School Day – The fundamentals of #Recruiting

One of the things I love about my career has been teaching others our profession.  My first boss looked at me and said “You know  Chernee, this is not rocket science.  Don’t over think it.”  While I agree with that statement wholeheartedly, there are certain skills and attributes that can help you go a long way in recruiting.

It has been over a year since I have trained someone on how to recruit. So as I prepare to train my new recruiter for our company, I took a step back and reflected on what are the KEY skills required to be a great recruiter.

Listening: the most important tool in our job is the ability to listen. We need to listen to our clients to understand their business objectives. We need to be able to effectively listen to the candidate to see what they are looking to do next and make the best match.

Building Trust/Rapport: many times, we only have a couple of minutes, even seconds to build rapport with our clients and candidates. We need to make them comfortable and show them we really do know what we are talking about and can add value to their organization or career decision making process.

Building Community:  as I have mentioned in other posts, it is very important as a recruiter that you are able to build a network.  This community can go a long way when trying to locate the talent you need.

Coaching:  part of the job is educating our clients and candidates on what we are seeing in the marketplace.  We need to become proficient at coaching clients on the correct way to pitch an opportunity or coaching candidates to put their best foot forward.

Honesty and Integrity: let’s face it, sometimes recruiters do not have the best reputation and that can be in the back of the candidate’s or client’s mind. We need to show them why we are different and that we care and are going to add value to their search.  Think of the Golden Rule.

Sense of Urgency: my former manager’s favorite saying is “Time kills all deals.”  Especially true in recruiting.  You need to be proactive – show your client that you have the candidates that they need in a timely fashion (less than 48 hours) or they will start thinking that you do not know what you are doing or have the network that you say you have. Check in with your candidates even if you do not have an update to keep them in the loop.  Communication, Communication, Communication.  Which leads me to my next skill:

Communication: effective communication is one of the keys to any search. If you are not communicating with the players involved you are not going to have an effective process. Requirments change as the process elves, feedback on the interviews feed into your search and all this information is important to make the search successful.

Knowledge Development:  technology changes so fast that the things we use every day to help in our jobs will be obsolete five years from now.  Though the fundamentals of our profession are still the same – the ability to connect with people for a common goal, the way we communicate or find the candidates are not. More and more folks are relying on social media or the internet to be found verses the standard job boards. So you need to stay on top of trends – engage your community and build your brand.

These skills are the ones I use every day, and consistently try to improve within myself.  They are the skills that have made me a success as a recruiter.  It will be my job to make sure my new employee can develop these skills and enjoy the same kind of success.

About the author:

Chernee Vitello, president and founder of Whiting Consulting, has more than 14 years of experience in sales and recruiting for high-tech companies. She has managed in-house recruiting teams for high-tech organizations including enterprise software companies and IT professional services organizations. As both a staff recruiter and an outsourced consultant, she helped numerous technology companies meet their aggressive hiring goals in periods of rapid growth and high competition for top candidates. She has consistently won awards for exceeding recruiting goals.

By Noel Cocca

CEO/Founder RecruitingDaily and avid skier, coach and avid father of two trying to keep up with my altruistic wife. Producing at the sweet spot talent acquisition to create great content for the living breathing human beings in recruiting and hiring. I try to ease the biggest to smallest problems from start-ups to enterprise. Founder of RecruitingDaily and our merry band of rabble-rousers.