Recruitment has taken on a new face today compared to what it was in the past. It has now incorporated technological innovations into its recruitment processes. So, as a recruiter, you need to be at the top of your game to identify and snap up top talents in the labor market.
The role of a recruiter now entails more than just screening and interviewing potential employees… It includes handling salary negotiations and advising clients on employment issues!
Recruiters are also expected to have a grasp of labor regulations and to share market and business information. All of these duties require specific skill sets.
Just as you need to be able to communicate clearly and pay attention to detail, you also need to be tech-savvy. You need a blend of hard skills and soft skills at once!
In this article, we’ll discuss more what recruiters do and highlight skills essential to your journey as a recruiter.
Let’s dig in!
What do recruiters do?
The primary role of recruiters is to identify, screen, and interview potential employees. But just as the recruitment industry has evolved over the years, so have recruiters’ functions and roles! For instance, recruiters now have to search for top talents and attract them actively; they ought to spot those gifted individuals before other competing recruiters!
Some of the other main tasks carried by recruiters include:
- Creating and implementing a broad recruitment plan
- Assisting candidates in their preparation for interviews
- Performing technical phone screening
- Using many platforms to find fresh applicants
- Examining incoming applications from job listings
- Working with recruiting managers to identify existing and future hiring requirements
- Staying abreast of employment legislation and regulations
- Using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and recruitment data to track and assess potential employees.
Top 5 skills you need as a recruiter
Aside from having good interpersonal skills, there are other skills you need to add to your arsenal to excel in your role as a recruiter.
Here is a list of some soft skills and hard skills that will make you stand out as a recruiter.
1. Confidence and adaptability
Recruitment necessarily requires interaction with a wide range of people. As a result, you must exude confidence when dealing with applicants, hiring managers, and just interacting with coworkers.
You must be confident in your abilities to make the best selection for a position. It is especially useful when hiring for roles that you are unfamiliar with.
Adapting to unforeseen situations is yet another essential skill to possess as a recruiter. This, coupled with confidence, shows your resourcefulness and how you can adjust to different situations that may pop up .
The recruitment industry is ever-evolving, and you must grow with it as it evolves!
2. Relationship building and teamwork
Being a recruiter mandates interacting with people. It's all about meeting and networking with different people.
And needless to say, your ability to build relationships will help you understand candidates and clients better. It will also help you create and cultivate a relationship between a candidate and a company, benefiting both parties!
This skill also implies that you will work in teams effectively; teamwork is essential to recruitment!
Teamwork allows you to share workloads and collaborate on projects with colleagues. This will speed up the recruitment process and allow you to glide through some tasks.
3. Communication and listening skills
You get to interact with candidates and clients in your role as a recruiter. So you must communicate as clearly as possible.
You'll have to present candidates and hiring managers with accurate information. You may also be required to contact clients via email or promote their services on different social networks.
Ambiguous and unclear messages can prolong recruitment processes or even cause you to miss out on certain opportunities.
You are not only required to be able to communicate clearly but also to have an attending ear. That’s because it’s easy to get carried away when interviewing candidates; thus, you may miss out on essential details.
During screening or interviews, you must ask good questions and actively listen to the responses to find out what clients and candidates are looking for. This improves your efficiency and shows your interest in what clients and candidates have to say.
4. Time management and organization
Recruitment can be a lengthy and time-consuming activity. A typical recruiter could write job ads, screen applicants, run background checks, schedule interviews, and onboard new hires. It can even go on to several stages if the competition is intense!
These tasks can quickly become overwhelming without proper planning. This is why time management and organization are essential skills every recruiter should possess. You must be able to manage multiple tasks at the same time while retaining a sense of urgency.
Recruiters with proper organization and time management skills will be able to prioritize tasks, know when to delegate tasks, and speed up recruitment processes.
5. Technological Know-how
The recruitment industry has had various technological innovations and improvements made to it. One such innovation includes the introduction of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This system is used to keep track of applicants and job postings.
So, as a recruiter, you need to have a basic knowledge of recruitment technology systems and how to use different platforms to source candidates.
Recruitment analytics is another aspect of recruitment technology that you should be familiar with. Companies are increasingly motivated to use recruiting data to make better hiring decisions. As a result, having this skill can set you apart from other recruiters.
Wrapping up
Due to the fast-paced nature of the recruitment industry, you will always need to develop new skills. But the highlighted skills are the core skills you need in your journey as a recruiter.
These skills will substantially benefit you as a recruiter, helping you to make more informed decisions and recruit top talents.