How to Recruit Recruiters – What they Want

Is Recruiting Recruiters Really Becoming The Hardest Role to Recruit?

It’s almost eerie how a role that received major layout numbers in the start of this pandemic is now seeing a heavier need and wider search worldwide than Software Engineering roles – The number of Recruiter jobs advertised in LinkedIn has more than doubled in comparison to 2020, and at late of January of 2022 had nearly over fifty thousand more entries than Software Engineering roles – according to Steven Lowel (2022 prediction: Recruiters will be in high demand, Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management Blog, January 26, 2022).

Kate Reilly, a content strategist and writer for LinkedIn, stated back on July 27th of last year that “recruiter jobs had grown faster than the job market overall” (Data Shows Soaring Demand for Recruiters, Marketer, LinkedIn Talent Blog) – generating a war for talent between companies that even with competitive budgets and benefits revisions just don’t seem to be able to get them fast enough, or even, at all. As observed by Lowel it was found that 73 percent of HR leaders have upped their recruiting budgets in 2021, however, a quarter of the HR leaders surveyed reported they’re still finding it hard to fill open roles for recruiters on their teams (Steven Lowel, 2022 prediction: Recruiters will be in high demand, Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management Blog, January 26, 2022).

How Did We End Up Here?

It’s no secret to anyone that back in 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic, there were massive layoffs – according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) over 114 million jobs were lost in 2020 – and apparently recruiting was one of the roles that was hit the hardest. Why? Well, logically, without hiring taking place companies believed recruiters were no longer necessary and the vast majority was laid off.

Now, in an even more demanding and completely changed market, companies are trying to get back or even surpass hiring numbers pre-pandemic – with the additional pressure of hiring back all the positions that were laid off during 2020.

“It is no longer even sustainable to resort to outside recruiting agencies, since the fees that they collect per new hire would just be too expensive for the number of people companies need to hire” as stated by Patrick Thomas (The Hardest Job to Recruit for: Other Recruiters, Nov. 22, 2021, The Wall Street Journal), and in result of this many companies are building and increasing their in-house recruiting teams.

To make it even more challenging, there has been an increased tendency in the market to look for recruiters with past recruitment experience, who’d require less training – according to Kate Reilly: “Before COVID, only one-third of recruiters were coming from other recruiting roles, but since COVID, that share has jumped to 59%” (Data Shows Soaring Demand for Recruiters, Marketer, LinkedIn Talent Blog, July 27, 2021), and so, noticeably, this results on simply not being enough recruiters to fill the current existing demand.

What Data Says Recruiters Want

According to Kate Reilly (New Data Shows a Soaring Demand for Recruiters, LinkedIn Talent Blog, July 27, 2021), new data shows that when considering a new job, recruiters care about: work-life balance; compensation and a company’s culture; However, additional factors have also jumped in importance post-pandemic such as: ?Job’s Security (+21%), Purposeful Mission (+19%), Having Influence Over Tasks and Priorities (+11%) and Challenging Work (+9%).

Why I Wrote This Article

First, I’d just like to mention that I’ve decided to write this piece because I was intrigued by how this has been a phenomenon within the current recruiting market for several months that apparently, and strangely, gets little to no coverage in media; Secondly, while the few pieces that have been written on this are very informative, where are the recruiters? I kept looking and looking for any comments, articles, vlogs, or posts written by actual recruiters on this subject, and I couldn’t find pratically any – even though I know between us (Recruiters) it’s been our number one topic of discussion for months, we’ve never received so much attention from companies or job offers on daily basis in recent memory.

So, I’ve decided to roll up my sleeves and do something about it.

Obviously, please bare in mind that these are my personally opinions and inputs I collected from my own reflections and conversations I had with other recruiters, and I don’t believe they should be held as factual representation of every single recruiter out there – I’m just a firm advocate in communication and a believer that by sharing our reflections and thoughts with others we can always, even if by very little, generate a discussion that could lead to a brighter outcome for everyone, and who knows, maybe by writing this I can also bring a little visibility and empowerment to other recruiters who haven’t yet felt able to voice their thoughts (Please do, your voice matters).

What I Think Recruiters Want

1) Alignment With Your Company’s Values, Culture and Mission

To me, this has got to be one of the most relevant factors when considering a job offer for a company, I need to have a clear understanding of what is the company’s mission; what values does it promote with employees and how they actually nurture them on a day-to-day basis; and how pertinent is to keep both the company’s mission and culture aligned – and obviously if they’re in alignment with mine.

This is not only relevant for me to have a real sense of envisioning myself belonging and of contributing my work to a purpose I identify myself with; but also, If I’m going to spend a vast majority of my time interviewing candidates and presenting them the company I work for, I have to do that with a sense of transparency, pride and belief, never the opposite – to me this is absolutely not negotiable.

