Tag: nurture

Qualities that Make a Great Recruiter

You are already a recruiter but would like to know if you meet all the requirements to be a great Recruiter?
Here are a handful of the top qualities that make a great recruiter.

Target-driven

The recruitment industry is particularly competitive and target-driven, therefore, it is essential that the recruiter can handle pressure very well, is target-oriented, ambitious and hungry for results. If you are not a target driven person you should seriously reconsider whether this is the right job for you.

Marketing Skills

Knowing how to market and promote your services, expertise and knowledge effectively to clients and candidates is of utmost importance. If you have lots of candidates in your database but are not able to convince a company to hire any of them you will not close any deals. Your convincing, negotiation and selling skills are therefore crucial. No clients, no business – as simple as that.

Listening Skills

For a recruitment consultant, it is important to be a great listener. Only if you listen carefully and thoroughly to both, the job seeker and the client, you will be able to understand what their needs are. The more you listen to them, the more you will find out. The more you ask them, the more you will know. So, the better you know what the client and jobseeker are looking for, the easier it will be to find the perfect match. This will allow you to make better decisions and find the perfect match over and over again.

Communication Skills

Working in the “human resource” business requires from a recruiter to be a great communicator, no matter whether on the phone or via email. If things don’t turn out positively for a job seeker than being straightforward is not always the right strategy in this case. You can’t tell a job seeker “Your background and experiences don’t match our needs right now” or “You are a great candidate but unfortunately you just came at the wrong time.” There are situations in which a recruiter needs to prove that s/he is tactful, considerate and gracious in order to maintain a good corporate as well as personal reputation.

Multitasking Skills

Since you deal with companies and candidates on a daily basis you will need to juggle multiple projects and tasks simultaneously. Keeping in mind the details of various jobs, companies and candidates is important in order to work efficiently as well as effectively.

Relationship Building Skills

A recruiter works in the “people business” and deals with a variety of different people on a daily basis. This person has to be a good connector, who loves to connect with new people and knows how to use every opportunity to network and to turn it into business results. Having great relationship building skills with all people involved in the process is therefore crucial. It will allow you to build trust and attract clients as well as jobseekers more easily. Once you gained their trust and they notice that you work professionally, effectively and reliably, they will come back again and again without looking any further. It will also save you time because you can focus on your existing clients rather than having to chase constantly new ones. Also, don’t underestimate the good relationship you have built with your job seekers. If they are happy with the job you were able to find for them, they will recommend you to their friends and family too, should they ever need a job in the future.

Time Management Skills

Having great time management skills is essential because certain positions need to be filled urgently and getting your priorities right is paramount.

Problem Solving Skills

You need to be a good problem solver because you might face situations which you never thought would come along the way. For example, people not turning up to their interviews, companies telling you that they already found another candidate, not finding any candidates for a certain position for a long time, etc.

Paying Attention to Detail

Remember that none of the parties involved has to work with you as a recruiter. They should want to work with you because you make the process easier, faster, and more successful. This is only true if you take a detail-oriented approach to providing quality service.

Confidence

You need to be confident not just about yourself but also about the services you offer to your clients as well as job seekers.

Patience

Sometimes you will need to be very flexible and patient because candidates or clients might want to reschedule their interview dates at the last minute.

Speed

Companies and job seekers don’t just rely on one source for filling their positions or finding a job but multiple sources. Who acts quickly will, therefore, win in the end. The worst that can happen is that at the last minute a company might tell you that they already found a candidate or the candidate already found a job in another organisation. Thus, it’s not the size that nowadays matters but speed.

Reliability

If you want to be perceived as a trustworthy professional you need to be reliable when it comes to punctuality, offering the services you promised within a certain timeframe etc. If you can’t keep up with small things nobody will trust you and offer you bigger challenges in the future.

 

Some great recruiters are born, but others can be made—and we all have opportunities for improvement. If you focus on these thirteen skills, you’ll continue to move up in your recruiting career.

Nurturing Your Super Stars

Nurturing your top performers is critical to the long term success of your business. Don’t believe it? Take a look at these statistics.

