Like every other job role, recruiting needs skills to keep up with hiring requirements. Recruiters must keep upskilling as per the market’s demands. While skills like leadership, time management and communication are necessary recruiter skills, employers nowadays look for versatile skills and greater contributions.
So, what skills must you add to stand out as a current-generation recruiter?
Recruiter skills you need in the current job market
Improving and upskilling make you an expert in what you do. Recruitment will be a challenge in today’s candidate-centric market without proper training and constant effort to learn things.
This blog highlights 10 new skills recruiters must add to improve their hiring expertise.
1. Technical skills
Technical skills may range from familiarity with companies’ productivity tools to understanding how job sites and recruitment marketing channels work.
When you can’t find suitable candidates among active job seekers, you must look to identify people who are passively looking for jobs. Recruiters nowadays must have candidate search skills like boolean search to find candidates on professional networking sites. Also, familiarity with candidate databases like Naukri Resdex is a must.
2. Relationship building skills
Nurturing candidates and building relationships with prospects in the candidate pipeline is another essential new recruiting skill. Refer to best practices recruiters adopt in building relationships with candidates. Be a good listener and an effective communicator. Consider opting for a course on relationship-building skills. Take feedback from other members of the recruitment team and candidates to assess areas for improvement.
3. Skills to use recruitment software
Experience with using one or more recruitment software is a must in most companies nowadays. Applicant tracking systems and candidate relationship management systems are widely used in the recruitment process for driving productivity and speeding up the hiring process.
If you are not using one yet, consider using our cutting-edge recruitment and applicant tracking system, PyjamaHR. It is forever free, easy to understand, and effective in centralising the recruitment process and automating repetitive tasks.
4. Marketing and pitching skills
Marketing and pitching skills may be optional when you deal with active job seekers. However, when you reach out to passive candidates, you will only convince some of the best candidates if you can market your job vacancies and use appealing pitches to sell the position.
5. Skills to improve candidate experience
Candidate experience is a crucial factor during the recruitment and selection process. From a fast and easy application process to an interview to smooth onboarding, it contributes to a good candidate experience.
As a recruiter, you must ensure that the candidates’ experience is maintained. Evaluate the application process to check if it will lead to a quick application. It will help you boost your job application rate. Ensure there is no conflict in scheduling interviews and conducting one. Assess and pick the best tools to avoid possible conflicts. Learn to plan and execute a smooth and timely onboarding.
6. Social media recruitment skills
Only a few times will you be able to find a new hire through job boards and other traditional sourcing channels. So, how do you find candidates who are not actively looking for jobs but may consider one if you can reach out to them with an attractive offer? You have to tap into candidates on professional networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and instagram.
Take courses on social media recruiting, practice strategies that work for your competitors and think of new and innovative ideas for recruiting on social media.
7. Skills to use gamification in HR
Gamification in HR is a new and innovative practice. Generally, big companies are keen on taking the initiative to enforce game principles in their company’s activities, from recruiting to onboarding to training and development.
Be proactive in implementing gamification. Develop skills to use gamification in HR and leverage its benefits in the workplace. Brainstorm to develop new game ideas to implement in the company’s activities, including recruitment.
8. Learning capabilities
Recruitment is an entry gate to fresh graduates in the HR department. However, to survive and stay relevant, you must gain HR skills like payroll, employee engagement, relationship building, employee training and development, and other administrative jobs. Learning in-demand skills will open gates to promotions and career advancement.
9. Event management skills
Versatile skills earn brownie points. While recruiters’ jobs in MNCs are restricted to recruitment only, startups may look for additional skills. Event management is one such good skill you can think of honing. It can be organising a corporate party, a company event, webinar or team outing on weekends.
10. Skills to use data and metrics
Responding to recruitment analytics is the best way to improve hiring efficiency. It will help you understand and monitor key metrics like time-to-source, time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, etc., to evaluate the overall performance of the recruitment team and identify areas that need improvement.
Recruitment is evolving and becoming tougher every single day. Follow the most recent trends in recruitment, and learn and upgrade your recruitment skills to drive success to your company’s team-building efforts. Develop the above ten recruiter skills. Your skills will be incomparable to most recruiters, and you will have a thriving career in HR and recruitment.
