Seven Recruitment Skills That You Need To Become A Master Recruiter

Recruiting is a competitive business, and you’ll fall behind if you’re not constantly honing your skill and staying ahead of the competition. While it goes without saying that you need to be a motivated salesperson with great communication and relationship-building skills, there are a few other skills the best recruiters have.

Excellent Communication

Being a good communicator means being able to deliver blunt, straightforward messages as well as softer, more tactful message, and understanding when each is more appropriate. And beyond that, you need to be able to effectively deliver each in person, over the phone, in an email, etc.

On the other hand, the best recruiters are also great listeners, able to read between the lines when a client tells them what they need and allowing them to truly deliver the best results.

And perhaps most importantly, great recruiters are capable of accurate and insightful interviewing. This goes beyond asking good questions and listening carefully to the answers; it means being able to recognize body language, read between the lines, and recognize what a potential candidate feels without being explicitly told.

Sales And Marketing

At the end of the day, recruiting is all about selling.

First, you have to sell yourself as a recruiter to a potential client. Why should they trust you to fill their vacancies and help grow their team?

Then you need to sell a candidate on a specific position. It’s not as simple as saying “Hey, here’s a job. You want it?” You have to help them understand why this job is the right fit for them (and recognize when it isn’t)

And finally, you need to convince the hiring manager that the candidate you’ve found is the right one for the job. This involves being thorough and confident in your vetting process, as well as being able to effectively communicate your reasoning.

Persistence And Motivation

As was previously mentioned, the recruiting agency is highly competitive. If you can’t fill a position or find a job for a candidate, someone else will.

That sometimes means refusing to take no for an answer, or at the very least refusing to take “no answer” as an answer. Didn’t hear back for a candidate? Send a follow-up. A hiring manager didn’t like the candidate you recommended? Bring them another one.

Giving up easily does not go well for recruiters.

Relationship-Building

A great recruiter loves to meet a variety of people and then connect those people to a variety of opportunities.

Cultivating relationships is all about establishing trust—you must be professional, reliable, knowledgeable, personable and approachable, and it certainly helps if you’re an industry expert and can understand the real-life aspects of the positions you’re recruiting for.

Sometimes you’ll have to identify and recruit passive candidates, so it’s important to nurture relationships with those individuals as well.

Multitasking

A good recruiter has to be able to handle multiple responsibilities at the same time, which is far easier said than done.

Handling recruiting for multiple companies simultaneously is no easy task. While a typical hiring manager only has to focus on one company (or even department) at a time, a recruiter needs to be able to handle multiple companies across a variety of industries, keeping job requirements, candidates, deadlines, etc. up to date.

Time-management

Being able to manage your time makes you more productive and more reliable, and that makes you more trustworthy for your clients. Maintaining focus and effectively prioritizing tasks are absolutely critical for a recruiter.

So much of time-management ultimately comes down to the little things: be on time for meetings, make your deadlines, and deliver candidates quickly and efficiently before someone else does.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to find the best active candidates, so make it part of your search strategy. And effectively managing social media means staying up to date on the latest features, algorithm updates, etc. on whatever social networks you work on.

Our professional recruiters possess all these skills and more. Find out what makes our team, especially our sales recruiters, so exceptional today.