  • Top performers produce as much as 10 times more than the average worker, while they often require less than two times the pay (Sullivan, 2012)
  • Top performers produce up to 12 times more than the average employee (Corporate Executive Board)
  • The top performer differential is 2.5 to 10 times that of an average employee (Sullivan, 2008)
  • The more top performers you have, the greater the organization’s productivity!

Managers give all of their attention to the weak players – those who need to improve. They draw us in again and again, receiving the regular feedback. But, what about top performers? You may feel that by leaving them alone, you’re paying them the greatest compliment. This is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing and what they are expecting. It’s a fact that organization’s top talent can have the easiest time finding other employment.

So, make a fresh commitment to give them the time, the feedback, and the opportunity to grow in your organization and  nurture them to contribute to the overall growth of your organization.

“The more you know about your employees, the better coach and leader you can be.”

There are many ways to help you understand your employees, motivate them for long-term satisfaction, and to help them overcome weaknesses and making them even better at their jobs.

  • Identify your “A” Players

In an organization, “A” players or “top talent” are typically those with the best performance ratings. Defining top talent should go beyond this single measure. Characteristics and behaviours may also help you to identify these talent among your employees. Some common examples include:

  • Positive energy/attitude
  • Entrepreneurial spirit
  • Innovation or creativity
  • Commitment to your startup’s culture and mission
  • Effective communication skills
  • Integrity
  • Teamwork
  • Customer focus and empathy
  • Leadership
  • Potential for growth
  • Job expertise and skills
  • Analytical skills
  • Commitment to deliver
  • A strong work ethic
  • Decision-making skills

Once you have identified the key characteristics or behaviours, measure your employees against these expectations and get a 360° feedback from the managers.

  • Focus on Motivational Dynamics

Once you’ve identified your organization’s top talent, it’s important to focus on the motivational dynamics. Motivational dynamics have changed dramatically to reflect new work requirements and changed worker expectations.

One of the biggest changes has been the rise in importance of psychic, or intrinsic rewards, and the decline of material or extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards—usually financial—are the tangible rewards given employees by managers, such as pay raises, bonuses, and benefits. They are called “extrinsic” because they are external to the work itself and other people control their size and whether or not they are granted. In contrast, intrinsic rewards are psychological rewards that employees get from doing meaningful work and performing it well. Because intrinsic rewards are intangible, they usually arise from within the person who is doing the activity or behavior. Some examples of intrinsic reward includes:

  • Provide meaningful work
  • Allow workers to make choices through a high level of autonomy
  • Provide opportunities for employees to show their competence in areas of expertise
  • Facilitate professional development so that employees can expand on their level of knowledge
  • Offer frequent opportunities for employees to reward themselves
  • Allow employees the opportunity to connect with those with whom they serve to obtain valuable feedback
  • Give them a path to monitor their progress with milestones along the way

Before you can take action to nurture your top talent, you need to take time to get to know them as individuals and discover what motivates and engages them. Once you know this, it can be fairly easy to address their needs.

  • Provide Continuous Development

Just like all other employees, your top talent need opportunities for development and career growth. If companies are truly serious about retaining, and developing high-quality talent, they need to view themselves as growth platforms where people can develop themselves faster than they could elsewhere. It’s also important to nurture an individual’s development in areas where they are less strong, in order to allow them to make greater use of their strengths. Growth opportunities should occur on the job where employees can learn from coworkers and associates. This on-the-job model of learning can enable people to continually acquire relevant skills and tacit knowledge in their domain.

  • Make them Feel Truly Valued

Employee recognition isn’t rocket science. One of your most important responsibilities of the management is to make your employees feel truly valued, letting them know that without them, your company, your department—and frankly, you—would be worse off.

To effectively convey this, think about how you approach everyday conversations with your employees. When you assign a new task, for example, go beyond the basic and reiterate why you truly value their work. While it’s important for top performers to know they are valued by their organizations, they also need to know that their contributions are underpinned by many other people. Acknowledging the value and contributions of all employees helps your “A” team understand their place on the team and helps all employees endeavour for better performance.