Without quality recruiter work, finding the perfect candidate for long-term collaboration would be like a roll of dice. Through careful selection, only those applicants are left that are best suited to meet the needs of a particular project.
How does a recruiter work?
Responsibilities of a recruiter are not limited to reviewing resumes, doing interviews, yet this is also an important part of the selection. A good specialist must understand what he is doing and why. Not because the photo in the resume is nice or the candidate graduated from a prestigious university, but because this person will meet all the needs of the company in a specific position, fit well into the team, benefit himself/herself and the customer, as well as develop, generate new creative ideas. In addition, the recruiter:
estimates the number of required team members in each department;
knows the company inside out and monitors its needs;
represents the company at conferences and actively communicates with other internal departments.
A recruiter is the first person a candidate meets in a company. The impression of communicating with him must make the person dream of becoming a part of the team. It is the recruiter who makes an impression about the level of specialists providing services in the company. Therefore hiring helps both parties: the business – to find new team members, the candidates – to find a position in the business.
The recruiter’s goal is to balance the interests of the candidate and the interests of the business. In marketing, the concept of “customer focus” means that a product or service fully matches the wishes, needs and conditions of the client. A recruiter does the same, they select a candidate who seeks not only to get a position, but to become a part of the team. This way the team member will be proactive, benefit the company and pay attention to self-development.
Recruiter is a good sales manager
A manager who wants to sell a product or service is always aware of the competitors and that he should do his utmost to make the client happy with the purchase not only of the product, but also of the “buying” experience. The same can be applied to the experience of communicating with a recruiter. They must be able to ask the right questions about the position in the most beneficial way for the company and the applicant. Attention to detail, anticipation of wants will be the perfect combination for a successful recruiter.
Updating, searching for information is the basis of work, since the candidates’ preferences of trends in the field can radically change over time. Here you need to keep an eye on your competitors, in order to introduce new technologies and simply keep up. If you cannot search where others are not looking, then search in the same place, but better than others.
If the business relationship with the candidate did not work out (the schedule, the location of the development center did not suit), perhaps the positive experience of communicating with the recruiter will make them want to offer the vacancy to their acquaintances, and the feedback about the company on the whole will be extremely positive. This way a brand recommendation is created.
An important aspect for a recruiter is their own reputation and image. Of course, the choice of a candidate is primarily influenced by the image of the company, but speaking of the assessment of a recruiter’s work, the number of successfully closed vacancies will speak for their effectiveness. The recruiter is interested in meeting the needs of the company and a specific project, as well as helping the candidate successfully become a part of this project. Communicating with everyone with respect, on equal terms and with great interest will be an advantage.
What must a professional recruiter be like?
1. Conscious
The recruiter must clearly understand why he is in this or that place and what is expected of him/her.
He or she must calmly, sensibly, adequately, critically assess the current situation and its needs. The same applies to the analysis of candidates. Only a conscious recruiter can avoid value judgments, react without unnecessary emotions, just like a representative of the company. At the same time, it is necessary to be aware of oneself both at the level of basic needs and those of higher levels, in order to understand other people’s needs. For example, what conditions the candidate wants to “open up” at work, to “kill the pains” of the business.
2. Prepared
First of all, the recruiter has to know everything about the company: its departments, structure, work scheme, the vacancy itself. To be able to answer all the candidate’s questions: about the position, requirements, amount of work, payments, team building, various bonuses etc. It’s telling about what the company does, its mission, the candidate’s career growth, experience, in what environment the work process is carried out and with who.
Ideally, the recruiter assigns a deadline for each stage of the selection, so that later they can analyze the time frame and be able to say exactly when a suitable candidate will be found. This requires basic time management and analysis skills. It can be especially difficult for a novice recruiter, so an important point is the documentation of the recruiting department – everything that needs to be told or asked the candidate. The application form is crucial. All the important points of the selection process must be stated there.
3. A person with analytical thinking
Resume analysis is important. From here, you can immediately determine the goal, work experience, education, skills and abilities, demographic data, contacts, literacy, general style of performing tasks. For the interview to be fast and efficient for all parties, you need to extract as much information as possible from the CV and (if any) portfolio, not to ask questions that are answered there. If the interview is short, there is nothing to worry about. The main thing is that it should be informative. In addition to the basic analysis of the resume, the recruiter must also analyze the person’s behavior so that the team and the new team member are comfortable working together and when completing tasks communication is well coordinated. Analytical thinking should help the recruiter to predict what results a particular team member will have. These things can also help: analysis of the best resources and tools for a particular position, analysis of problematic issues, search for causes and improvement of the process.
