Are You Simple Enough to be Successful

In a world that is placing ever-increasing demands on you, whether it be at home or in the workplace, are you simple enough to be successful? The happiest and least stressed out people I know and work with, are the individuals who can take a complex task and simplify it.  

Working in Corporate Recruitment throughout my career, I have witnessed this over and over as the demands of a growing company increase seemingly daily. I've seen recruiters with 75 reqs to fill as cool as a cucumber, not a negative thought in their head, and I've seen recruiters with 20 reqs stressed out and agitated like they were asked to solve the world's problems by the end of the week. Neither of these recruiters was filling complex roles; they just had completely different working styles and ways of thinking.  The relaxed recruiter was able to achieve success through a few simple techniques that I have listed below. The stressed recruiter did none of these and is likely to either have a short career in recruitment or a miserable career (hopefully it's the former for their colleague's sake).  

Organize your reqs. Req management is a simple activity and can be done during the intake discussion. Get a sense of the timelines and expectations of your hiring manager. The sooner the role needs to be filled, the higher the priority. This is a bona fide ask and directly impacts the business; it is not the hiring manager just being greedy with your time. Organizing reqs will be an ongoing task. As you get reqs added and others filled, the priority levels will change, so make sure you are partnering with your hiring manager. This is crucial to your success and how the company views you.

 Unique reqs.  This is purely a mental one and all about your outlook. I've watched countless recruiters complain about req load, saying, "I have 10 software developer roles, 10 sales reps, and 7 support roles to fill." What they are seeing is 27 individual roles, when in actuality, it is 3 unique roles. This is how you must think about it. The way you recruit for one is the same way you would recruit for 10; you don't stop when you make the hire, you continue until all ten are completed. It's a simple frame of mind trick that will drastically lower your stress.  

 Quick wins.  When you have a higher req load, always look for a quick win. For example, if you have a role that has basic requirements and many applicants, work on that role first and get a solid number of people set up for an interview with the hiring manager. Now that you have a good number of candidates in play, the hiring manager is happy and doesn't want anything else for the time being. Congrats, you just bought yourself two weeks to concentrate on other roles. 

 Tool use.  This is a pretty obvious one, but I would be remiss if I didn't put it in.  As a corporate recruiter, we generally have several tools to help us reach out to and attract talent.  USE THEM. I cannot stress this enough. The company is spending tens of thousands of dollars a year to make your life easier, and so many recruiters opt to take the hard route. Sooner or later, they will be taken away, and when you really need them, they will be gone. Along with the paid tools, there are many free tools at our disposal that aren't being utilized. Set up Google Alerts, ask for referrals, ask for everyone to share in their networks, look for silver medalists, review your own ATS, etc.

I've been called simple many times in my life, and never have I ever been insulted. Simplicity is exactly what I'm striving for. If you want to be a successful recruiter and lower your stress, I urge you to try these simple techniques and see how much happier your day to day life will be.