The Golden Rules of Recruiting

1. The Golden Rule(s) of Recruiting
By
Hemanth Badda

3. If you haven’t figured it out by now, recruiting is sales. If you
disagree, you are in the wrong business. Not only do recruiters
need to sell their clients (internal or external), but they need to
sell candidates on opportunities and be able to articulate why
company X is an employer of choice and why a particular
opportunity is not just a great opportunity, but how it is the
opportunity of a lifetime.
Knowing how to market and promote your services, expertise
and knowledge effectively to clients and candidates is of utmost
importance. If you have lots of candidates on your database but
are not able to convince a company to hire any of them you will
not close any deals. Your convincing, negotiation and selling
skills are therefore crucial. No clients, no business - as simple as
that.

4. There are so many ways to source for talent these days. There is
an abundance of sites, networks, tools, and platforms all built in
some fashion to make a recruiter’s life easier. But it is how each
recruiter uses these tools that will make the difference. It all
starts with the mentality of the individual. Recruiters are big-
game hunters, and having the mindset to hunt and be relentless
until the hunt is done is a priceless skill set. If a recruiter is
going to sit at a desk, log in to Monster and keyword search all
day — that is not the hunter mentality you want. You want
someone who will use cold calling, social media, Boolean
searches, networks, etc. in order to find the strongest and most-
qualified individuals.

5. Anyone can pull a name out of a database and place a call. It’s
another thing to actually cultivate and build relationships with
the candidates we recruit. Perhaps knowing a little about what
makes them tick, what their hobbies are, engaging in a
conversation rather than just following a script, etc. Social
media, smart phones, and other communication platforms have
built bridges straight into our personal lives. By creating a more
open, friendly, and communicative relationship with
candidates, the candidate experience will increase, making the
recruiter and company stand out professionally and as an
employer of choice.

6. Anyone else ever had the recruiter-talk-your-ear-off
presentation about how great they are, the database they have
access to, successful placements, etc.? Recruiters need to listen
first and talk second. Recruiters must possess the uncanny
ability to listen and take a proper job order. Too many recruiters
run their traps to no end. It’s annoying.
I'd add for recruiters is to remove the blinders. During the
initial screening process, too many recruiters focus solely on one
position, and don’t recognize candidates that might be
beneficial for future orders...you can't be blinded by the urgency
of an open position that a great candidate slips through the
cracks. This is such a crucial mistake for recruiters.

7. Most people suck at follow up. Some are too pushy, some are too passive, some
are too wordy, and some are too shy. Entry-levels and experienced
professionals alike often blunder during this phase of the job application
process and lose out to other applicants as a result.
Why do so many people suck at follow up? For one, it’s an often overlooked
step when applying for jobs. People focus on the big moments – Apply, Land
Interview, Interview, Get Offer, Accept Job – and forget that Follow Up is the
glue that holds it all together. In fact, it’s the only step that’s repeated
throughout the entire process:

8. Nowadays also being familiar with various social media
recruitment strategies and IT technologies will give any
recruiter an edge and proves that you are a professional who
keeps up with current trends and technologies.

9. Sometimes you need to lead a team of other recruitment
consultants or you need to work in a team in order to find the
best candidate for a high calibre company. Knowing how to
manage people in order to achieve a set goal is important; good
communication between all team members will guarantee that
misunderstandings and inefficiencies will be avoided.

10. If you want to be perceived as a trustworthy professional you
need to be reliable when it comes to punctuality, offering the
services you promised within a certain timeframe etc. If you
can’t keep up with small things nobody will trust you and offer
you bigger challenges in the future.

11. You need to be confident not just about yourself but also about
the services you offer to your clients, companies as well as
jobseekers.

12. Companies and jobseekers don’t just rely on one source for
filling their positions or finding a job but multiple sources. Who
acts quickly will therefore win in the end. The worst that can
happen is that in the last minute a company might tell you that
they already found a candidate or the candidate already found a
job in another organisation. Thus, it’s not size that nowadays
matters but speed.
Having great time management skills is essential because
certain positions need to be filled urgently and getting your
priorities right is paramount.

