For anyone interested in Human Resources or become a top interviewer, HR recruiter skills need to become your top workplace priority. These skills often set the best recruiters apart from the mediocre individuals.
They offer a plethora of benefits to you, too, including better job offers. Many successful recruiters say their success is at least partially tied to having strong recruiting skills. Unfortunately, too many potential recruiters overlook the importance of developing their recruiting abilities.
They may think these skills only come to some naturally, and thus feel unmotivated. However, you can find immense benefits from acquiring recruiting skills within a relatively short amount of time. In this article, we will highlight what recruiting skills are and why they are so crucial to have.
What are Recruiter Skills in HR?
It is typically quite tempting fir new recruiters to immediately start exploring their strengths. However, you should learn about what recruitment skills are first. In general, recruiting skills are any ability or personality trait that allow you to perform your recruiting in more positive and efficient manner.
These skills allow recruiters to stand out from the crowd.
There are many different types of recruiting abilities. Most can be categorized into soft and hard skills. Soft skills include any personality traits that allow you to be a more successful recruiter. Hard skills, on the other hand, are the technical skills that allow the recruiting process to be more seamless.
Why Is it Important To Recognize Recruiter Skills & Their Benefits?
No matter what your strengths are or what industry you wish to go in to, knowing your strengths is absolutely crucial. You will gain a plethora of benefits from investing in yourself. Even if you do not immediately see these benefits, you will recognize their importance in the long term. If you are unsure of which specific pros come along with recognizing your recruiting abilities, consider the following:
- Increased confidence in your ability, which allows you to take more calculated risks
- Find ideal candidates that are the best fit for your business
- Increase your productivity and efficiency, which boosts your overall contribution to your team
- Allows you to acquire a job that you are truly passionate about, which boosts commitment
- Helps you develop emotional bonds with the individuals you interview and work with
- Increases your ability to stay committed and motivated with your work, thus increasing focus
- Encourages you to develop more lofty goals, then meet and surpass these goals
- Increases your ability to pay attention to the details, such as a candidate’s negative and positive body language
- Simultaneously helps you to develop key skills such as critical thinking
- Allows you to create a better, more positive and more focused work environment
15 Examples of Recruiter Skills
Now that you know of all the benefits recruiting skill could bring to you, you might be curious: which specific skills are considered ‘recruiting abilities’? Recruiting is about more than just a single skill. It is much more than simply talking to potential candidates and evaluating them. There are a plethora of different skills included under this category, and you should try to build multiple of these skills. These are just a few of the valuable recruitment skills you should consider building:
1. Communication skills
Having excellent communication skills is crucial, no matter which industry you choose to go in to. This is also a must-have recruitment skill. As a recruiter, you will be communicating with employers, coworkers, and potential job candidates every day.
Strong communication skills will also help you run the interview more smoothly. It could help job candidates better understand what you are looking for in an employer.
2. Active listening skills
Knowing how to speak to employees and employers is crucial for recruiters. However, you must also know how to be an active listener. Active listening allows you to better understand your potential job candidates.
It also lets you better understand what your employers want in an employee. To become a better active listener, ask questions to ensure you understand others.
3. Confidence
When you are an interviewer, it is crucial to be confident. Many job candidates feel nervous, but you cannot allow their nerves to rub off on you.
If you appear too stressed or unconfident, this will negatively effect the individual you are interviewing. Instead you should be confident, as it shows you are proud to be a representative for your organization.
4. Analytics skills
Analytical skills are not just for those interested in becoming computer scientists or STEM. It is also a critical recruitment skill for you to maintain. Analytical skills allow you to accurately evaluate both the pros and cons of each job candidates you interact with. You will be more objective if you build up this skillset.
5. Time management skills
Everyone has just 24 hours to work with each day. What separates the most successful recruiters from others is the way they use this time. Time management and organizational recruiter skills help you streamline the hiring process.
They decrease the amount of time it takes to finish tasks and help you avoid frustration. Thus, you can be less stressed and more productive.
6. Patience
Patience is extremely important for any recruiter. You will need to spend immense amounts of time listening to others. Also, it takes time to find the best employee for your brand. This will definitely take time.
If you do not have the patience to listen to individuals and spend time seeking out the best employees, being a recruiter is not the best decision.
7. Tech skills
Nowadays, technology is being used every day by recruiters. Technical abilities are absolutely crucial to maintain in today’s workplace. If you do not know how to use both common softwares and hardwares, you lose your competitive advantage over other recruiters.
Technical knowledge can also help you belts your productivity and find high quality employees.
8. Love for learning
Recruiters should never stop learning. They need to consistently update their understanding of what their employer needs in candidates. Plus, they should stay aware of the top industry needs. This can help you find the best employees for your company.
A love and passion for learning can also keep you motivated and excited about your job, thus keeping you committed.
9. Knowledge of marketing strategies
Marketing techniques are not only crucial to understand for salesmen. They are also a key part of a recruiter’s job. After all, individuals can only apply to your job if they view the job listing. You must create an effective marketing strategy, including finding the best channels for advertisement, using the correct marketing language, and more.
10. Critical thinking
Critical thinking is a critical skill you need to maintain as a recruiter. By having strong critical thinking skills, you will be better equipped to make difficult decisions in the workplace. It is quite difficult for many recruiters to decide which employees are best for their organization.
Critical thinking abilities can help make this decision making process much less stressful and challenging.
11. Empathy and interpersonal skills
Empathy is an extremely important skill for recruiters. Often, the individuals you will be interacting with on a day to day basis are stressed. To ease their stress, you should be empathetic. Keep in mind that if you are not empathetic, you will not see the best side of the potential employee.
