Dear Recruiter, stay HUMAN.
Published on: February 19th, 2019
Our job as recruiters is like living on the ledge. Your role as a talent acquisition is to position yourself between the company you represent and the pool of candidates you want to attract. You should be a recruiter advocate for your candidates and also for the business.
First of all, you should understand the business you represent. Try to learn as much as possible about the business (it is an outsourcing company, a product), how they attract customers, why are they in that business, what is their short and also the long term goals. Learn about their beginning, their milestones, how did the business survive till today. All this information will get you many insights about the strategy and business model of the organization.
After that, you should gather with your coworkers, find out about what motivates them to keep coming every day to work for the same company you represent. During these discussions, you will also find out what are the things that differentiate the company from other employers on the market. These kinds of information will help you during the selection process when you will want to bring people on board.
After this assessment you can make a diagnosis of your own about the company you work for, what are the true colors of it, its organizational culture and also you will figure out what kind of people you need to attract/ hire in order to keep the business going and what kind of people are suitable for your business model.
It is highly important to understand how your future coworkers need to look like because you want them to stay as much as possible in the company, to perform and also to grow the business - this should be your mindset. This is how you make your candidates profile. Care about your candidate, don’t asset only their hard skills, technical skills but also their soft skills, mindset, and their potential.
After that when you will try to attract new talent try to be honest and realistic about the career opportunities you have. You don’t want to bring somebody in for a role and after a few weeks/months to encounter with your new coworker and to see him unhappy with his role or with the company - he will blame you for influencing his decision of quitting his old job and accepting a new unrealistic one. You will become an untrustworthy recruiter in the market if you aren't HUMAN first, and recruiter after.
The true art of recruiting nowadays is profiling as better as possible a candidate, evaluate if he is suitable for your project, pursue his need during the recruitment process within the organization before he accepts an offer. The value of our work is also to say “NO” - “you don’t fit in” or “our organization is not suitable for your career goals, let’s stay connected for when it does”. Also, give helpful feedback about their knowledge and what areas they need to improve.
Candidates will appreciate your gentle and transparent manner of doing your job. This is how you earn your respect from the candidates.
In the end, don’t forget today you represent a company, tomorrow it might be another, but the market will know about your REPUTATION. Don’t forget - you’re a connector. You are a life changer!
Stay true, stay human.
Cristina Cherecheș
In this business, for the people.