While the descriptor is rather subjective (each person defines success differently), there are a number of commonalities among effective recruiters.
At the end of day, you need to provide your company and clients with candidates that are going to make an impact. So how do great recruiters achieve this? Each story may be different, but we think you’ll find this list of seven key habits sums up what it means to be an effective recruiter.
Have a clear company strategy in mind that you can reference to whenever you’re looking to fill a position. Keep it on a sticky note, typed in your phone or simply commit it to memory. When learning about a potential candidate, identify if their skills, character and experience are the best fit for leading your organization to growth. Ask yourself, “Will this person help my organization reach our ultimate vision?” If you can’t confidently answer yes, it’s time to keep sourcing.
We all know that possessing the right skills is not enough to qualify a candidate as the right hire. Your job as a recruiter is to find the candidates who are not only qualified for the job, but who also fit the company culture. Ask the right questions and don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper in the interview process. Identify which characteristics or values your successful employees commonly possess, and then create interview questions that help single out candidates with similar attributes.
When possible, emphasize the job need rather than the skills. If a candidate has previously performed a similar job, they probably have the skills (or the ability to learn them). So instead of listing every skill that candidate should possess, clearly explain the key job expectations. This will help enhance your talent community by including a more diverse group of candidates with varying experience and backgrounds without sacrificing the quality of hire.
If you want to engage passive candidates, you need to figure out how to target effectively for a career move. Try to imagine the career story of your top three ideal candidates. What roles did they fill before? What skills did they possess that made them a good fit? Once you’ve answered questions like these, you’ll have a better idea of how to make your job postings resonate with passive candidates.
Master and strengthen all of your sources for candidates. This includes boosting the yield and quality of candidates coming in via your job posting efforts. To do this, relentlessly study what makes a job posting effective, try new marketing tactics, test your actions and apply what you’ve learned to strengthen your job ads. Also, stay up-to-date on the latest recruiting news and best practices so that you can leverage the information.
Periodically reach out to candidates in your Talent Community to see what’s new with them, if they've acquired any new skills, or if they have referrals to share from their personal network. You can keep in touch with new and old connections via the phone, email, message system, or physical gatherings. The amount of input you invest yields a corresponding amount of output. That’s why it’s so critical for recruiters to build and maintain relationships with their Talent Community, past clients and alumni.
The main takeaway is that you need to initiate conversations to boost awareness for your positions. Become an exceptional networker, and become proficient in passive candidate recruiting.
Identifying the results of your efforts each day is the best way to improve your recruitment practices. Utilize analytical tools that help you understand your recruiting initiatives from a high-level perspective. By reviewing critical recruitment metrics, you can decipher which recruiting tactics are working and which are not. Then, you can readjust your actions to maximize your ROI.
Instead of focusing entirely on current open reqs, start thinking about the future hiring needs of your organization. Are certain departments growing? Are any leaders planning on retiring soon? Based on your company's expectations, start building a strong talent network of prospective candidates who would excel in the roles that may become available. As a result, you'll be prepared to source once the company decides to hire for that position.
Becoming a great recruiter takes persistence, strategy and the passion to connect organizations with the right candidates. If you have the will to succeed, coupled with the right tactics and tools, you can start aggressively honing your recruiting skills today. Try incorporating these seven recruitment best practices into your day-to-day functions to improve your actions and produce great results.
