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6 Top Tips For First Time Recruiters

Guidance for Employers

6 Top Tips For First Time Recruiters

New to recruitment? In this post Alex Christie shares his tips for first time recruiters to help you find and recruit the right people for your business. If you’re responsible for recruiting new members of your team, or want to pursue a career in technical recruitment, this post is for you!

technical recruiter

If you’re new to recruitment – perhaps you’re now responsible for hiring new members of the team or are thinking about getting into technical recruitment as a career – here are my top tips for first time recruiters…

  1. Build Relationships

Technical recruitment is all about who you know and the relationships you have with clients, candidates, colleagues and people in your industry. Whether you’re recruiting in-house or have just joined a technical recruitment agency, you need to build your network and relationships in it.

Relationship building helps you find and understand potential candidates and the people they could be working alongside. The aim is to get a great fit for the company you’re recruiting for, and that means you need a good insight into peoples’ characters and personalities (as well as their skills, qualifications and the details of the job role).

  1. Learn To Listen Carefully

Recruiters ask a lot of questions, but great recruiters know when to listen! This starts by listening to the people within the business (your colleagues or a client) about what their ideal candidate should be like. Ask the right questions to get the insights you need, but most importantly listen carefully to understand exactly what the role requires (and its limitations). This should include the top ‘must haves’, the nice to haves, the key responsibilities of a role, and the qualities and personal attributes a candidate must have to be a good cultural fit.

When speaking to candidates you should also listen carefully to understand what their motivations are, their attitudes to work and the industry, their career and personal goals, as well as their track record.

  1. Maintain Open Communications

Having built a rapport with all parties involved, it’s essential to keep communicating with everyone throughout the recruitment process. You want to be the first to know if a candidate is having second thoughts, if someone decides to restructure the role, or to receive feedback on candidate shortlists and interviews.

To ensure that you, and everyone else is kept in the loop, recruiters need to take control of communications, and be available and proactive in maintaining them. Follow up with candidates, the interview team and other decision makers after each stage of the recruitment process; and keep them informed of what you’re doing too. Communicate any relevant feedback between all parties, and always ask what you can do to help make the recruitment process as smooth as possible.

  1. Become An Expert

You can build trust with candidates, clients or other members of the team when they know you’re a safe pair of hands. That comes from demonstrating your expertise and professionalism when managing the hiring process. As a new recruiter read up as much as possible about recruitment techniques and best practice so that you can use tried and test methods that work. Here at Energi People our new recruitment consultants shadow our expert recruiters so they can learn from them.

It’s also important to demonstrate that you’re an expert in the industry or sector you’re recruiting for. If you’re a team leader in your company and are handling recruitment, that won’t be difficult as you already have that expertise. But if you’re starting a career as a technical recruiter you need to get a good understanding of the industry and the jobs you’re recruiting for. Whether that’s Building Services, Structural Engineering or BIM and CAD, learn as much as possible about the companies you will recruit for; and the roles and people who work in the industry.

If you want to build a successful and rewarding career as a recruiter, being the ‘go to’ expert for your specialisation is a great way to do it.

  1. Understand The Big Picture

Great recruiters not only understand a company’s immediate recruitment requirements in terms of what the role is and what kind of candidate they’re looking for: but they also understand how that role fits into the big picture. Is it a new role that is part of the company’s strategic growth plans? Is it a role that provides a quick fix for a skills shortage, perhaps because they haven’t been able to recruit talent for another more skilled role?

If you have the big picture on how a role fits into the company’s short and long term objectives, you’ll have a clearer idea of what the right candidate for that role looks like. This knowledge will also help you offering recruitment advice that’s aligned with the company’s goals, now and into the future.

  1. Manage Expectations

One of the hardest aspects of being a recruiter is telling someone that they haven’t got the role. Therefore you need to be transparent throughout the recruitment process so that candidates have a realistic idea of their chances. At the same time you don’t want to lose a candidate because they don’t think they’re a contender. Striking the right balance is a fine art, but one you can learn.

You’ll also need to manage expectations internally, or with your clients. For example, salaries and the speed of the recruitment process can be friction points if you’re not realistic from the start. Make sure everyone understands the figures and timing – with contingency both in salaries and timescales – to give yourself the best chance of recruiting the right person.

Energi People are recruiting, both for our clients in the construction engineering industry and for recruiters to join our team! If you’re thinking about becoming a technical recruiter please get in touch to find out more about our recruitment roles and us.

For support recruiting for your company please contact our team – you can find our expert recruiters here.