Recruitment Skills That All Great Recruiters Should Have
A great recruiter is a valuable asset to companies in all industries – there’s no doubt about that. However, to become a recruiter, you need to have a specific set of recruitment skills, besides a strong will to work.
Here are the most common types of recruiters, the most desirable recruitment skills, and how to improve them to increase your value to employers and candidates.
How do you become a recruiter?
In regards to education, most employers ask for a bachelor’s degree, preferably in human resources, although there are recruiters with a BA in anything from marketing, business, psychology, and science. In other words, as long as you have a BA, your background won’t matter too much.
Types of recruiters
Depending on how they work, there are several types of recruiters. The most important distinction is the one between external and internal recruiters.
External recruiters (also known as independent or agency recruiters) don’t work for a specific company. Instead, they work on their own and recruit employees as needed for clients who hire them.
Internal recruiters work for one specific company only and help them source and hire new employees.
So, should you hire an internal or external recruiter? While there is some debate that an internal recruiter will act in the best interest of the employer and the external recruiter will act in the best interest of the candidate, in reality, both will do their best to find a great employee for their organization.
This distinction matters because having an internal recruiter on board means another person on your payroll. If you run a startup or a small company, you probably can’t afford an internal recruiter and you’re better off with an external one.
Additionally, there are niche recruiters and recruitment agencies, specializing in a certain field. As of late, there is a huge demand for IT positions and the number of IT recruiters is on the rise.
Recruitment skills
No matter the type (external or internal) or their niche, there’s a common set of recruitment skills that every good recruiter needs to have to do their job well. Here are some of them and how you can spot them in a recruiter.
1. Attention to detail. As we’ve recently written, attention to detail is not important for every position out there, but it’s vital for recruiters. As they can work with a relatively small talent pool, it’s extremely important to remember every detail. This means who they’ve talked to, their position, their willingness to apply for a new job, etc.
Details like these could ruin a company’s reputation if the recruiter is reckless. There’s a famous case of an external recruiter who tried to recruit the employees of the company that hired him.
2. Marketing skills. Finding top talent in today’s market is extremely hard. The number of open positions is much higher than the number of applicants (for IT and other hot industries) and candidates won’t rush to any company out there.
This is why great recruiters also need to be great marketers and know how to sell the position and the company, using the latest marketing tactics.
3. Communication skills. No matter the position they’re trying to fill, the recruiter is the key link between a company and a candidate. Depending on the impression they make, they can either attract or discourage the candidate for applying.
4. Relationship building skills. Great recruiters think of recruitment as a relationship between a candidate and a company. Similar to a sales process, it takes much more than a single touchpoint to make a sale, or in this case, fill a position. Don’t rely on email automation – write personalized emails from scratch.
5.Listening skills. Besides listening to the companies they’re hiring for, recruiters need to listen to applicants with great attention. Applicants, in particular, are very important because their feedback is crucial to placing them in a position that suits both them and the employer.
