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Welcome to issue 411 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Don't forget UK Recruiter is offering a free trial on its re-launched job board. For more information visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/jobs/. |
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CONTENTS
Visit http://www.ukrecruiterjobs.co.uk for the latest recruitment industry jobs. |
Weekly Tips - If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment... 1) Be completely flexible to your clients' needs 2) Don't promise something you can't deliver 3) It's not rocket science! The basics of hard-work, integrity & good client/candidate relationships will pay off Michelle Jones of e-recruitment buddy (www.e-recruitmentbuddy.com)
Why not submit your 3 favourite web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm |
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Article One: What Makes a Great Corporate Recruiter? by Simon Meth Exactly what personality, competencies, and experiences make a great recruiter? Here I list my top 38 capabilities. Although aimed at the corporate recruiter they are also directly or indirectly applicable to all other recruiters. No one person could possibly exhibit all of the qualities on this list. Each of us will exhibit some of the qualities but not all of them. The opportunity is to notice the areas where you excel and those areas where you could develop yourself. Before we dive into the list, a quick word on the major sources of this information: I posted questions on LinkedIn, RecruitingBlogs.com, and ere.net. And now, the list: 1. Customer service mentality - however you care to look at it, it's undeniable that we're in the customer service business. We have two groups of customers: our hiring managers and our candidates. Ideally we'd all keep everyone happy all of the time. That may not be possible but having a strong customer service mentality will go a long way to achieving that. 2. Compelled to provide an outstanding candidate and hiring manager experience - this is really more about customer service mentality but it's good to look at it from the perspective of the experience that others have. 3. Excellent organizational skills - corporate recruiters are responsible for a lot. When you consider the hundreds of resumes we review each week, the countless emails we read, the interviews, the meetings, and inevitable interruptions, it's a wonder we're as productive as we are. The only way we can be this productive is to have excellent organizational skills. Otherwise things will continually drop through the cracks, will take too long, and our customers won't be happy. 4. Strong administrative skills - our work must be accurate, complete, detailed, and prompt. We must understand that everything flows from the paperwork we generate while we're hiring a candidate. Are you creating messes for others to clean up? 5. Great at working with people - we're in the people business. We must love working with people and look forward to each and every interaction. 6. Exceptional at assessing people - we're not just processing stuff here. One of the things that exceptional recruiters have is the ability to truly assess a candidate's abilities and to know what a candidate will do when we extend an offer. 7. Good listening and interviewing skills - are we talking most of the time or listening? Truly great recruiters listen far more than they talk but when they talk they have something truly valuable to say because it's based on what they hear. This is equally important when working with candidates, hiring managers, and team mates. 8. Perceptive - being perceptive is a key part of assessing people. Have you ever had a candidate tell you one thing and do the complete opposite? The more perceptive you are the better you'll be at telling when someone is just blowing smoke. 9. Inquisitive - it's difficult to be a great sourcer if you aren't inquisitive. Digging through databases, running different searches, puzzling over possible places the ideal candidates may be hanging out are all things that light up an inquisitive person. 10. Works smart - there's a lot to do. Are you doing the most important work first or are you doing busy work and pretending that you're working hard? 11. Time management skills - do you have a plan to get done what needs to get done by when it needs to be done? If not you're just flapping in the wind. 12. Business oriented - we must satisfy the needs of the business. We're not a charity here and we exist, in part, to make a profit. Understand that unfilled, key positions are costing the company money. 13. More extraverted than introverted - we recruiters tend to be outgoing people. We have a thirst for human contact and we're natural networkers. It's difficult for us to stay holed up in our offices for days at a time. 14. Technically savvy - to be truly efficient we need to be expert users of all the available recruitment tools. Are your Boolean searches really searching for what you think they are searching for? How fast do you type? Clearly the faster you type the faster you can update your applicant tracking system and send emails and the more work you'll get done. 15. Ability to understand the requisition - Clearly we can't possibly be expert in everything we recruit for but we should be quickly able to grasp the essential parts of the requisition. 16. Ability to understand the skills and competencies required to do the job - skills and competencies are more than just words on a page. 17. Sourcing skills - as corporate recruiters we often have no bandwidth for sourcing as opposed to screening. When we have a critical, hard-to-fill requisition we need to find candidates. There's a lot more to this than running a few searches on your applicant tracking system To be continued in a future issue. Simon Meth is a Corporate Recruiter & Career Counselor at San Diego Corporate Recruiter. He can be contacted via simon.meth@sdcorprecruiter.com, www.sdcorprecruiter.com or www.linkedin.com/in/simonmeth and twitter.com/SDCorpRecruiter |
