality Series Season 2.” The series, from LaVoie Entertainment and sponsored by companies such as SilkRoad and HireVue, claims to put “some of the world’s most talented talent professionals in a head-to-head competition to determine who has what it takes to earn the coveted title of Top Recruiter.”
The show says:
In a world where making the right hires can mean the difference between life and death, companies can’t afford making a mistake when making an offer. Beating the competition in the war for talent takes more than a great company culture or great career opportunity. It takes a great recruiter. Great recruiting means getting the right person in the right role at the right time at the right company for the right price. Period. No matter what “thought leaders” think, frontline of the war for talent is a tough place where sometimes, closing means replacing best practices with instinct – and a little bit of hustle.
Go behind the job search scenes and into the mind of some of the best and brightest recruiters on the planet as the critically acclaimed reality hit “Top Recruiter” returns. This season, we’re going global to discover the top recruiter in the world. And this time, there are no rules. From executive producer Chris LaVoie and LaVoie Entertainment, Top Recruiter Season 2 will take you from the shores of South Beach to the war zones of the Middle East, mixing real personalities and real drama with new challenges – and new surprises – that will make you rethink everything you think you know about how people find the people for the companies who need them. It won’t be easy. But then again, recruiting never is when you’re doing it right.
The show has six cast members/recruiters who compete against one another in a series of job-related challenges. The recruiters are judged by a group of judges (all “key people” in the recruitment industry), and viewers also vote for their choice of top recruiter after each episode.
I watched the first episode and it was…interesting.
First off, like most other reality shows, the recruiters are living together in a luxurious Miami mansion. The women are all dolled up in their heels and jewelry while the men also dress nicely in suites and sunglasses. It was all very much “glitz and glam,” which I never would’ve associated with recruiting.
The show is drama filled (it wouldn’t be reality without this component, would it?) even touching on the personal lives of each recruiter. For example, one recruiter emotionally tells stories about leaving war-torn Istanbul, while another reveals the abuse he experienced from his father growing up.
It was all very “reality TV,” and seeing as how I’m not a fan of this new craze, I’ll leave you to judge the effectiveness of the show’s mission.
What I do want to ask, employers, is what you think about recruiters being on reality TV? This question is also for other recruiters: What would you think if a colleague was on this show?
Almost all businesses are concerned with their employer brand, and recruitment firms are no different. Firms establish and maintain a certain brand and image so organizations will want to use their services. But would having one (or more) of your recruiters participate in a reality TV show help or hurt your brand ?
On the episode I watched, one of the recruiters said she thought the show was a great way to show job seekers the behind the scenes of recruitment and what recruiters have to go through. But as a job seeker, watching this web series didn’t “enlighten” my mind about the plight of recruiters; it actually made the industry look like a joke.
The recruiters looked flashy, drama-filled, at times unprofessional and attention deprived—as do most other reality TV stars. For this job seeker, I don’t feel like watching an episode helped me relate or sympathize with recruiters or gain a better understanding of the industry. If anything, it made me think how I’d never want to work with these recruiters.
But, that’s just my first impression. What about you? Do recruiters being on reality TV negatively or positively influence your perspective of the industry? And if you run a firm, do you think having one of your recruiters on this show would damage your brand?