Top tips to succeed as a Recruiter
A career as a Recruitment Consultant is a very tough job with extremely long working hours. Being a Recruiter involves: building lasting relationships with clients, sourcing candidates and getting to know their skills set and how they would fit in at a company, a host of other responsibilities, and of course most importantly – keeping those billings coming in. Recruitment is also a very diverse, interesting, and rewarding job so in this article, we’re going to help you make the most of being a Recruiter and let you know how you can succeed in one of the toughest but most lucrative jobs around. Expect to work harder than ever before, even from the beginning We’ve already mentioned how being a Recruitment Consultant is a highly stressful job with many pressing responsibilities and long working hours. This is true even from the beginning as you really need to make sure you hit the ground running. So, what do we mean by this? Start by engaging with training sessions (i.e. online courses, webinars, etc.) for any systems you are unfamiliar with – this way you can hone your skills on these systems during your initial training phase, so you are ready to get working on deals as soon as possible. Furthermore, liaising with clients from the very beginning is essential. It takes time to build a strong repour with your customer base, so why not get started with this right away? Focus on developing relationships with clients Building positive, long-lasting relationships with clients is paramount to becoming a successful Recruiter. It is incredibly important to fully understand your client’s needs, understand their specific candidate requirements, and align their goals with yours before you begin consulting with prospects. In addition to this, ensure you maintain excellent, open lines of communication with clients. Consistency is key, even if it’s a quick 5-10-minute consultation to keep them posted or just to touch base, as it were. A business relationship requires constant maintenance and care. Familiarise yourself with your recruitment tools There are many tools at a Recruiter’s disposal, but there’s four in particular that exist at almost every recruitment firm that need to be mastered. First, and perhaps most important are job boards. Each job board operates differently to the last and most recruitment firms utilise multiple job boards. Make sure you attend any available training sessions/webinars on these to familiarise yourself with them. Second, liaising with your fellow employees for recommendations on sourcing or interviewing candidates can be of great use. Remember, some of your colleagues have been in recruitment for years, even decades! So, their knowledge and expertise may well be unrivalled and therefore, invaluable. Third, make use of your company website. Hosting jobs on your website exerts a positive image of the brand and prompts prospects to view the rest of your website, meaning that they gain a much better understand of yourself and who you work for before you even pick up the phone. Fourth and finally, begin to familiarise yourself with your firm’s candidate database as soon as possible. Some of these databases can be alien to a new Recruitment Consultant but are of great value, so learning how to utilise it is highly important. One measure you can take is contacting your database Account Manager and building a positive relationship with them and their Tech Support team. Get to know your market Whatever your industry of focus, we can guarantee it will be complex, unique, competitive, and demanding. Gaining an understanding of the industry in which you are hiring in is essential when it comes to sourcing the right type of candidate and better understanding your client’s needs as many of their needs will be reactive to the market. So, how can you get to know your industry? Well, there are a number of avenues to achieving this. These include: networking events, talking to and socialising with colleagues, consultations with both clients and candidates operating within the industry, and by researching the marketplace yourself, whether that be through keeping up-to-date with the latest news stories and trends via respected publications. Learn to allocate your time efficiently As mentioned, there are many different responsibilities involved with being a Recruitment Consultant and learning to manage them efficiently can not only help you stick to deadlines and bill, but also break your day down nicely. A great tip to avoid repetition, manage expectations, and perform consistently is to break up your day into timely segments, if possible. For example, spending a few hours at a time: liaising with clients, on sales calls, sourcing candidates, and writing job descriptions. We hope you found this article useful – why not take what you have learned and join one of the fastest growing specialist recruitment companies in the world? If you’re interested in a career with us, then contact info@hamlynwilliams.com or call 0203 675 2920. We look forward to hearing from you!
November 29, 2018