13. Since you deal with companies and candidates on a daily basis
you will need to juggle multiple projects and tasks
simultaneously. Keeping in mind the details of various jobs,
companies and candidates is important in order to work
efficiently as well as effectively.

14. Sometimes you will need to be very flexible and patient because
candidates or clients might want to reschedule their interview
dates in the last minute.

15. You need to be a good problem solver because you might face
situations which you never thought would come along the way.
For example, people not turning up to their interviews,
companies telling you that they already found another
candidate, not finding any candidates for a certain position for a
long time, etc.

16. You want the best. I want the best. The firm you represent, are
employed by, network with – doesn’t matter the relationship,
but they want the very best possible candidate in each role you
recruit for.
The candidate also wants the best. Best job fit. Best culture
fit. Best comp package. Best quality of life. Best career growth
potential, best location…etc.
“You can have everything that you want if you just help enough
other people get what they want”

17. Let’s face it, if you’re not being honest with yourself, you don’t have a hope of being
honest with others. Honesty builds trust with candidates and credibility with hiring
managers. You need trust with candidates if they’re leaving a secure position and you
are recruiting for an opportunity that does carry more risk, BUT which also carries more
growth potential. Or perhaps your opportunity pays less than they want, but offers a
better quality of life. Doesn’t matter what the role really offers – if the candidate doesn’t
believe what you’re telling them, then they’re likely not going to take the job.
Also, after a “no” decision, be honest with the feedback – it doesn’t mean you’re going to
give all of the gory detail if the person did poorly, but do your best to give them
something to work on going forward. At the very least, let them know you’re not
moving forward and don’t leave them hanging!
With hiring managers, they need to know if they’re asking for too much for what they
can pay or being unrealistic in the combination of skills they want in a candidate(and
you better have hard data to back that up). If the hiring team is passing on what you
perceive as good candidates for ancillary reasons that you feel won’t affect job
performance, you need to ask honest questions and encourage honest and
straightforward feedback.

18. How many times have you worked for a month on a job description, identified candidates and presented
them to the hiring manager only to find out the manager had a MAJOR requirement they failed to give you
in the original uptake call?(they assumed you knew) Have you ever gotten a candidate to the final stage only
for them to take another offer with a firm you didn’t even know they were interviewing with?
Allowing either scenario to occur means you’ve not asked enough questions, not done enough digging and
probably were a bit too preoccupied with other things to notice until things blew up. In either case, you
could blame the other party for withholding critical information(and that does happen from time to time),
but more often than not, we just didn’t ask the question.
Ask, “is there anything else critical to this role?" or "has anything changed since we last spoke?” when
speaking to your hiring managers. Do it on a regular basis.
Ask, “who else are you speaking with right now and where are you in the process?” when speaking with
candidates…also on a regular basis.
Document this and keep it in front of the decision makers – fewer surprises generally means a more effective
hiring process. It also means you have more of a “Win-Win” scenario for all involved.
Reducing and eliminating problems in communication between hiring teams and candidates allows you to
think with a clear mind and remove distractions with the end goal of having a better focus on making the
right hiring decision. Instead of worrying if they've "missed something", hiring teams can focus on the
candidates and what they bring to the table.

19. What differentiates a successful organization from most others is
the way they place their people. It is not only that they keep on
developing their people, but they first place them where the
strengths of the people can produce results and where their
weaknesses are irrelevant.”
I reminded that if we focused predominantly on the weaknesses of
everyone we interviewed(i.e., what did they do wrong in the
interview?), we probably wouldn’t hire anyone. Heck, I wouldn’t
hire ME if I focused just on my weaknesses.
If you fall into a pattern of saying, “well, what happens if______
happens?”, then you are not focusing on their strengths.

20. A strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or
about doing something… Unless until you don’t have a passion
we can not be a successful Recruiter.
Passion is the key for Success
Passion Drives Perfection

21. Any Inputs???