10 Steps to Become a Better Recruiter

This post was previously published on Whitecollars.net

Recruitment is an ever-going daily task that can get easily overwhelmed if not properly organized. Staying productive as a recruiter is crucial to following up on your tasks and achieving your deadlines effectively.

Your list of tasks is endless, between developing and posting job descriptions, screening resumes, calling and interviewing candidates, and calling accepted employees. Going through this list on a daily basis without a plan will leave you feeling overworked and missing a lot of deadlines.

As a recruiter, you need to keep focused and productive with so much going on.

Here are 10 productivity hacks to stay ahead in your work and become a better recruiter.

1. Create your own recruitment checklist.

You would better have the same strategy to tackle every recruiting task on your list. By creating a comprehensive checklist applied across all jobs, you can easily navigate across vacancies you need to fill. This checklist will be your blueprint for knowing where you are at every task. Regardless of every type of job you are recruiting for, you need to decide on a generic, fixed checklist that is common across all phases and types of vacancies.

You will find yourself repeating tasks like writing job descriptions, posting across all networks, contacting shortlisted candidates, scheduling interviews, and sending final offers. Instead of being overwhelmed and confused about the status of each position, this checklist will help you define a roadmap that will save you time and effort.

2. Look into existing networks first.

Each time you receive a new job that needs to be filled, your first step is to decide how you will source it. Posting the job and trying to find new talents each time will be exhausting and, in fact, wasteful. By now, you should have created your own network of talents after contacting a lot of candidates regarding various past vacancies.

Part of your recruiting strategy is to keep track of the resumes and contact details of all candidates. It would be even better to have them classified according to their experience, field, location, and all relevant traits. Going through your organized network will provide you with a shorter route in your staffing funnel. You have probably screened most of these talents, and you will know ahead of time if they are fit for the job.

3. Email schedule and template

Checking your emails is an important part of your job; however, limiting the time you need to check your emails is crucial to staying productive. You could add an hour or two hours a day for checking and replying to your emails. Once you finish, you can continue other tasks rather than going back and forth to your email inbox.

Moreover, you will find many emails repeated, and rewriting each email will consume a lot of time. Having email templates that fit repeated emails will reduce the time you spend in your inbox and will increase your productivity.

4. Multitasking vs. single-tasking

It is always perceived that multitasking is a sign of productivity. While that might be the case for a lot of recruiters, you need to assess if it works for you. There is not a single rule that fits all. Sometimes multitasking can cause distractions and delay meeting deadlines. It might be overwhelming to handle different tasks at a time.

Single-tasking and focusing on a task by task can ensure productivity by giving each task its own timeline and effort, and then you can move on to another task. Single-tasking ensures a task is completed instead of having a lot of idle tasks waiting for more work.

5. Appreciate break time.

You might focus only on getting more work done without taking any breaks. Taking a break from loads of work seems like a waste of time, but it is totally the opposite. Working without breaks will cause you to reach job burnout. You will lose the energy to keep working and will not be able to continue the required tasks.

Taking a regular break boosts your energy to keep being productive and completing all hiring tasks in a timely manner. You can divide your work time into fixed working sessions that would last between 25 and 45 minutes, followed by a break. Repeating this pattern increases focus and recharge.

6. Leverage AI technology.

With the advancement of AI-based software, there is a revolution in each job and how it changes the way we handle work. AI technology will help us automate a lot of tasks, giving us more time to achieve other tasks. In that way, you can do more in much less time.

Using applications to screen and assess resumes will save you a lot of time. You can then take it from here by contacting the screened candidates that the software recommends.

7. Implement an employee referral program.

Finding top calibres in each industry takes a lot of work. They usually have equally qualified previous team members that they can recommend for new vacancies. Getting recommendations from these talents will help you reach the right candidates for your other vacancies. Offering your current network incentives to get you in touch with their network will benefit all parties involved.

8. Widen your network.

You need to widen your posting network rather than feel satisfied with the current social network you are used to. Posting the new job openings on new networks can help you find new talents that browse these new networks.

9. Spend more time tailoring the right job description.

One of your main functions as a recruiter is to write an accurate job description that attracts the right talent. If you spend sufficient time to accomplish a job description that is to the point, it will help you avoid spending too much time screening irrelevant resumes.

10. How is being a good recruiter all about time?

A lot of your tasks as a recruiter reoccur daily in the same flow. If you spend a lot of time doing the same task every day, you will consume a huge amount of time and effort on it. Rather, you need to opt to automate these daily tasks in an organized way. That way, you ensure productivity for these tasks, and you will save time and effort that can be spent on other tasks.

You need to use an applicant tracking system to automate and keep track of hiring tasks. ATR is a cloud-based application that manages the whole recruiting funnel from start to finish. This application will help you automate:

• Posting vacancies across all your networks.
• Having one central dashboard for all job networks
• Initial resume scoring
• Performing background checks.
• Communicating efficiently with talents
• Follow up on all candidates’ performances.

Summing everything up:

Following all these tips will help you stay ahead in recruiting the right candidates for your employers and achieve a lot of work with much less time and effort. Start today and get ahead of your competitors.