How Can You Do That: A great idea to get a candidate a real sense of your company’s values and culture is giving them access to one or two of your current employees and let them discuss together what they enjoy about working there. This could be a particular impactful strategy to both sides since it’s so important to evaluate the alignment between your company’s values and the candidate’s.

2) A Well-Defined Role

From the job advert to the first interview, I need to have a clear understanding of what my role is going to be, why is this position currently necessary for the company and what will really be my main responsibilities. I can’t underline how important this is, and even though it might sound like a given statement, within my personal experience I found very few job adverts or first meetings with companies that were able to really deliver this to me. I need to understand the strategy and purpose of the position you’re offering me for the company; what tools I’ll be working with; what type of profiles I’m going to be focused on hiring and how many; if I’ll be working alongside a team and if yes of which size and seniority; if I’m really just going to be focused on recruiting or if it’ll be expected of me to perform any other side activities (e.g. HR operational tasks; Client management); if there are already processes established and implemented, and if so, will I have openness to suggest any improvements; and more importantly: why was I called or approached for this role, what was it about my profile and experience that you believed suited the role, team and company?

How Can You Do That: It all starts with an attractive and well-built job advert, it’s important that the advert reflects not just all the relevant requirements and responsibilities of the job, but also the company’s culture and mission. Why don’t you ask other inhouse recruiters to review the advert and share their thoughts on it? Does it reflect what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis? Does it reflect their team and the company? From the very first moment make it a priority to make sure you’re available to your candidates and that every communication you have with them is clear and thorough.

3) A Fair Evaluation System

I have come to the realization that most companies still see recruitment as essentially an operational job, when in reality it is so much more than that. Recruitment demands high communication and searching skills; a constant actualization on market trends and understanding of new profiles; regular communication with clients, hiring managers and teams; as well as having a broader vision of the company’s mission and goals. It is a highly strategic role to have in a company, even if, unfortunately, it is still not as regarded as much as it should.

By seeing a recruitment as an operational job, it’s almost immediate and easy to assume that all outcomes are in the accountability of a recruiter, when in reality there’s only so much we can control. Our job is highly dependent on external variables, we can’t regulate the number of valid and available candidates for a role, nor as we control their drive or expectations; we can’t control their actions or choices; we can’t control the amount of time it’ll take to fill the position; and we most definitely don’t control what other companies are offering them for similar positions. And yet, we’re often held completely accountable on our failed or successful hires.

Is it fair to evaluate someone’s work solely on numbers they delivered and there are multiple variables at game here? Aren’t many other actions the recruiter is involved with that should also be considered? Shouldn’t the recruiter be specially evaluated by what is specifically under their accountability?

And now you ask: but then what am I going to evaluate on a recruiter apart from the numbers of their successful hires?

Candidate experience, Candidate experience, Candidate experience.

Nothing is more important through the course of a recruitment process these days than candidate experience: the more engaged, comfortable and motivate a candidate is throughout a process, the more likely they will be interested in joining your company; the more likely they will reference your company to their colleagues and friends; the more likely they will be interested in participating in other or future hiring process for your company; and the more likely they’ll help you stablishing a positive branding and reputation for your company. In the long term, great candidate experience is as valuable, and these days perhaps even more, than a successful hire.

If you’re having evaluation processes taking place at your company, don’t primarily evaluate your recruiters by the number of hires they managed to deliver in short amounts of time. They’re so much at play that isn’t within control of your recruiters. Although their hires are indeed an item that should always have a place in their evaluation, try always to include specifically actions that the recruiter can actually be fully accountable for.

How Can You Do That: Integrate the following items in the assessment you conduct to your Recruiter's evaluation:?1) Candidate Experience: what’s the candidate’s feedback on the process, did your recruiter created a positive and clear experience for them? Were they able to present to the candidates your company, and the role properly? Were they able to fairly evaluate a candidate’s motivation and profile? 2) Process Layout: did your recruiter consciously discussed with your hiring managers what were the best ways to create the job description? Is it attracting the right pool of candidates? Is it a profile that is realistically available in the market? Is the budget for the role appropriate? Does the recruitment process have necessary stages to properly assess the candidates and keep them engaged? 3) Did your recruiter published the job advert in strategic platforms? Did your recruiter source and contacted a considerable number of viable candidates? Did your recruiter validate all applications fairly? 4) Was your recruiter able to properly make an offer to the candidate and negotiate it in the best possible way, keeping the hiring manager involved and informed?

So, you see, there are plenty of variables you can properly evaluate your recruiter on, and most of them don’t involve external agents. Make sure your recruiter knows you’re keeping track of all their actions and inputs, and give them feedback on those, I guarantee you they’ll appreciate that immensely and will be engaged in your team much longer than if you practice the reverse.

