The Golden Rule(s) of Recruiting

By Hemanth Badda

Networking Essentials for Recruiters

Recruitment process

Strong Sales/Marketing skills:If you haven’t figured it out by now, recruiting is sales. If you disagree, you are in the wrong business. Not only do recruiters need to sell their clients (internal or external), but they need to sell candidates on opportunities and be able to articulate why company X is an employer of choice and why a particular opportunity is not just a great opportunity, but how it is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Knowing how to market and promote your services, expertise and knowledge effectively to clients and candidates is of utmost importance. If you have lots of candidates on your database but are not able to convince a company to hire any of them you will not close any deals. Your convincing, negotiation and selling skills are therefore crucial. No clients, no business - as simple as that.

Hunter’s Mentality:There are so many ways to source for talent these days. There is an abundance of sites, networks, tools, and platforms all built in some fashion to make a recruiter’s life easier. But it is how each recruiter uses these tools that will make the difference. It all starts with the mentality of the individual. Recruiters are big-game hunters, and having the mindset to hunt and be relentless until the hunt is done is a priceless skill set. If a recruiter is going to sit at a desk, log in to Monster and keyword search all day — that is not the hunter mentality you want. You want someone who will use cold calling, social media, Boolean searches, networks, etc. in order to find the strongest and most-qualified individuals.

Ability to cultivate and build relationships:Anyone can pull a name out of a database and place a call. It’s another thing to actually cultivate and build relationships with the candidates we recruit. Perhaps knowing a little about what makes them tick, what their hobbies are, engaging in a conversation rather than just following a script, etc. Social media, smart phones, and other communication platforms have built bridges straight into our personal lives. By creating a more open, friendly, and communicative relationship with candidates, the candidate experience will increase, making the recruiter and company stand out professionally and as an employer of choice.

Listening:Anyone else ever had the recruiter-talk-your-ear-off presentation about how great they are, the database they have access to, successful placements, etc.? Recruiters need to listen first and talk second. Recruiters must possess the uncanny ability to listen and take a proper job order. Too many recruiters run their traps to no end. It’s annoying.

I'd add for recruiters is to remove the blinders. During the initial screening process, too many recruiters focus solely on one position, and don’t recognize candidates that might be beneficial for future orders...you can't be blinded by the urgency of an open position that a great candidate slips through the cracks. This is such a crucial mistake for recruiters.

Strong follow-up skills:Most people suck at follow up. Some are too pushy, some are too passive, some are too wordy, and some are too shy. Entry-levels and experienced professionals alike often blunder during this phase of the job application process and lose out to other applicants as a result.

Why do so many people suck at follow up? For one, it’s an often overlooked step when applying for jobs. People focus on the big moments – Apply, Land Interview, Interview, Get Offer, Accept Job – and forget that Follow Up is the glue that holds it all together. In fact, it’s the only step that’s repeated throughout the entire process:

IT and Social Media Skills:Nowadays also being familiar with various social media recruitment strategies and IT technologies will give any recruiter an edge and proves that you are a professional who keeps up with current trends and technologies.

Team working Skills:Sometimes you need to lead a team of other recruitment consultants or you need to work in a team in order to find the best candidate for a high calibre company. Knowing how to manage people in order to achieve a set goal is important; good communication between all team members will guarantee that misunderstandings and inefficiencies will be avoided.

Reliability:If you want to be perceived as a trustworthy professional you need to be reliable when it comes to punctuality, offering the services you promised within a certain timeframe etc. If you can’t keep up with small things nobody will trust you and offer you bigger challenges in the future.

Confidence: You need to be confident not just about yourself but also about the services you offer to your clients, companies as well as jobseekers.

Speed & Time Management Skills:Companies and jobseekers don’t just rely on one source for filling their positions or finding a job but multiple sources. Who acts quickly will therefore win in the end. The worst that can happen is that in the last minute a company might tell you that they already found a candidate or the candidate already found a job in another organisation. Thus, it’s not size that nowadays matters but speed.

