Personal Development Tips to Become a Better Recruiter

Jonathan Kidder

5 years ago

Most recruiters like myself have fallen into recruiting without any real rhyme or reason. You might have gotten an internship in human resources or applied to a random job ad after college. You took that first role offered, but then you fell in love with recruiting.

Why are personal development skills important for recruiters?

Personal development skills are important for recruiters because they help to enhance their performance, increase their effectiveness, and build better relationships with candidates, hiring managers, and other stakeholders. Here are some of the reasons why personal development skills are important for recruiters:

Improved communication: Recruiters need to be able to communicate effectively with candidates, hiring managers, and other stakeholders. Personal development skills such as active listening, empathy, and emotional intelligence can help recruiters build better relationships and communicate more effectively with others.

Increased productivity: Personal development skills such as time management, goal setting, and self-motivation can help recruiters work more efficiently and effectively, improving their productivity and success in the role.

Better problem-solving: Recruiters often face challenges and obstacles in the recruitment process. Personal development skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and decision-making can help recruiters overcome these challenges and find innovative solutions.

Adaptability: The recruitment industry is constantly evolving, and recruiters need to be able to adapt to new trends, technologies, and best practices. Personal development skills such as continuous learning and adaptability can help recruiters stay up-to-date and competitive.

Improved relationships: Recruiters need to build and maintain strong relationships with candidates, hiring managers, and other stakeholders. Personal development skills such as interpersonal skills, empathy, and emotional intelligence can help recruiters build better relationships and foster trust with others.

Honestly, there’s no rule book on how to get into the field. With that in mind, it’s hard to fully understand what it takes to really become successful in this field long-term. I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this topic for a while and, after being the field for roughly a decade, I want to share a few important details. Many recruiters face periods of slow downs. During this time it’s good to self reflect on your personal development skills and build on your SMART goals for the year.

Personal development is defined as activities that develops a person’s capabilities and, build human capital and potential, facilitate employability, and enhances quality of life and the realization of dreams and aspirations. This fits well when a Recruiter is reflecting on their career and what they want to develop further.

Here’s 10 Personal Development ideas where Recruiters can focus their time:

Above is a personal self development wheel. Use this example when creating a plan to reach each individual goal.

1. Time Management

As a recruiter, you’re juggling multiple responsibilities in any given day so practicing good time management skills is essential. Whether you use an app or put pen to paper, having the ability to prioritize tasks, assign blocks of time, set goals, and meet deadlines. I’ve written about time management best practices in this article (here).

2. Communication

Communication skills are crucial to a recruiter. The entire profession revolves around selling to everyone you interact with. You’re not only the common link between a candidate to company, making it a client and a job position to the candidate throughout the entire process. Don’t forget you’re also selling yourself as an awesome recruiter.

3. Negotiation Skills

Just as important as having great communication and sales skills, is being able to negotiate and persuade when working through job offer details. Being confident in your persuasion abilities will also help you land the best clients and be well compensated for your talents.

4. Problem Solving-Skills

Having the ability to resolve issues quickly and creatively is also important. In the job of a recruiter, you’ll rarely have the opportunity to consult someone else for the answer. Being able to think fast could make the difference between losing a great job candidate or upsetting a client.

5. Persistence

Exercising tenacity and persistence will eventually help you reap the rewards. Whether it is making multiple attempts to snag a talented, qualified candidate, or convincing a hiring manager you have the right person for the job. Patience and drive is vital for long term success in recruiting. I wrote a great article about building grit and perseverance (here).

6. Delivering Results

Clients are hiring you to find the right people for the job. Thus, knowing the company culture, being able to attract individuals with the necessary skills, and connecting with candidates to find the right personality traits is crucial. Staying a step ahead will build your reputation from being a good recruiter to a great one.

7. Taking Calculated Risks

In the recruiting profession, there are very few guarantees. Success is largely dependent on being comfortable with taking reasonable risks. For example, it may be taking a risk on a candidate, who on paper doesn’t look promising, but your gut is telling you otherwise; or that risk may equate to being resilient in earning fluctuations when placements are delayed.

8. Setting Goals

As a recruiter, you should set goals that will keep you on track each and every day. The SMART goal setting acronym (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, Time-based) will help you set specific goals and assign realistic time-frames to each one.

9. Tracking the Right Metrics

Tracking your metrics is another important factor in personal development and success. When set up correctly, this data will provide you with important insight into how long it takes to find and hire candidates as well as monitoring their performance, level of job satisfaction, and attrition rates within the first 12 months. Analyzing metrics regarding client satisfaction will prove beneficial as well. I wrote about creating recruiting metrics to deliver results (here).

10. Continuous Learning

Regardless if you are brand new to the world of recruiting or have years of experience under your belt, there’s always new opportunities to learn and improve. There are a variety of training options and materials available, but it’s up to you to have the desire and commitment to continuously learn.

Finally, consistently working to improve your skills will enable you to not only find the most talented candidates for the job, but also get them excited about the company they will be working for.

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