4) Access to Necessary Tools

I think this one’s easier understandable if I put it this way: you need to hire a Designer, and so without doing any proper research on what a Designer really does, what’s their background or how they work, or even what’s their market value…you jump blindly into the market, because you’re in a rush since the company needs someone to work on campaigns immediately, and obviously you’ll need someone with a magic touch.

You quickly put together and publish a job advert, you wait for applications, and you start reaching out to possible candidates. You’re sure that no matter what you’ll be able to hire someone who’ll be able to do what you need fast and at the minimum possible cost. After all, at the end of the day, you think “it’s a pretty easy job, they just have to be sort of creative, and…what, design something for you, right?” (even though apparently no one in the company can do it, and you’re on a quest to recruit an expert).

Then, something amazing happens, a really experienced candidate agrees to talk with you, but…he seems to have lots of questions such as: “What stack do you guys use at the company? Do you work with Photoshop and Illustrator? Am I going to be a part of a Designers team? What type of campaigns or products are you specialized in?” – the first of these questions seems particularly difficult to answer, so you go shoot with “We don’t have available any specific tools for Designers, we checked out and they’d be a big investment for the company at the moment, one that we don’t see as urgent right now, but you’re creative and resourceful enough you probably can do this job with anything we might have available, even on Paint right? And no, we don’t have an inhouse team, you’ll be our first; oh yeah, we’re specialized in beverages”. The candidate will most probably thank you for your time, but will not be even remotely interested in moving forward: because if you’re not even guaranteeing him basic tools he needs to work with to produce his best results, why would he be interested in changing companies?

In short: If you’re in need of hiring any type of profile to bring necessary and strategic results to your company, you need to understand what kind of tools they’ll need in order to produce those results. To me, this shows that you're giving that role a minimum proper consideration at your team, because you cared enough to guarantee you’re making available the best possible tools in order for them to produce their possible work. I can’t underline enough how important this is to me when I’m considering a job offer.

Recruiters are not miracle workers, we’re employees like anyone else you have in your company. If you don’t consider us relevant enough to guarantee us the necessary tools to work with, in what already is an extremely fast paced competitive market, then why would we want to join you?

How Can You Do That: Please conduct market research on recruitment tools prefered by recruiters, it’s important to understand what and how we do our work and what tools we get the most out of. The data you’ll collect will help you design a sustainable plan for your hiring process and will assure any recruiter you trying to hire that you’re considering them to be a real and strategic part of your team.

5) Competitive Wage, Conditions and Benefits

Besides the obvious competitive wage, there are other conditions and benefits in a job offer that I look for: 1) Job security: the type of working contract you’re offering me will absolutely matter, I’ll always look after the one that provides me with the most stability and security; 2) Health Insurance: absolutely nonnegotiable to me for obvious reasons; 3) Flexibility: either coming on flexible schedules or remote work, I’ll absolutely always value any type of benefit that’ll allow me to have the best work-life balance; 4) Extra Days Off: I appreciate any company that allows their employees to celebrate special occasions like their Birthdays or Christmas Eve with whomever means the most to them; again, any extra time I’ll be able to focus on my personal relationships and goals outside of work, will be heavily appreciated; 5) Training: I absolutely love to have access to platforms, courses and learning experiences that’ll make a more updated and complete professional; 6) Career Progression: I’m very much interested in companies that invest on their employees and want them to succeed; that keep them engaged in their company, and give them opportunities to do so, to me, this is a highly motivational benefit if I’m considering getting on board;

How Can You Do That: I think it’s absolutely vital to research and meet market trends, especially if you’re hiring a heavy sought-after profile in the market, don’t forget that the conditions and benefits of a job offer often reflect the way a role or an employee is considered within a company, and you’ll want to make sure you’re able to meet (or ideally surpass) the candidate’s expectations. If you can’t be one step head of the game, you need to guarantee you’re offering what candidates are asking and looking for in the market, otherwise, even if you’ll be able to hire them, they’ll soon end up leaving you for a better offer.

6) Trusting Leadership

I’ve always believed you get much better outcomes from your team when you act more so as leader instead of a results driven manager – provide your collaborators the support, belief and tools they’ll need to be successful, and they will.

Micro-management is not inspirational – if you’re hiring a professional to deliver a job they’ve probably already done in the past, trust in their abilities to deliver the results you hired them for. You don’t need to constantly schedule unnecessary meetings with them to check on how they’re doing their work, what you’re doing is installing an environment of tension, fear of failing, and robbing them of precious time they could be using to focus on their work.

Let them manage and plan their time the way they believe it’ll get them better results. As a leader your job is in fact to check on your team, but constantly and definitely not on what they’re doing, instead you should focus on how they are, what can you do to support them, what constructive feedback they need to hear, or what training do you believe would help them…anything that builds trust in your team will lift it up, and it will always be appreciated.