Having great time management skills is essential because certain positions need to be filled urgently and getting your priorities right is paramount.

Multitasking:Since you deal with companies and candidates on a daily basis you will need to juggle multiple projects and tasks simultaneously. Keeping in mind the details of various jobs, companies and candidates is important in order to work efficiently as well as effectively.

Patience:Sometimes you will need to be very flexible and patient because candidates or clients might want to reschedule their interview dates in the last minute.

Problem solving skills: You need to be a good problem solver because you might face situations which you never thought would come along the way. For example, people not turning up to their interviews, companies telling you that they already found another candidate, not finding any candidates for a certain position for a long time, etc.

You want the best.  I want the best.  The firm you represent, are employed by, network with – doesn’t matter the relationship, but they want the very best possible candidate in each role you recruit for.

The candidate also wants the best.  Best job fit. Best culture fit.  Best comp package.  Best quality of life.  Best career growth potential, best location…etc.

“You can have everything that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want”

Jesus gave us the Golden Rule:

“...do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

Be honest – with yourself first, and then with others:Let’s face it, if you’re not being honest with yourself, you don’t have a hope of being honest with others. Honesty builds trust with candidates and credibility with hiring managers. You need trust with candidates if they’re leaving a secure position and you are recruiting for an opportunity that does carry more risk, BUT which also carries more growth potential. Or perhaps your opportunity pays less than they want, but offers a better quality of life. Doesn’t matter what the role really offers – if the candidate doesn’t believe what you’re telling them, then they’re likely not going to take the job.

Also, after a “no” decision, be honest with the feedback – it doesn’t mean you’re going to give all of the gory detail if the person did poorly, but do your best to give them something to work on going forward. At the very least, let them know you’re not moving forward and don’t leave them hanging!

With hiring managers, they need to know if they’re asking for too much for what they can pay or being unrealistic in the combination of skills they want in a candidate(and you better have hard data to back that up). If the hiring team is passing on what you perceive as good candidates for ancillary reasons that you feel won’t affect job performance, you need to ask honest questions and encourage honest and straightforward feedback.

Facilitate clarity of communication whenever possibleHow many times have you worked for a month on a job description, identified candidates and presented them to the hiring manager only to find out the manager had a MAJOR requirement they failed to give you in the original uptake call?(they assumed you knew) Have you ever gotten a candidate to the final stage only for them to take another offer with a firm you didn’t even know they were interviewing with?

Allowing either scenario to occur means you’ve not asked enough questions, not done enough digging and probably were a bit too preoccupied with other things to notice until things blew up. In either case, you could blame the other party for withholding critical information(and that does happen from time to time), but more often than not, we just didn’t ask the question.

Ask, “is there anything else critical to this role?" or "has anything changed since we last spoke?” when speaking to your hiring managers. Do it on a regular basis.Ask, “who else are you speaking with right now and where are you in the process?” when speaking with candidates…also on a regular basis.

Document this and keep it in front of the decision makers – fewer surprises generally means a more effective hiring process. It also means you have more of a “Win-Win” scenario for all involved.

Reducing and eliminating problems in communication between hiring teams and candidates allows you to think with a clear mind and remove distractions with the end goal of having a better focus on making the right hiring decision. Instead of worrying if they've "missed something", hiring teams can focus on the candidates and what they bring to the table.

Focus on Strengths:What differentiates a successful organization from most others is the way they place their people. It is not only that they keep on developing their people, but they first place them where the strengths of the people can produce results and where their weaknesses are irrelevant.”

I reminded that if we focused predominantly on the weaknesses of everyone we interviewed(i.e., what did they do wrong in the interview?), we probably wouldn’t hire anyone. Heck, I wouldn’t hire ME if I focused just on my weaknesses.

If you fall into a pattern of saying, “well, what happens if______ happens?”, then you are not focusing on their strengths.

Passion:A strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something… Unless until you don’t have a passion we can not be a successful Recruiter.

Passion is the key for Success

Passion Drives Perfection

Any Suggestions???

Any Inputs???

Thank you