The 7 habits of highly effective recruiters
(Reposted from LinkedIn. Originally posted on Dec 2, 2021)
I’ve had the 1980s business classic “The 7 habits of highly effective people'' downloaded on my Kindle for years, waiting for inspiration to hit. It was staring at me from my library list, judging me for procrastinating and being ineffective. It’s one of these books that the rebel in me resists opening, suspecting that it’s going to be full of common sense advice written in a judgmental tone.
I was only partially right. In the end it was a good read that stuck with me and inspired me to consider it from a recruiting perspective. If there were 7 habits that made recruiters more effective, what would they be? Having worked with many recruiters over the last 10 years, here is what I think these habits are.
Decide to focus on your circle of influence. As advisors to the business and advocates for our candidates, a lot of things are out of our control. The hiring decision belongs to the hiring manager. The candidate decides whether to accept an offer or not. We decide on the recruitment process. How we build a pipeline, qualify candidates, pitch, prep, follow-up, pre-close, close. How we use feedback to improve our process and ultimately everyone’s experience. Once you shift your focus away from other people’s decisions and focus on the recruitment process, the results take care of themselves. This habit puts you in the driver’s seat of your business.
Learn about the business. Understanding the business you are building helps guide your decisions around what is important to focus on from a candidate assessment standpoint and enables you to pitch the opportunity in an authentic way. It also leads to deeper and just more interesting conversations.
Prioritize. Here is an obvious one; and yet difficult to implement. We get to be busy 24/7 and wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. Even if there were, there would still be more candidates to interview and Slack messages to answer. Busyness has become a badge of honor and a standard answer to “How are you?”. The alternative seems to bring our very own work ethic and dedication into question. The simple truth, however, is that when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. The trade-off here is real - when you are spending time on one thing, you are not spending time on something else. Period.
Seek first to understand, then be understood. I can't stress this one enough, and it’s become especially important in the candidate-driven market we are finding ourselves in. Listen first and then pitch. Spend two-thirds of your interview listening, pause and then listen some more. Uncover the candidate’s career drivers, their push and pull motivators, successes and failures, figure out what’s important for them, as well as if they are a fit for the job. There are a million ways to pitch an opportunity, but without knowing what is important for your candidate - few of them will resonate.
Use data to problem-solve and provide a shared experience. The sooner you get into this habit, the better for your career. You are the recruiting expert. You have access to more recruiting pipeline and talent market data than your hiring managers. Using this data to define, analyze and solve problems is powerful. Sharing your knowledge with your stakeholders brings them on the journey with you and increases your credibility.
Build trusting relationships and keep each other accountable. Recruiting is anything but a lonely business. It’s a relay race between the recruiting team, hiring managers and interviewers, and it takes a village. You and your hiring managers have a shared goal and responsibility of building successful teams. Investing in the relationship is foundational to success and should be built into your process.
Rest and recharge. And make it a priority. You will be more effective at your job after you have taken the time to rest, play, go offline, go outside. There is no such thing as a recruiting emergency, and as important as your job is, your physical, emotional and mental health are a priority. Build a rest ethic alongside your work ethic. Create more space for new ideas and inspiration.
I would love to hear from you. What habits have helped you be more effective at your job?