This will skew the results of the recruiting process and could cost your business in the long run. Being empathetic helps calm the candidate and allows them to shine.
12. Networking skills
Networking is a fantastic way to find high quality job candidates. However, if you do not have string networking abilities, you may waste this opportunity. Ensure that you know how to communicate with partners.
Know where your potential employees could network, and visit those locations. Represent your company well when networking, and you might just find your next greatest employee.
13. Managing expectations
Both job candidates and managers have high expectations for one another. The candidate likely has high expectations for their workplace conditions, salary, and long-term expectations for their career. Managers want to get high quality employees that set their team apart from the competition.
By managing and balance both individual’s expectations, you can set realistic standards while still meeting both of their goals.
14. Curiosity
Being curious is a great trait to have for a recruiter. Asking questions and digging deep into a candidate’s past can help reveal many key facts about that potential employee. Recruiters that are curious also tend to be more excited and passionate about their work.
They have a positive mindset and seek to understand others instead of judging them immediately. Do not be afraid to try new strategies for asking questions, too.
15. Adaptable
No matter which industry you decide to specialize in, there are constantly new technologies and new competitors arising. In such a competitive landscape, it is crucial for recruiters to be aware of constantly changing industry standards to find the best employees.
This involves being adaptable. You should also experiment with new job seeking channels. This includes expanding your job search into social media, such as LinkedIn or even Instagram.
How To Identify Your Recruiter Skills?
Many people get excited when they learn of the many benefits and types of recruiting abilities. In fact, some even start investing thousands of dollars because they believe it is the only way to develop recruiter abilities. However, this does not have to be the case. In fact, there are completely free ways to develop recruiter skills.
First off, you need to find the skills you already have. This does not have to be complicated or time-consuming, either. One of the most effective ways to find out your existing recruiting abilities is by taking an online assessment.
One of the best strengths tests you can take online is HIGH5. With HIGH5, you not only get information on your recruiting abilities but also your overall strengths profile. The additional benefits of HIGH5 are that it is completely free and only takes 20 minutes to finish.
In addition to this, you could also perform a self-analysis of your skills. Think about some of the most successful employees you helped to hire. How did you find these individuals? Did you do something special during the interview then?
If yes, you can find a pattern that shows your strengths. You could also ask others, such as coworkers or even bosses, for input on your strengths. It will take longer than HIGH5’s 20-minute timeframe, though.
How To Improve Recruiter Skills in The Workplace?
Knowing your skills is extremely important in the workplace. However, just acknowledging your abilities is not enough to initiate self-growth. You must actively work to improve your skills to reach your potential. This will take time, but in the long term, you will see the many benefits of investing in yourself.
One of the greatest ways to improve your recruiting abilities in the workplace is by using your strengths more often. Have confidence and take risks. If you have an opportunity to use your strengths, take that chance.
For example, if you know that you have strong empathy skills, ensure you pay attention to the small details to ensure your candidate is calm. Ensure you make the environment welcoming and use proper body language, too.
One of the greatest and simplest ways to improve your strengths is via organization. Try to keep yourself organized, both physically and mentally, with the use of schedules and to-do lists.
This will allow your strengths to shine more, and it will reduce stress as well as frustration. Also, nearly anyone can become more organized with effort and time, so it is a good strength to focus on first.
How To Highlight Recruiter Skills in a Resume or in a Job Interview?
One of the most commonly made mistakes when writing a resume comes with articulating your strengths. It seems simple enough: just list your strengths. But, just doing this will not convince interviewers that you actually possess your recruiting abilities. You must be more insightful than that.
Think about it: as a recruiter yourself, you want evidence of a candidate’s strengths. You do not just take their word for their claims. So, you will need to highlight the ways you used your strengths in your prior jobs. Include your strengths within your prior job descriptions.
Try to be specific; do not just say you have recruiting skills, but rather, say which specific recruiting skills you have. Use statistics if you can.
When it comes time for the interview, and you are asked about your strengths, answer in a similar manner. Try to use specific examples, and even stories, to better articulate how you used your strengths. Show the interviewer how your abilities could benefit their organization, too. Include specific metrics when possible.
Related: 32 HR Coordinator Interview Questions and Answers
HR Recruiter Skills FAQ
What are hard skills in recruitment?
There are a plethora of different skills included in the broad category of recruitment abilities. They can generally be categorized into two groups: hard or soft skills. Hard skills are technical abilities. They are more difficult to acquire, sometimes require technical education, and are not based on personality.
Some of the most important and common recruitment skills are data analysis, marketing, sales skills, hardware knowledge, software knowledge, and the ability to use social media.
What are soft skills in recruiting?
In general, you can categorize skills into two main groups: soft or hard abilities. Hard skills are technical, while soft skills are based on one’s personality traits. They are often more difficult to acquire.
If you are interested in becoming a recruiter, the following soft skills are important for you: communication skills, confidence, reliability, active listening, reading body language, curiosity, leadership, time management, organization, patience, empathy, interpersonal skills, conflict mitigation, and more.
What is the role of the recruiter?
Recruiters play a crucial role in nearly every organization. As a recruiter, your role includes finding qualified job candidates, performing interviews, writing job descriptions, screening resumes, and much more. Recruiters often also visit networking sites to seek out potential job candidates.
They play a key role in deciding who gets hired and what an organization’s team looks like. They must stay aware of the company’s goals, skill gaps, and requirements for success in their industry. Recruiters will also often need to know how to use social media for marketing their job openings.