You can’t forget that in every relationship you have, professional or not, you need trust in order for that relationship to thrive, and trust is something that needs to be built, in a conscious and constant effort – if trust isn’t there, I can guarantee you that that relationship is never going to be successful and you’re never going to have your team engaged and motivated on deliver their best.

How Can You Do That: Make sure your team leaders are receiving training on leadership and communication skills; Conduct anonymous, qualitative, and descriptive assessments and evaluations from teams to collect their feedback on their leaders. If there are high levels of turnover in any of your teams, you need to be alert and properly investigate – because, more often than not, that is due to poor leadership.

7) Impact and Influence

As anyone else, recruiters also want to feel they’re work is meaningful and leaving a positive and strategic impact on your company, your teams and your new hires.

Recruiters are also probably the best individuals that understand what candidates are looking for and what other companies are offering them – invite them to strategic recruitment meetings, hear their inputs and let them participate, they’ll probably always have something valuable to share.

When your team leaders need to recruit a role, let the recruiters be part of the process of how that role is going to be designed and sourced for – who better to tell you what’s available in the market than recruiters? If a position or a job description needs to be revised to better accommodate the market, hear what the recruiter has to say about that, their insights are probably the ones that’ll help you tracking what’s real and available that better match your needs. Don’t ask recruiters to find you the last unicorn on the planet and then act surprised or impatient when they keep on not delivering you regularly spectacular candidates to assess.

Hear us, we’ll probably save you so much time and unnecessary frustration.

On another scenario, if you’re hiring a new joiner for an already pre-established recruitment team, don’t impose them only a way of doing things simply because it has always been done that way, things change, times change, and the needs of the market and candidates change to. It’s always important to give everyone a voice and make them feel validated. I promise you, this will keep your new hired recruiter much more engaged and driven.

8) Training and Onboarding

Onboarding is such an important part of any recruitment process for a new hire, make sure that you’re accommodating your new collaborator with a fair presentation of your company, the teams they’ll mostly be interacting with, and give them training and support in any type of specific tools or platforms that are either inhouse based, or they haven’t worked with in the past.

If I’ll be considering joining your company, I’ll absolutely need to know what type of onboarding process and support will I get during that transition – and it obviously will weight on my final decision.

Making training an accessible and promoted part of your company’s policies is extremely attractive to collaborators, and recruiters are no exception. Don’t assume recruitment to be a stagnant operational task when it’s nothing but that. Recruiters have to constantly be on track on market trends, and they need to update themselves either in soft or hard skills, to make them better and stronger professionals, just like any other employee in your company.

How Can You Do That: It’s important to make sure there’s a well structured and designed onboarding process in place so that when your new recruiter joins, they’ll have all the necessary support and information in order to feel capable to do their job and most importantly, feeling welcomed.

Make also sure to keep on track with e-learning platforms, courses, skills and tools your recruiters will need to be trained with or will want to. Companies that provide training accesses to collaborators are often seen as companies that also promote career progression among them, otherwise, and that’s also very attractive to candidates, being them recruiters or not.

If you’re having a hard time recruiting experienced recruiters, and if you have the possibility to allocate resources for training, why don’t you design programs for recruitment trainees? You might even be surprised to find internal collaborators who’ve always wanted to try this career but never had the guts or resources to do it, this could be a great motivator for them to take that career change. You might not get the immediate results you’re needing, but in the long term, you’ll have created and contributed to collaborator’s career’s progression, and that also can be a spectacular attractive and booster for your company’s reputation in the market. ?

Conclusion

If you’re having a really hard time recruiting recruiters, you're not alone, it’s currently one of the most sought after profiles in the market, so logically, there won't be enough profiles available for everyone – and apparently it won’t get easier: recent data indicates this hiring trend will continue for the entire year of 2022 (Steven Lowel, 2022 prediction: Recruiters will be in high demand, Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management Blog, January 26, 2022).

However, you can easily be ahead of the game if you make a conscious decision to make sure you can guarantee in your offer what recruiters value and look after the most – which was one of the reasons why I’ve decided to write this article, hoping it’ll be able to help you be on top of your game and get you the recruiter you’ve been searching for.

If you’re a recruiter and you feel like there’s anything missing from this article, please leave your inputs in the comment section or share them with me through a private message. From what little I can do I promise to make sure your opinions will be heard and seen. ??

It’s no secret that being a recruiter wasn’t a job any of us dreamed to have when we were kids – but it became a job we learned we could and want to do, and like everyone one else, we want to make sure we’re passionate and motivated about what we’re doing, so if companies are competing with each other to get us right now– you bet we’ll make sure we’re deciding on the ones who can guarantee us the very best.