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Characteristics of An Effective Recruiter
There is something rare something finer far something scarcer than ability – It is the ability to recognize ability.
What is Recruiting: It is the process of finding and hiring the best qualified candidate (from within or outside an organization) for a job opening, in a timely and cost efficient manner! The recruitment process includes analyzing the requirements of a job, attracting potential candidates to that job, screening and selecting applicants, hiring and integrating the new employee to the organization.
Recruitment Agencies: A company that a client hires to find suitable candidates for their hiring requirement. Clients hire recruitment agencies because they want higher quality, better speed, confidentiality, the agencies specialization in a specific area and, therefore, has the market knowledge, the agency pool of qualified and motivated candidates, access to the agencies research and finally how the agency engages candidates.
Recruitment as a Profession: You will never have a boring day as you are dealing with human beings taking one of the most important decisions in their life - Their career. Like every profession it comes with its own set of ups and downs.
Theron International: We at Theron specialize in Technical and Scientific Recruiting. We aim to be amongst the top 3 recruiting firms with all our clients. We have well qualified and happy employees working with us (we know that only happy employees can ensure, clients are happy and candidates engaged). We invest extensively in our employee training and wellbeing.
Theron’s mission is to be a place where you realize your potential and grow both personally and professionally.
As a Theronian you can go home every day, with a sense of fulfillment that you have invested your time and efforts in changing the lives of people and companies you have interacted with and that you are working with a high performing ethical company.
Good recruiters perform their daily tasks well and make sure they hire good candidates for their clients, get repeat business / new business. Recruiters can come from diverse backgrounds like - Sales, Marketing, Customer Service / Support, HR, Retail, Software programming etc. Despite diverse, backgrounds, the list of traits and qualities all good recruiters have and should hone, to become top performers are:
Build Relationships & Networks: Your Network is Your Net Worth. Connecting and nurturing relationships both professionally and personally is what it is about. You have to invest in your network and contacts, in turn, it will pay you back. Build your professional profile and network in such a way that you attract great candidates and clients to work with you. Creating and listening to mentors will do wonders to your recruitment career. Pick up inferences from your mentors and use your intuition to assess and evaluate each opportunity. As your network grows so will you grow in stature as a recruiter.
Recruiting Ratios mean that you will reject and be rejected by more candidates than you hire. As a good recruiter you turn a rejection into relationship. You follow basic courtesies like giving post-interview feedback by adding a personal touch you will be remembered. You always stay in touch with your clients and candidates.
Achieving Your Targets: Targets are the life blood of recruitment. You will always have a number on your head that you have to achieve. The important thing is to look at the rewards and the good lifestyle you can lead once you achieve and exceed your targets. Make targets your friend and they will pay you back manifold. Remember, if you have nothing to aim for you will not achieve anything; so targets help you stay focused.
Generating New Business: New business can come from existing clients or new clients. Retaining a client and getting repeat business is a sign of recognition, that you have done a good job with them and that they are happy. You must always develop new prospects and make them your client as that is the only way to grow and be profitable.
Have Strong Fundamentals & Follow the Process: All successful recruiters master the fundamentals and do not cut corners. You need to be familiar with Theron’s Processes, your client’s process, candidate’s timelines and labor laws at the least. The latter is so that you don’t ask or email illegal questions. A mistake in your fundamentals could cost you and the company dearly.
Resilience: As a recruiter you should bear in mind that the people you deal with will react in various ways that you have no control over - caution, curiosity, indifference, arrogance, being curt, deceit and acceptance are some reactions you will come across. In addition they will exercise their right and say “Not Interested” as their response to your job opening / offer to hire for them.
No matter how adept you are at convincing candidates / clients, you will encounter way more rejections than acceptances. Follow the “5 SW” acronym to manage rejections and not get bogged down by it, move on to the next prospect:
Resilience is a trait you should have or develop to become a goal-centric recruiter. With resilience, you will be able to manage temporary feelings of rejection and move on to the next prospects who may be the one giving you a closure. Continue being positive and professional on every call with a potential candidate / client with a belief that it will work out, let them hear the smile in your voice. Think and act positively and you begin to attract positive things.
Talent Scouts: Recruiters who add value to their company are “Talent Scouts” who don’t just wait for a client to give them a mandate to start looking for candidates. You start building pipelines and keep a record of candidate and your interactions with them in your area of specialization. You engage with passive candidates and create a strong network. You know where to look for experienced candidates and how to source fresh talent creatively including social media recruiting. You collaborate with your hiring managers to forecast their hiring needs. You attend conferences and stay up-to-date in your area of specialization and recruitment trends.
Managing Your Hiring Managers Well: Hiring managers are your gateway to success and managing them well is the key to achieve your objectives. At times you will have to navigate differences with hiring managers due to the process or because of conflict of interest. You will have to figure out how to tackle these issues diplomatically and make sure you achieve the desired working relationship that gets you results and meets the hiring manager’s demands. Everyone talks of candidate engagement but hiring manager experience is as important if not even more important.
Do keep in mind that hiring managers may not have enough time or knowledge of the hiring process and its complexities. A good recruiter will use their expertise to navigate and highlight problematic situations that may be hard to spot for a hiring manager. For example you can – identify candidates shopping around / those who were toxic in their previous organization. In addition you will also highlight the strengths of a good candidate and why they will fit well and succeed with your client and why they should hire through you.
