Hiring? 4 key characteristics you should look for in a recruiter

Hiring? 4 key characteristics you should look for in a recruiter

When you’re looking to hire new people, your most important hiring decision may be the recruitment professional you use.

Hiring is expensive in terms of both time and money, and the wrong decision could cost as much as three times the person’s annual salary in hiring and training costs. Add to that the loss of productivity, and it’s clear how important it is to ‘get it right’.

Businesses use recruitment professionals in the hope of saving time and receiving a superior selection of candidates to consider. To make sure that this is what you’re getting, there are several characteristics you should look for when hiring a recruiter to act on your behalf.

1. Always on the look out

Anyone can put an advertisement on a job board, but quality candidates aren’t usually looking for work – people are looking for them. A good recruiter has developed a strong network of people who can refer the right individuals to the right job. Recruiters should go out and find the right person – not wait for them to come looking.

2. Keen listener

No one knows your business like you do, so a great recruiter does more listening than talking. If you don’t feel they truly understand what you’re looking for, the likelihood is you’ll receive the wrong candidates. It all starts with having a solid job description already in place, but a really good recruiter is someone who can help you develop and clarify it based on their expert knowledge of people and business.

3. Has a strong opinion

Having said that, if your recruiter is unable or unwilling to let you know what they think, you might as well be doing the work yourself. Sometimes the right candidate doesn’t necessarily look right on paper, and that’s when you need a recruiter who knows that special something to look for and is willing to back the person they believe will truly deliver. They may not always get it right, but the process of discussing it often helps refine and clarify your needs.

4. Is objective

One of the best reasons for using a recruitment professional is something called the halo effect. People have a tendency to be influenced by whether or not we ‘like’ a candidate based on a lot of unconscious signals. That means we often end up hiring people we like to work with but who may not be the best person for the job.

An experienced recruiter has interviewed thousands of people and developed a healthy cynicism that helps them be more objective about who they consider. Ultimately, the decision is up to you, but having candidates who have passed a stringent selection process, including professional testing, considerably reduces your risk.

The quality of the recruitment professional you hire will impact the quality of personnel that follows, so demand the very best.

For more of my posts on hiring advice and recruitment, visit the Robert Half blogs:

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