While it may not take a village to build your team of recruiters, it can probably feel that way when you're left to bear the weight of dozens of open reqs.
Hiring the right team to grow the company? Are you a recruiter recruiting more recruiters? We synced up with Loni Spratt, Entelo’s recruiter evangelist, to share these four ways to get started on building your team from the ground up.
Learn more about a candidate’s work process by the way they use their recruiting resources.
With hiring deadlines, increasing costs of a longer time-to-fill, and decreasing pools of qualified candidates, prospective hires should be able to keep up and quickly learn how to use new recruiting tech. To understand how a candidate manages their time and tools, ask about their technique for screening hundreds of applications. Have them write a sample cold outreach email. Do they customize their outreach? Is there personalization in their messaging, or does their outreach sound more like a mass email? Also, test recruiters’ candidate search knowledge by asking them to build a Boolean search string for one of the company’s open positions.
Evaluate their writing skills.
While your recruiters’ goal may be to connect hiring mangers with qualified candidates for their open opportunities, having good writing skills didn’t hurt nobody. In fact, recruiters should consider it an essential factor to the list of desired candidate qualifications. Assess a candidate’s writing skills by sending them information on one of your job openings and have them write up a sample description for a posting. How well does the candidate sell the opportunity? Does the candidate accurately describe the position, perks, and benefits? Is there a balance in portraying the employee experience and the employer brand?
Loni suggests this test to figure out a recruiter’s attention to detail: In the job description, add a line asking the candidate to put something in the email subject or at the top of the resume. For example, at the end of your job application, write, “Before submitting your cover letter, resume, and application, solve the equation 8x5 and type in answer in the email subject line.” That way, when recruiters receive candidate applications in their inbox, they can quickly screen out candidates who don’t take the time to read through the entire application.
Find out what metrics the recruiter measures to define hiring success.
“Ask recruiters about their outreach response rates and their interview-to-hire ratios – good recruiters know their numbers,” Loni said. Don’t forget to ask recruiters to share their knowledge and experiences measuring a company’s cost per hire, source of hire, quality of hire, and if the info is available, the retention and satisfaction rates of the employees they’ve recruited in their previous position.
Connect with recruiters by joining recruiter organizations and associations.
As recruiters are encouraged to expand their candidate network by actively engaging with talent online and at events, recruiters can think the same of connecting with their kind. LinkedIn groups like Recruiters Recruiting Recruiters and The Recruiter Network are teeming with recruiting and hiring resources, job-seeking talent acquisition pros, and a bevy of recruiters linked to an even larger bevy of qualified candidates. A few birds, one stone…you know the deal.
Search through online groups for recruiters posting their interest in open opportunities, actively participating in discussions, writing articles, and connect with those already in your network through a referral from a mutual connection. If you’re sourcing recruiters in these networks, it’s likely they’re tech savvy and may have an online influence that can play a role in how candidates interact and engage with them in the recruiter’s outreach.
Get started with these sites and groups:
- Recruiting Blogs
- Recruiting Conferences
- NorthWest Recruiters Association
- National Staffing and Recruiting Industry Association
- Corporate Recruiters, Talent Acquisition, Internal Recruitment
- Corporate Recruiters. #1 Group for Corporate Recruiters
- ERE Jobs
These resources can supplement your hunt for talent even if you’re not currently hiring recruiters. Don’t forget the Entelo Blog while you’re at it!
Got a tip you’d like to share with fellow recruiters? Share it with us in the comments! You can also learn how to comb through your current connections to find your next great hire by joining us for our social recruiting webinar series!
