3 Secrets to Recruiting Recruiters

Finding recruiters that are able to identify, recruit, and retain top talent will help your organization immensely.

This article was first published January 25, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.

As the job market continues to heavily favor applicants, it’s become more and more difficult to attract top talent and get them to commit to your business. Those help wanted signs in store windows can make companies nervous—it seems as if everyone’s hiring, and in that type of economy, the stakes are high when trying to find new employees. In order to focus on making great hires, you may be looking to first grow your pool of recruiters. But going about recruiting a recruiter can feel like a difficult task.

But securing those top-notch recruiters isn’t always an easy task. A lot of companies are in the same boat right now; they have lots of open positions, and not enough talent to fill them. Therefore, it’s a great time to be a recruiter who’s on a job hunt. How do you find excellent recruiters, and then convince them to come and utilize their talents for your business?

Here are three secrets to recruiting recruiters that will stick around, fill your open roles, and help your company thrive.

1. Remember the Basics

Believe it or not, much of recruiting recruiters is similar to recruiting any other position! All of the same best practices will carry over—that you want to be where the talent is, you want to involve your entire team, and you want to identify which parts of your company culture are most essential to convey. Don’t get overwhelmed by the thought of recruiting recruiters as if it’s an entirely new industry you’ve never had experience with before. Many of your previous systems and processes can work to fill the recruiter role. If you have recruiters working for you currently, ask them for recommendations, or ask them what made accepting a job with your company a no-brainer. That will help you find similar talent.

So don’t forget the basics: having a cohesive company brand, attend networking events, and reach out on LinkedIn. These tactics work just as well when you’re trying to attract recruiters to your team.

2. Emphasize Tech Savviness

One thing that’s an absolute must in a recruiter? Tech savviness. It’s obvious that much of our lives and business are conducted online, and the coronavirus pandemic only sped up the process. The metaverse, in many ways, is already here. While almost all of your employees are going to need at least a basic set of tech skills, having recruiters that are able to quickly and efficiently utilize online spaces is vital. Most people who are looking for jobs are doing so online, and in new, innovative ways. Recruiters need to be able to quickly adapt to new software, systems, and platforms.

Moreover, recruiters can no longer rely on a simple resume to tell them everything they need to know, as people’s work experiences have become more varied and unique. The days of working at the same job for decades are largely over, and the internet has provided a lot of different ways to make money that are much less traditional.

Tech savviness and technical capabilities should be near the top of your list in terms of requirements. When seeking out recruiters, make sure to emphasize the importance of using data, curating candidates digitally, and navigating online spaces. Make sure that part of your interview process involves categorizing an applicant’s technical skills.

Since you’re looking for someone with technological know-how, you, too, should be in digital recruitment spaces. Don’t just focus on face-to-face networking and social connections; instead, consider Facebook ads, LinkedIn posts, and YouTube videos. If you formulate an ideal candidate in your head, think about where that person spends time online and make sure you’re in that space.

3. Have a Trial Period

Lastly, similar to a sales job, recruitment is a great field to embrace the trial period. You can ask terrific interview questions and get references galore, but you’ll never truly know how someone’s going to perform until they’re in the job, doing the work. Measuring your Return on Investment (ROI) of a recruiter is fairly simple—which talent are they able to attract? If you hire a recruiter and four months later haven’t seen any fruits of their labor, it may be a major red flag. Depending on your industry and a mutual comfort level, decide upon a period of time that can serve as a trial employment period. At the end of that period, take a look at their recruitment pipeline and have them walk you through which recruiting practices they put into place. At that time, you can decide to continue in your partnership or part ways.

If you do decide to embrace a trial or probationary period in order to make sure your new recruiter is high-performing, make sure that your policy is clear and explicit. You don’t want to get in legal trouble for unlawful termination. Moreover, make sure you put your best foot forward on your end of things. This trial period is also for the employee’s benefit, so that they can determine if your workplace is a good fit for them. So make sure you’re really displaying your company culture and treating your employees in a way that assists with retention.