7 Strategies to Be a Successful Recruiter

According to some research , there is a 90% recruiter turnover rate within the first year.

If you’re a recruiter who wants to do the best in their position, there are some strategies you’ll need to use to do a great job.

Keep reading to discover seven strategies that you can implement into your process to recruit the most experienced candidates.

Be Personal

Whether you’re trying to attract active candidates or engage passive candidates, you’ll need to connect with everyone to get them to do an interview with you or accept a job position. 

While you can have all the skills of writing great job postings, knowing how to advertise openings, you won’t get far if candidates don’t feel like you care about them. Every recruiter’s process and style is different, so you’ll need to find what works for you.

Regardless of what stage of the interview you’re in, you should make sure that you’re adding a personal touch for each candidate. If you’re emailing them, include their name. If you’re in a second interview, call back to something they said in the other interview. 

While using automated sales emails can help the most successful recruiters speed up the recruitment process, make sure they’re personalized to each candidate. 

Reach Out to Rejected Candidates

Not every candidate will make it to the final round, and some recruiters might be tempted to ignore rejected candidates due to lack of time or not wanting to deliver bad news.

While sending a rejection email or calling a candidate with bad news might not sound like a fun task, it can help leave a good impression on your candidate. They may come to you when they’re looking for other roles, and they could be a great addition to your talent pipeline. 

When rejecting candidates, make sure that you customize each email. The way you tell them will depend on what stage of the hiring process you’re in. 

For example, if you’re in the screening process, you can send a brief but polite message. A candidate will likely appreciate this more than not hearing anything at all. 

If you have a candidate who’s reached the final stage of the process and interviews with hiring managers, you should send a longer, more personalized email. Explain why you didn’t choose them, and, if you have time, offer feedback on how they can improve. 

For legal reasons, you should only stick to areas related to the job or the interview. If applicable, suggest that they stay in touch or connect with you to help them find suitable jobs in the future. 

When sending these emails, it can be helpful to look over any notes you took during the interview process. This way, you can remember exactly how well they performed and the answers to some of their questions. When you’re talking with many different candidates each day, this can help keep them all straight.

Think Outside of the Norm

To attract top talent, you’ll need to get a little bit creative in the process. For example, instead of just ensuring that the candidate has all of the necessary skills on their resume, take a closer look at the bullet points under each job.

Did they meet or exceed previous job expectations? Does it seem like they show promise? Do they have the soft skills necessary to do the job? If they have the soft skills, they may likely be a qualified candidate.

When writing your job descriptions, try listing out what the job expectations will be. How will a hiring manager measure job performance? This could help a candidate decide if they were a good fit rather than meeting a laundry list of skills. 

When you’re trying to attract passive talent, you’ll need to be creative in looking for them and how you engage them. When you’re thinking about a job opening, what other jobs would be similar to that? Then try and find the best candidates who already hold that role.

You can also tailor the job ads to make them even more appealing to passive candidates.

Work On Your Branding

While employer branding is essential, your personal branding as a great recruiter is just as crucial. 

To start, stay up to date with the online review boards, like Glassdoor, to see what other people have said about the hiring process. If there are any compliments, you can have confidence knowing that you’re doing something right. But if there is a lot of negative feedback, you should go back to the drawing board and think about how you can fix the process. 

If there are no reviews on an online board, you can try asking past applicants for feedback. This feedback will help the candidate experience by showing them that you care and try. The candidates can give you feedback to know how to tailor your process in the future.

To take it a step further, you can even have prospective candidates leave a review on your LinkedIn page or write you an email where they can provide honest feedback. 

Be Empathetic

As a good recruiter, your focus should always be on professional relationships. But you might be able to build those professional relationships if you’re empathetic.

If you have too big of a network, you might not spend quality time with each person. When you’re empathetic, you can connect with people better, and it can even make you more in tune with whether or not a candidate might be qualified for a position.

Build Your Talent Pipelines

To be a successful recruiter and fill open roles quickly, you’ll need to have a strong talent pipeline that you can draw from. 

To build a talent pipeline with candidates, you’ll need to ensure that you’re always networking. Respond to as many people that reach out to you as possible. Connect with people you can foresee being a good fit for a future open role. You always need to be thinking one step ahead. 

Meet up with people in person. Network at job fairs or conventions. This will let you promote your company and meet up with candidates who might want a job later when they start looking. 

While you’re there, make sure that you network with other recruiters as well. When you have relationships with good recruiters, you’ll find out when other job opportunities for you are available. 

They may even be able to help you reach different candidates and expand your pipeline even more. 

You can also invest in software tools that use advanced technology to find qualified candidates for you. These tools can be a great way to have a predictable source of candidates to fill even the most specialized roles.

Think Ahead

When the Great Resignation is over, you’ll need to start thinking ahead and preparing for the future. When things are busy, you might focus on just the open roles, but you’ll need to consider future hiring needs. This will help you, especially when you’re building your talent pipeline.

Is your company creating new departments? Are other ones growing? Is anyone planning on retiring anytime soon? 

That’s why you should be building a talent pipeline so that you have the right candidates to draw from when those anticipated positions eventually open up. Then, you’ll be able to fill positions quickly.

Discover More Ways to Be a Successful Recruiter

Becoming one of the successful recruiters takes a lot of strategy, persistence, and passion for the job. You’ll need to connect with all kinds of people, and it can be challenging and exhausting.

However, if you have the right tools, you can set yourself on the path for success. Recruiter.com is here to help provide you with the right tools and resources you need to succeed.

We have recruiters that you can hire as needed if you find that you’re too busy. We have advanced software that can help you build your talent pipeline.

Contact us today to find a solution that will work for you. 

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