What makes a good recruiter?

During these tough times when every job advertisement seems to attract hundreds of applicants, you could be forgiven for thinking that a recruiter’s job is nice and easy; that it is just a case of placing an advertisement and waiting for job seekers to break the door down. You could not be more wrong.

True, some recruiters might work that way. But they are not going to be successful in the field. Almost anyone can sit back and wait. The challenge is more than finding the right person for a particular job.  It also includes problems like finding good people for a company that has a bad reputation or filling a job that is located where applicants do not want to go. It is situations like these that make the good recruiter stand out from the rest. Whether you are recruiting for jobs in london or jobs across the water the same principles generally apply.

To be a good recruiter you must have a good understanding of what the hiring manager is looking for. You will be prepared to get out there and look for suitable job candidates rather than just waiting for them to come to you. And when you’ve found the right candidate you will reel him in so that he takes the job.

Effectively you have to be a good salesman. You need to be able to pitch the job and the company in a way that the job seeker can’t resist. This means that you must believe in the company and the position; you must get this across to the candidate and make him believe too. Never begin by discussing pay – you should be able to make the job sufficiently attractive before the question of remuneration is raised.

You will also need to be able to read the candidate. You must anticipate questions and objections and solve the problems as they arise. One major issue that comes up frequently is relocation, as this potentially represents a huge upheaval for the candidate and his or her family. Not only will you have to make the job irresistible but you will also need to present the new location in a good light, too.

The employment environment in recent years has seen few job vacancies and high unemployment. This has meant that new entrants into the recruitment industry have had a fairly easy time as each job attracted a host of often excellent candidates. In effect, recruiters merely had to sift through the candidates to find the one that appeared most suitable.

As the environment has begun to improve, however, so this situation has changed. In some job sectors, there is a demand for candidates. As a recruiter, you cannot afford to sit back and wait. You must be pro-active otherwise you will lose credibility.

If you want to be a good recruiter, it’s not enough just to advertise a post and wait. You need to know your market and your job candidates and, when you have found the right ones, you have to be able to hold on to them in the face of increasing competition.

My name is Richard Deeley and I am a PR consultant for Randstad UK. Recruitment jobs is a particlaur area of focus for the company at present, so delivering the above content to readers is essential.