What are the essential skills for an effective recruiter ? What makes a great recruiter ?
If you are a recruiter – be it a search consultant, or an in company recruiter or a hiring manager, these skills are essential to ensure you do a great job, and get great talent for your business or clients.
People skills.
A great recruiter is not just the one with an ability to spot great talent, but the one who is also able to build a strong relationship with these people. You need a strong understanding of peoples need, motivations, and challenges at different stage of their career to be able to pitch them for the right opportunity, and be able to steer them towards suitable career path. As a recruiter one needs to maintain their network, and stay connected. Your network and relationships is what pays in the long run.
Understanding of market and business.
A great recruiter understands the market, the talent flow in the ecosystem, the challenges in getting talent, and the sources of talent. If needed, he should be able to suitably guide the hiring managers on supply of talent, challenges in finding the right talent, and should be able to help them work on their talent strategy. An effective recruiter should be aware of market and competition – layoffs, business shutting down, companies hiring etc.. All this helps them stay prepared to deliver better. An effective recruiter also needs to have a great understanding of the business or organisation for which he is hiring.
Being tech friendly.
Being tech savvy and tech friendly always helps in emerging scenario’s at workplaces. It helps if one has a sound understanding of latest in hiring and related processes – applicant tracking systems, HRIS systems, upcoming job sites, job posting platforms, networking platforms, traditional job portals, social recruitment. It’s always a great idea to check on keep updated on new technologies -products and services that are emerging to make recruitment easier and more effective.
Analytical ability. Understanding metrics.
An effective recruiter needs to be good with numbers and metrics. One needs to be hands on with process related metrics, business metrics, and financial metrics related to hiring. One needs to know his data, and should be able to interpret data to take or recommend appropriate decisions.
Effective Communication.
Asking, listening, understanding, connecting people, sharing information are some of the integral part of a recruiters job. Communication is key and a very important skill to be an effective recruiter.
Effective Negotiation Skills.
This is quite crucial. One needs to understand the expectations of the candidate – the job seeker, and the organisation ( or the client ) on budget – pay grades etc., and try to strike a balance so as to generate a win-win scenario for both.
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