At its core, a recruiter’s job is to create happiness. Recruiters work hard to ensure employers and employees are perfectly matched and positioned to create success, cultivate growth, and enjoy an excellent quality of life together. Why, then, should an employee who is already content with and fulfilled in their current position contact a recruiter in the first place?

Know What You Don’t Know

Recruiters are experts in their respective industries, and understand that happy and unhappy employees alike have a tendency to become complacent in their situations. And in the case of successful and satisfied employees, it’s only natural that someone who studied hard in school, worked diligently for years, and finally landed a desirable job would stop actively pursuing other opportunities. After all, they’ve crossed the job search finish line.

Finding and researching prospective new job opportunities is both time consuming and psychologically exhausting. Thinking about what “could be” is also a profound distraction for many employees, and it may even be perceived as being disloyal by an employer, should they find out. For most people are happily employed, their default position is to be grateful for what they have, and not dream about an even better job.

Recruiters, however, know the dynamic nature of employment opportunities and how quickly marketplaces evolve. Content employees focused on their day-to-day lives may be blissfully unaware of this knowledge; this is why employees, including happy ones, should respond to the sincere and respectful attempts of recruiters to understand their current mindset and attitudes about professional growth and the future of their professional lives. What happy employees don’t know can therefore prevent them from considering career opportunities that might make them even more satisfied.

Don’t Fear Change

Change is an important, and often exciting, part of life. Recruiters are experts in identifying incredible opportunities and matching them with individuals who may not, initially, be interested in considering a change — even one for the better. Working with a recruiter allows potential candidates to maintain their current professional obligations while also thinking big about their future and considering relevant opportunities that arise. Life is short, and every person owes it to themselves to be open to positive change.

Changes in digital technologies, social media, and modern employer/employee relationships have altered how recruiters, and job candidates, perceive the parameters of career development. Companies and positions are now subject to sudden shifts driven by regional and global economic forces. Higher wages, the ability to work flexible hours or telecommute, and the opportunity to work in a better city are all great reasons to consider a job change — even if most satisfied employees never think about these potential benefits. Recruiters empower already happy employees to be quick and current in a fast-paced marketplace where unexpected change occurs regularly.

The Power of Relationships

By maintaining a relationship with a trusted recruiter, happily employed individuals are investing in the chance for a life-changing opportunity. Recruiters are experts at asking individuals detailed and informed questions that reveal not only a person’s career goals, but also their sensibilities and values as a human being. How, for example, does someone define professional, and personal, success? What motivates them? What, if money didn’t matter, would they be doing in life, and why? How would they describe their ideal job, boss, and working conditions?

Even happy employees should welcome relationships with recruiters who invest time, energy, and resources into understanding who they truly are. A recruiter, after all, is a professional agent who is looking out for the candidate’s personal interests. Simply by responding to a trusted recruiter’s questions and check-ins, content employees can take small steps toward an even better future. Knowledge is power, and experienced recruiters offer important insight to fulfilled employees who are smart enough to realize that life is all about change — and that sometimes the best opportunities are the ones that we never saw coming.