A Day in the Life...

Definition of hiring need(s):

- A good recruiter (typically a senior) is truly a partner to hiring leaders. When managers have an opportunity to hire someone, typically they have defined the responsibilities of what they foresee that individual fulfilling. I use the word "typically" because that doesn't always happen. Some managers know they need help in certain areas and get approval to hire but are challenged by defining WHAT those areas are and HOW a person can specifically help in those areas. This is the key to making a good hire. You absolutely must know exactly what needs to be accomplished on a granular level. Retention rates will plummet if hiring managers cannot define these things. All too often, new hires are thrown into a cubical without much knowledge of what truly needs to be done. Then they leave either because their bored and not challenged or because they have no expectations for accomplishment. Recognition is the number one retention method over everything including compensation, so if someone cannot point to specific accomplishments based on job expectations, it is likely they will go elsewhere.

A recruiter should be able to help brainstorm with a hiring leader on certain aspects of a job, or at least respectfully challenge some of the things they may disagree with. Some wonder how a recruiter could add value in this process. Recruiters are out in the marketplace talking to competitors and their employees every day, specifically dissecting the duties of their jobs and understanding how those employees add value. They should have ideas and thoughts.

Research and strategic sourcing:

- I spend a big part of my day doing research and sourcing talent for specific skillsets. This is not as simple as some think it is. While job postings and resume databases may be a part of sourcing talent, it tends to be a very small fraction in today's day and age. To me, sourcing is strategic and there should be a research aspect involved. For example, if I'm working on identifying a Senior Account Executive with specific project-based, consultative selling abilities in the Chicago area, I should strategically research that area and understand what organizations will carry those types of sellers. This takes some analytical work, and ultimately, cold calls to strike up conversations about who may carry those types of individuals. From there, names are sourced based on the findings from this research.

Awareness generation via outreach:

- Many organizations are working incredibly hard, and spending a lot of money, on job awareness generation. They're trying to accomplish this via digital marketing vehicles such as career web sites and other types of marketing campaign tools that exist today. I think these things are important, and if you can afford them then go right ahead, but most recruiters spend a lot of their day creating awareness via the telephone. There are many channels through which a recruiter will generate job awareness, but I am old school in my approach and typically make 30-50 cold calls per day depending on my schedule. I've found that if you're a strong researcher and sourcer, cold calling is much more effective and can generate strong awareness from passive-seeker talent. Nothing creates better awareness than going directly to the marketplace via human-to-human interaction with a compelling message about your organization and the opportunities of employment within. It should also generate a network of referrals, pipelining for jobs, and marketing for your business offering all in one. I will definitely be writing more about utilizing the phones in later posts!

Crafting compelling messages and stories:

- A strong recruiter is a very good story-teller and must be able to craft compelling messages not just about a specific job but also about an organization. This is where many recruiters tend to fail. Instead of crafting a message and telling stories, they simply want to sling job descriptions via electronic channels. Again, technology is important in our world but human-to-human interaction is more important in my opinion.

Every day, a recruiter spends at least some time continuing to perfect messaging and story-telling about whoever they are representing. This may not be a specific, broken-down process but it's happening and it may be happening subconsciously. With every outreach call, every phone screen and every interview, time is spent crafting messaging which in turn is what piques a candidate prospect's interest in employment opportunities.

Data organization:

- This task is extremely important to recruiters and should be to their employers. Your data means everything to you. What people tend to forget about your ATS (or CRM, whatever you call it at your firm) is the amount of work it took one or more recruiters to get you that data. Hours upon hours of sourcing, research, calling, and important conversations have gone into that data along with resumes, contact information, and compensation information. A recruiter will spend time during the day organizing this data so they can move gracefully through it in the future which in turn actually saves them time.

There are many additional administrative responsibilities a recruiter has as well such as interview scheduling (which can be excruciating), vendor management, career fairs/networking events, and more. It's a busy profession and one that I believe is becoming more and more valuable to growing organizations!