Recruiters are professionals who hire the best candidates for their companies. To the candidates, they are the face of the company, its culture, and community. Handpicking the best talent that meets the organizational needs is a task that recruiters must master.
Every successful recruiter has their personalized working style and ethics. However, attracting the best talent from the huge pool and dealing with candidates throughout the recruitment process is challenging.
If you have been looking for a guide on how to be a successful recruiter, here are some simple ways that help all recruiters maximize their working time and achieve optimal results.
Table of Contents
1. Search for candidates well ahead
Candidates currently searching for jobs will commence applying when applications open, typically during hiring seasons. But a recruiter’s job begins long before the actual hiring cycle. It pays off in the long term to put in the time and effort to learn about students across various universities (through career fairs) and well-performing employees in other companies to see who might be a good fit for the company.
Recruiters can then begin reaching out to these potential candidates when the hiring season begins. Although this will take a little more time and effort, it will help a recruiter’s ultimate goal to hire the best from the market.
2. Research about the candidates
Since recruiters are the first people from the company that potential candidates will interact with, it is vital to make them feel valued and respected. Hence, before scheduling the interview, recruiters must take the time to learn about a candidate’s experiences from their resume and cover letter.
Gaining background details about the candidate will help the recruiters ask better questions in the interview, assess the candidates’ skills more thoroughly, and improve the hiring process. All these aspects obviously help you to become a successful recruiter.
Also Read: Mistakes to avoid in virtual recruitment
3. Prepare for the interview
Recruiters should often do as much, or sometimes even more research before the interview than the candidates themselves. Recruiters have informed inside knowledge about what kind of candidates the company is looking for.
What is the company’s recruitment for an ideal candidate’s education and work experiences?
How many of these boxes does the person who will be interviewed check?
What are the potential drawbacks that are immediately seen on paper?
Make a note of all these points; they will come in handy during the interview.
4. Pay attention while the candidates speak
Remember that the candidates are, in the end, people eager to work in the same company. A tip to become a successful recruiter is, during the interview, remain present in the conversation and focus on making a connection with the interviewees. Keep noting down bullet points on what they are saying, what they are unsure about, and any drawbacks you notice while conversing with them.
5. Be on top of emails
Many candidates will likely email you before, during, and after the application process and interviews. Keep yourself updated on the emails.
The Muse writer Richard Moy outlines the kinds of emails recruiters typically send to candidates. As much as possible, try to respond to emails within 24-48 hours of receiving them. Promptness and dependability are traits of many successful recruiters.
Tim Cotroneo, an account manager at an employment search firm called MDS Staffing recommends recruiters to treat others the way they would like to be treated. This is a key trait of every successful recruiter, he adds.
6. Maintain a calendar
Recruiters receive hundreds if not thousands of applications, e-mails, and messages on various networking platforms. It is crucial to maintain a calendar that reflects the list of tasks, interview schedules and reminders, notes from the interviews, and follow-up schedules if any.
Alissa Henriksen, the owner of two recruiting firms, emphasizes that the more organized a recruiter is, the higher their rate of success is. Recruiters might also hire for multiple roles simultaneously for the company, and hence, staying organized is one way to keep the chaos under control.
Many recruiters break the interview process into multiple interviews, with each one targeting a specific aspect – technical, informational, and behavioral. If you want to make your mark as a successful recruiter, you must keep a tab of the individual stages of each candidate to make sure they are updated.
7. Know the company and the market
It is vital to stay updated with competing companies that have newly cropped up in the market, or that start-up that’s making strides with its latest technology, or any piece of information worth knowing about the market. This knowledge will help recruiters highlight the unique points about what makes their companies stand out amongst others. Thus, they can provide convincing information to the candidates why they should work with the company.
8. Track the performance of job posting
One question that all recruiters must have on their questionnaire, either on the application form or during the interview, is: how did interviewees hear about the job posting? There are multiple job websites on the internet: GigMinds, Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn, among others.
Knowing which job portal is bringing in the greatest number of candidates will help recruiters optimize their time and efforts. Recruiters can then publish job postings, polish the job description, and search for potential hires on that platform.
Also Read: How to engage remote workforce?
9. Utilize your network
Networking is vital not just for candidates but for recruiters too. Whether or not the company is applying, always be on the lookout for potential candidates. The most common sources for this information are graduating students from universities and competing companies.
10. Be prepared to negotiate
When making an offer, a little bit of back and forth discussion is expected as both the company and the new hire navigate the unfamiliar environment. Make it a point to stay in touch with the company’s financial representatives. They will know what the budget limits are, which will help to negotiate offers with the candidates.
11. Work on how to provide interview feedback
Candidates are often both nervous and eager to learn how their interview fared. It is the recruiter’s job to let them know how they did, and it is important to give constructive feedback. Since recruiters take notes during the interview, they can draft personalized messages to candidates after the interviews.
Carole Arndt, a renowned HR professional, outlines the importance of keeping the potential candidates whom the company is interested in engaged throughout the process. Emailing them and keeping in touch is essential to establish trust and a connection. Recruiters often encourage candidates to call them if they have any questions.
Just like recruiters consider multiple candidates before choosing the best of the lot. Likewise, candidates often look at a handful of companies while deciding their new job. It is why it’s crucial to stay in touch with them and let them know that they are valued.
12. Stay transparent
Not all jobs are created equal. Hence, recruiters must take the time to learn the nitty-gritty of the job roles they are hiring for. They should also be honest with interviewees about the downsides of the job. If certain bonuses, insurances, and other benefits are not a part of the specific job, then informing the interviewee during the interview or before will help them make an informed decision. It will also avoid potential future problems for all parties involved.
After an interview, if a candidate ends up not getting a job, make every effort to reach out to them with empathy. If you can tell from interview notes what the candidate lacks, it will help outline what skills they can add. In the rejection email, always apologize for not hiring them.
Emphasize the positive points about their profile, and encourage candidates to apply again in the future. It creates trust and help to build a reliable relationship with the candidates. Few recruiters also encourage potential candidates to keep in touch with them. If a job opens up at a point in the future, these candidates will be top on the recruiter’s list.
Also Read: Hiring secrets for recruiters from Santa
13. Focus on onboarding
New hires will be new to the company, and the workplace. In general, they will be on a steep learning curve already. Recruiters could stay in touch with candidates after their interview process and throughout the onboarding process to make them feel comfortable in their new environment.
14. Be dependable
To be a successful recruiter, be prompt with your emails and other work-related communications so both the company and the candidates can know and trust a recruiter’s reliability. The application process is confusing and a little scary to many candidates. Be prepared to receive many questions about the jobs, and make every effort to find the answers and revert to the candidate.
15. Be judicious about employee referrals
Candidates often get in touch with recruiters with a request to refer them to the company for a specific job posting. It would mean that the recruiters are the middle people who need to assess the candidate’s reliability and find out who is willing to provide a referral.
Another kind of referral happens when an existing employee of the company refers to an external candidate for a job posting. If you hire the candidate, the employee will most likely get a referral bonus. To be a successful recruiter, you must be thoroughly aware of this process and see who is being referred by an existing employee.
Also Read: Essentials of Remote Hiring
Final Thoughts
In addition to these tips, recruiters must always value the quality of a candidate over the quantity. Because, in the end, only a few candidates will end up getting the job. It is up to the recruiter to make it a good experience for the candidates throughout the process. Good luck with hiring!
Need a helping hand in recruiting the best talent? We at Cloudely Inc. have immense experience in providing staffing solutions to organizations based in India and the USA. Reach us at hello@cloudely.com to know more about our team. Follow us on Social Media. We are here: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