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Article Two: Differentiating Yourself From The Competition by Andy Preston Whenever I’m training recruiters, one of the main things they say to me is “Andy, I’m fed up with being seen the same as every other recruiter. I know that we’re different, but the prospects just don’t seem to appreciate it! What can I do about it?”..... If you’re sick of hearing things like “We’re happy with our current agency”, “we get dozens of these calls every day” and “we don’t use agencies” and would prefer to be perceived as different, actually listened to by prospects and given some “airtime” by decision makers, this article is for you. Here are some things you can do right now to be seen as different to your competition…… Andy’s Tip No 1 – If you want to be seen as different, you need to sound different! How on earth do you expect to be seen as different, when you sound like every other recruitment call that person receives? You approach the call the same way (because you probably undertook similar training), you sound the same, and you even ask the same questions. In fact on that note, if any of you are still asking “are you recruiting at the moment?” you deserve everything you get! Think about the opening lines from your calls and ask yourself “is that really the best thing to say to get the decision maker interested and involved in my call?” Or could there be something else I could use instead to get better results? Andy’s Tip No 2 – Actually be interested in the potential clients that you’re calling How much value do you think there is for the decision maker (you are speaking to the person who makes the decision, aren’t you?) in the average recruitment call? That’s right, not much! Is it any wonder that they consider your call an interruption, an irritation and something they want to get rid of as soon as possible? If you show an interest in the person you’re calling (and it needs to be a genuine interest), in how their business strategy can move forwards and how you may be able to add value to that, would that get you considered as different to most other recruiters, do you think? Andy’s Tip No 3 – Stop lying! Now I know we’re recruiters and we’re in sales, so sometimes we might have to “bend the truth” a little. But does outright lying build any credibility with potential clients whatsoever? In fact, one of the most stupid examples I’ve encountered so far, has to be “we spoke 3 months ago” when you blatantly didn’t! At best, they’re thinking “Did we speak then? I’m not sure. I don’t really remember that”. So now they’re confused, not really listening and distant from your conversation. Not really the effect you were looking for, was it? At worst, they’re thinking “No we didn’t. You’re just using that as a pathetic, weasely attempt of trying to gain some rapport, aren’t you?” It’s not big. It’s not clever. Stop doing it. Now I know I’ll get some recruiters saying “Now Andy, I’ve been using that for years and it’s got me some results”. And it probably has. However, just think how much better your results could have been if you’d been more professional and credible…. Andy’s Tip No 4 – Be reliable You know what? Just actually doing what you said you were going to do would differentiate you from most of your competition for a start! I’ve lost count of the calls I’ve listened to where the consultant has agreed to do something, but then never actually does anything about it! If you don’t like the “next action” that results from your call, that’s probably because the prospect defined it, not you (there’s a lesson there as well). The thing is, by not doing it you look even worse than you did before. So do it (because you agreed to it) and learn the lesson for next time. Andy’s Tip No 5 – Progress your calls I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard consultants make exactly the same call to the same prospect, over and over again. What kind of impact do you think that has on the decision maker? Imagine them sitting there, right now, listening to the start of your call, that may go something like “Hi Mike, it’s Andy calling from xyz recruitment. We’re the leading provider of …..” Can you imagine the impact that has? Half way through your pitch might they be thinking “Yes, yes, yes I know that already. You called me with that pitch last week, and the week before, and the week before that….” You should be looking at getting towards an outcome from each call, and with each call be moving the prospect closer to becoming a client. If 12 months or 24 months later they’re no closer to being that, what have you actually achieved? Andy’s Tip No 6 – Look after your clients (and your candidates) Whenever I’m talking to successful recruiters and top billers they all seem to agree that good consultants become more successful by looking after their existing clients and their candidates. One of the biggest mistakes we can make is to think “oh I’ve got that client on-board now, I’ll hand over the resourcing of it and most of the client contact and I’ll focus on getting more business in”. No, No No! What kind of impact might that be having on your existing clients? And how might that be affecting their attitude when another recruiter calls them? Another worrying trend over the last year or so is where the consultants treat their candidates like they’re dirt and their only concern is filling their client’s vacancy and earning their fee. Now while these are important, think about the impression the “don’t care” attitude has on the candidate? As the market gets tougher and becomes more “candidate short” over the next year or so, existing candidates should be a great source of repeat or referral business. How many of you have even spoken to your old candidates since you last placed them? My experience would say “not many!” Remember, looking after your existing clients and candidates should be the easy part of your role, leading to enough repeat and referral business to hit your targets. Add to that an element of new business and you’re laughing! Follow the tips above and watch your sales figures and billings soar! I look forward to hearing about how you’ve implemented them and made them work for you!
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Online Recruitment Update Hitwise top 10 Recruitment
Sites, week ending 4th July 2009 Louise's UK Recruiter blog Discussion Board Summary |
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Advertisement Twitter and LinkedIn Guides for Recruiters Twitter is fast becoming one of the most talked about social networks available on the net. It has huge potential for recruiters; however only a few are using it properly and utilising its full potential – are you? UK Recruiter has produced a guide to help you unlock this potential, find new candidates and increase your presence. LinkedIn is a vital and free resource for recruiters. Because of the recent massive influx of users it provides a potentially extensive network for recruitment purposes. It has an estimated 35 million registered users worldwide of which more than 2 million are based in the UK. This figure is growing at around 5% per month as more candidates find themselves on the market. If used correctly this offers the recruiter a vast number of free contacts with a huge amount of associated information. To purchase the Twitter or LinkedIn guide for only £4.99 each please visit the UK Recruiter Site. |
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Regards
Louise Triance
UK Recruiter http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
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