It’s a candidate’s market. That means anyone considering a job today can usually select from several choices. That’s great news for them but tough news for recruiters who face disappointment when a candidate they’ve cultivated chooses another job.
With unemployment still at a record low, recruiters can be faced with rejection and frustration day in and day out. How can you motivate your team to keep searching for qualified candidates?
Attitude is Everything
In recruiting or any other sales role, we know how a positive attitude correlates with success. Keeping your employees motivated even when it’s hard to find candidates is highly essential to everything from worker retention to closing candidates. That’s precisely why managers must work harder to keep their recruiters motivated. We know how hard the business of recruiting is these days. There’s no sign that it’s going to change anytime soon. But there are ways to help motivate your team even when times are hard. For example:
Help Your Team Set Attainable Goals
Recruiting these days is a sales job. Recruiters must seek out and then solicit a potential job candidate. When deals aren’t closing, which is when candidates don’t make it through the hiring process, recruiters can feel the sting of disappointment.
But sitting down with your team to set specific, measurable, and attainable goals can help push the restart button for teams that have grown disenchanted with losing. This is an excellent idea to do this once per quarter to help motivate your recruiters to succeed. Make sure the recruiter’s goals include something beyond just hiring a candidate. Ask them to consider what life goals they have during that quarter. Do they have any personal goals they’d like to share?
Use this process to outline activity metrics that they can achieve and receive praise for every day. This will not only help them build a better candidate pipeline but also give them something concrete to focus on even when candidate deals aren’t closing.
Learn Something New Every Month
Make continuous learning a part of your recruiting team goals. Learning a new skill or improving a recruiter’s knowledge base in some way could help motivate the employee even during difficult times. Would taking a class to motivate the employee? Sometimes just getting people out of their comfort zone to learn new things will help them shake off any disappointments they’ve experienced. Learning new skills benefits them and the company, so make sure to add this guaranteed confidence builder into your approach.
Make Selling Fun
Recruiters who receive commission often have to wait months to receive it. Most companies won’t pay out until 90-days after the candidate comes on board. You can keep employees engaged during this timeframe with small rewards to keep them interested. Try taking them out to lunch or create activity-driven contests that will give small rewards. For example, offer a weekly prize of an Amazon gift card to the recruiter that has the most conversations with candidates. Or, make Wednesday’s donut day and treat your recruiters to a sugary fun treat to motivate them.
Give Them The Tools They Need
If your recruiters are slogging through the mud every day and don’t feel motivated anymore, why not give them a new tool to make their job easier? Exelare’s next-gen applicant tracking system can give you a competitive edge by automating mundane tasks. If your team is struggling, now is the time to consider a test drive of the leading ATS software on the market today. Call us for a demo today.