From Training to Trust & Trust to Revenue.

How do you become the best?

Well you train, practice and get feedback on what works and what doesn’t. Most good agencies will have invested in learning and new tech to stay ahead of the game and be the best in the market. AI simulations, new sales techniques or sourcing strategies. All of which matters, but if we’re honest, AI and Tech are only half the story.

You can train processes and policies but the real glue for the best recruiters is Trust and nurturing Trust with clients and candidates is a fundamentally human skill that needs honing through feedback.

At Rate A Recruiter, we built the platform, to provide a level of transparency and trust that has otherwise been missing in the market. Customers can check out a hotel on TripAdvisor or a plumber on Checkatrade, but entrusting someone with your career has not had that same level of scrutiny or trust.

That’s where the RateARecruiters’ 6Cs come in, it’s been designed to slowdown the dopamine hit of a keyboard warrior, leaving a review about being ghosted and instead takes them through a structured itinerary of key trust data points. It’s a practical signpost and shows if learning has turned into performance, performance intro trust and trust into commercial results.

Candidate First

Candidate First is where most agencies say the right thing. Almost every training programme includes something about “putting the candidate at the heart of the process”. But what candidates experience is often different. 26% of candidates will reject an offer based on a poor experience. Feedback shows you where the gap sits. Did they manage the candidate experience on behalf of the client well? Did the candidate feel supported, or simply processed? When agencies start using real feedback to coach these moments, behaviour shifts and trust grow. Recruiters become more thoughtful in how they show up, and candidates notice. Over time, those candidates come back, refer others, and trust the brand. That is not fluffy training, it’s a commercial reality.

Communication

Communication is the heartbeat of recruitment, and where most reputations quietly unravel. 65% of candidates don’t receive consistent communication. Training teaches structure, but feedback reveals lived experience. Candidates and clients rarely complain about just being told “no”. They complain about not being told anything at all. When you start to review real feedback about response times, clarity, and tone, patterns emerge. Some recruiters are excellent under pressure. Others go quiet when things get uncomfortable. Training with providers like Recruitment Juice are effective tools to build trust. The result is not just better communication, but fewer complaints, fewer escalations, and fewer damaged relationships.

Connectedness

Connectedness is the difference between being efficient and being remembered. Recruiters making more hires through networking and referrals spend 55% less time filling roles than those relying on external job boards. What feedback reveals is whether recruiters know their candidates well, their skills and strengths, (as well as their opportunities), and their reach into the sector that they operate in with clients and businesses. Trust is built when they feel like a partner ,not a transaction.  When recruiters are coached to build continuity, not just contact, relationships deepen. Those relationships are what carry agencies through market downturns. People forgive delays when they feel understood. They don’t forgive indifference.

Commitment

Commitment shows up most clearly when things go wrong. With the average time to fill a vacancy being 42 days in the UK. Anyone can look competent when a role fills smoothly. The real test is what happens when offers fall through, roles are pulled, or timelines slip. Feedback exposes whether recruiters disappear or lean in. Agencies that use this feedback well, coach recruiters to own outcomes, even when the news is bad. That ownership builds credibility. Clients and candidates remember who stood with them when it got messy. That memory becomes loyalty.

Compliance

Compliance is often taught as a legal requirement. Feedback reframes it as an emotional experience. Did people feel treated fairly? Did they feel pressured? Did they trust how their data was handled? When feedback highlights discomfort or confusion, it is an early warning system. Agencies that listen closely reduce risk and strengthen trust at the same time. Compliance stops being about fear of regulations and policies and starts being about confidence in how you operate.

Candidness

Candidness is where many recruiters struggle. 80% of job seekers say feedback after a rejection would increase their perception of fairness in the process. Training encourages honesty, but the feedback on a platform like Rate A Recruiter, reveals whether honesty really landed with care. When agencies use real feedback to coach how tough conversations are handled, recruiters become braver and kinder at the same time. That combination builds long-term trust, even when job outcomes can disappoint.

This is where learning turns into earning. Feedback provides training opportunities; training builds capability and capability builds trust. In a way that is visible to candidates, clients, and commercial leaders alike. Agencies that create this loop don’t just develop better recruiters. They build reputations that travel ahead of them in the market.

RAR exists to make that loop visible. Not to shame, but to raise standards. To help recruiters and agencies see how their behaviour actually lands. The 6 Cs give language to what great recruitment feels like in the real world. When that insight is used alongside training, development stops being theoretical and starts becoming something people can see, measure, and improve.

Recruitment has always been about people. The agencies that thrive are the ones willing to learn from people too.

About the Author

Kieran Mander FCIPD is the Founder of Rate A Recruiter, an independent platform bringing transparency and accountability to the recruitment industry through verified reviews and standards-based profiles. He is a senior People and Transformation leader with over 20 years’ experience across UK and international organisations, advising boards and executive teams on organisational change, talent strategy, and workforce transformation.

Alongside building Rate A Recruiter, Kieran has led large-scale people programmes across complex, regulated environments, supporting businesses through growth, restructuring, and market disruption. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a regular contributor to discussions on the future of work, recruitment standards, and candidate experience.