4. Interested
The interview should not be torture for the candidate. On the contrary, the first meeting should be a pleasant experience that will awaken the desire to work in a company with pleasant people like the recruiter. Therefore, the company representative must be passionate about the work and show a sincere interest in the interlocutor.
Without interest, the recruiter will not be able to evaluate the candidate, analyze the situation. It is necessary to study the technical base, all information about the candidate in order to navigate the topic and not show signs of indifference to the interlocutor. Each interview for a recruiter is an opportunity to learn something new.
5. Friendly and ethical
A sincere smile, moderate emotions and respect will show that the company values every person and treats everyone well without exception. At the interview, it is the candidate who should speak, so it is completely inappropriate to talk about how difficult it is to be a recruiter or what is wrong in the company. It is important for a recruiter to understand that all the little things must be taken into account. It is worth paying attention to the appearance, speech, writing style, order on the desktop, listening skills, because candidates are also specialists in their field and analyze the company in the same way as the company.
Ethics is very important in the work of a recruiter, because candidates can behave in different ways, sometimes having no manners at all. Despite this, the recruiter should not give in to emotions, even in provocative situations it is important to keep calm and react with understanding.
6. Good interlocutor
The purpose of the interview is to find out what the candidate did not say on the resume, so the recruiter should ask relevant questions, rather than create a monologue. It is also necessary to react and give feedback so that the person understands that they are really being listened to. For the conversation to be productive, it is better to make an approximate plan, write out the main questions, save the candidate’s resume and portfolio, their profile in order to glance at it at the right time.
7. Able to say NO
Often, a recruiter has to report a refusal for a desired position, despite the fact that the candidate was worthy. It can be difficult to reject a candidate because you don’t know what kind of feedback you will get. But you need to send a message through any channel (phone, mail, social networks) as politely as possible, with understanding, so that when a new vacancy opens, the candidate is ready to apply again. This is how the reserve base of candidates is formed. But at the same time, the main thing is not to give the applicant false hopes that soon there will be a position for them, if this is not true. A recruiter must be honest with everyone. If the candidate asks for feedback on the reasons for refusal, it is necessary to clearly and at the same time very carefully state all the points that did not suit or did not coincide with the values of the company. For this, the processes in the company must be established, understanding who is responsible for what, what information the technical specialist provides for the recruiter, etc.
8. Empathic
Inexperienced specialists are rarely immediately allowed to communicate with candidates, because only with time can one learn to feel and “read” a person. Therefore, psychologists sometimes do very well in the role of a recruiter, because they see and analyze the candidate and their needs faster.
To convince a candidate, you need to not only be an excellent public speaker on the topic of the company, but also know the personal motivation. It’s not always just a reward and free coffee and tea in the office. The ability to hear the candidate and correctly determine their criteria for choosing a future company allows us to offer those conditions of cooperation that they will find hard to refuse.
9. Stress-resistant
Sometimes an interview can be abruptly canceled. A candidate or customer can become very upset with such circumstances. At such moments, the main thing is to think about the situation, get together and solve the issue without creating panic.
10. Focused
When you get messages from all social networks at the same time, it can be difficult not to panic and concentrate on what is important. To complete all the necessary tasks while not leaving messages and calls unanswered for a long time, you need to be able to prioritize. The recruiter arranges tasks according to their importance, focuses on solving specific issues without dissipating forces. Time management may come in handy, it is the concentration on one task that will help to complete it quickly and efficiently. It is very important to answer the candidate when promised. Grouping tasks is the best option in this case.
Also, when working as a recruiter, you must take into account the specifics of the industry. For example, in IT, a candidate can be influenced not only by the remuneration or location of the office, but also by the level of the project, prospects for professional development or entering the international market. It is worth mentioning that a recruiter is not always an HR manager. He’s more of a sales manager, but from the side of the candidate. The task of the first one is to find applicants, represent the company, make a general decision about the applicant, and the second one is to “keep” the person with a pleasant atmosphere, to maintain the corporate culture.
Conclusion
To sum up a recruiter can be a truly high-class specialist, combining a number of professional and personal qualities.
Love your job and let recruiting drive you as much as it drives me!