What makes a good recruiter? It’s a question plaguing companies right now because the reality is that there are more open recruiter positions than even tech roles. Just about everyone needs help hiring. So, for the limited pool of recruiters on the market, how can you select the best one for your company? We have the criteria you’re looking for to help you hire.

Hiring a Recruiter? Here is What to Look For

Top Traits of the Best Recruiters

The best recruiters incorporate hybrid skills into a job that requires creativity, organization, and people skills. The job requires many of the same skills used in sales. You must be articulate but also have good follow-through. Good recruiters can write, talk, but also practice active listening when working with a candidate. Some of the traits you should screen for include:

  • Proactive networking skills. Hire those recruiters who exhibit a track record of building proactive relationships with potential job candidates. Today, most candidates don’t apply, they are found. Look for a recruiter who is creative in their approach to proactively networking with candidates, targeting, and building a passive network.
  • Big picture planning and vision. Find the recruiters that can muster the ability to think ahead by working even when there are no open jobs. Recruiters should constantly build relationships in the markets they’re targeting. These relationships are by no means busy work—but they are what you do during the ebb and flow of hiring. Building these pipelines of candidates is a constant process and the best recruiters know that these incremental conversations can yield fruit later on.
  • Navigate internal relationships. The maturity to play well with hiring managers during the interviewing process is incredibly important. Select candidates based on their ability to navigate the tricky relationships that can flare up between team members. While the candidate experience is incredibly important, good recruiters also know how to balance the needs of their internal hiring teams. Sometimes these needs can even lead to conflict, but a good recruiter will still keep pushing things along.
  • Open-mindedness. Good recruiters can ferret out skills that aren’t listed on a resume. They don’t judge a book by its cover. They can read between the lines of a job title and determine whether the candidate will really be good for the job. They can figure out if one bad interview should destroy the whole process or if the candidate should be given one more shot. The best recruiters find out what the day-to-day job is like and then match a candidate with the right experience to that role. But they also know when a square peg actually should go into a round hole. For example, if the candidate meets diversity criteria, has all the right soft skills, but is missing a hard technical requirement, could they fit with additional training? Keeping an open mind when you’re in a people job is what can make you more successful. 

Ready To Hire a New Recruiter?

How is it that Exelare knows so much about what makes a good recruiter? We listen to our clients. Exelare offers state-of-the-art recruiting and marketing software that provides HR teams with the tools they need to source, screen, and hire. Find out why we’re different—contact us today.