Great recruiters understand what their client wants and delivers on that. For example some hiring managers want to interview only a few top candidates ( 4 to 5), so then you need to do in-depth interviews with candidates and give the hiring manager an assessment report on each candidate to ensure there is a closure. Another hiring manager might like to see a lot of candidates and then decide on who fits their role; In this case a good recruiter focuses on sourcing a large number of qualified candidates (say 23 candidates for a role) and lets the hiring manager do the interviewing and evaluating on their own.
Candidates Engagement: You get candidate control only through candidate cooperation. You need to be serious on how you engage your candidates. Remember all tables are round your candidate today could be your client tomorrow. Treat your candidates well by responding to them in time, sharing feedback as soon as you get it, be honest with them, be their career counselor.
Assessors & Keep An Open Mind: There is something rare something finer far something scarcer than ability – It is the ability to recognize ability. As an effective recruiter you should not judge a book by its cover or a candidate by their resume. A project manager is able to write a compelling resume and a pre-salesperson can present themselves in the most engaging way. But does this translate to them being good at their job? Will you reject a software developer with a poorly structured CV? You must read between the lines and find evidence that candidates’ skills actually match the client’s job requirements. Techniques like behavioral Interview questions, assessment tests will help identify qualified candidates. As a professional you don’t discriminate: you place the best candidate with the right client.
Empathy: You have to put yourself in your clients’ and candidates’ shoes to understand and connect with them. Good recruiters dig deep into hiring managers’ needs to understand their true requirements. Hiring managers would prefer to receive 6 well qualified and motivated (spot-on resumes) candidates instead of 70 CVs that don’t meet their requirements. To stand out, you must thoroughly research each role you recruit for. Thorough research means more than just reading a job description or getting a list of desirable skills from the hiring manager. You don’t have to become masters in a particular technology or subject area to recruit great candidates. But they research the role, shadow a member of the relevant department, researching details, take a quick online course, attend a conference, talk to client and candidate to get a better understanding of the role requirements and what extra qualities they should be looking for.
Recruiters also need to put themselves in their candidate’s shoes and see things from the candidate’s side. If you want to attract great professionals, you have to understand what’s meaningful to them and see what an employer can offer them. You won’t be able to get to know your candidates if you dominate the conversation or by overselling the positions, ask good questions and listen to what your candidate really wants. You will be recognized as an evaluator of human capital if you ask good questions and conduct professional interviews.
Like a seesaw each side’s interests needs to be managed to get a successful outcome and you will need to know which side to apply pressure to close the deal.
Wear Different Hats And Play Multiple Roles: You can read as many recruiter role descriptions or talk to good recruiters and ask them to describe a typical day at work, but nothing seems to capture what they do fully (Look at our article - A Day In The Life Of A Theronian). This is because you will interact with so many different people with different needs; all the time. Effective recruiters need to know multiple selling techniques and in creating compelling job ads. At heart you must be a salesperson. Knowing a bit of psychology helps you to better understand candidates’ and clients reactions. You will have to use social media, attend conferences and use public relations to build and sustain your employer and personal branding. You need to be a team player, a career counselor, an advocate, a mentor, a confidant and play multiple roles that are required of you. Effective recruiting is not about ‘one-size-fits-all’ programs and processes which tend to be only theoretically viable – it’s about constantly tailoring recruiting approaches to meet specific hiring needs using strong fundamentals
Represent: You are Theron Internationals ambassador to our clients, candidates and the ecosystem we operate within. You are the first person they interact with and are responsible for making (or spoiling) the candidate / clients experience with us. A bad candidate / client experience can become a comment on the web and will spoil both yours and Therons reputation. Treat your candidates and clients professionally as that is Therons culture. Be polite, prompt and professional in all your interactions – You are the face of the company and you reflect Therons values to the world…. Represent Theron well.
Unleash The Power Of References And Reciprocity: Every candidate knows other professionals who may fit the requirement you have. Candidates got through reference will always respond better, be more cooperative and are more likely to be well suited to the client mandate than those that are cold-called. It is imperative for you to end every single call asking for references. This proactive deed will improve your pool of qualified candidates. Asking for references does not cost you much in terms of time and effort – Remember you are already on the call. In addition you must end every email with a list of open mandates that they can share. For a candidate to give you references, they must not feel that the opportunity they are trying for will be jeopardized for them by giving you references. That will only happen if the candidate feels you are looking after their best interest, are engaged with them and they understand that there are multiple open requirements or they are not in consideration for the same mandate.
Once they give you references always thank them and give them something in return like an article / market updates / training tips / career advice / are for them when they need you / A company memento. At times when allowed, let them know that the reference they gave you was placed by you and is happy.
Embrace Feedback and Self-improve: Feedback is the breakfast of champions, and is critical for your success. Ask for feedback from your clients and candidates to know where you stand. You should participate in client interviews, get feedback on your candidate’s performance after 6 months, send client satisfaction surveys, only then will you get the enough data to become effective. You need to give people permission to be honest with you and be open to criticism, only then will you get honest feedback and a different perspective. Delve deep into the data points / ratios gathered and see where you can improve. Use these inputs to adapt yourself to the fast-paced, number-centric, target-driven business of recruitment.
There is no such thing as a bad outcome – Either it is a success or a lesson to be learnt. When you don’t achieve the results you expect, figure out what went wrong and how to avoid it the future. Celebrate your wins and learn from your losses. You must continuously seek ways to self-improve. To stay ahead of the competition, you need to consistently improve your value proposition to your clients and candidates, use technology and follow HR and recruiting trends / best practices or create next practices. You need to stay up to date and turn challenges into opportunities and failures into learning’s.
As An Effective Recruiter You Will Be Recognized And Rewarded For What You Do By:
