Recruiting Skills: Power - Get It & Use It Wisely

New recruiters often feel insecure about their role as a headhunter. The way to curb that insecurity is with:
 1.    Knowledge – Learn how to be a recruiter, the process, and what to expect
 2.   Preparation – Have your questions and responses ready
 3.  Dedication – Keep pace with the routine and don’t judge mistakes, and keep practicing!
 4. Tenacity – Think of your career in survival mode – this is a street fight, a well mannered street fight, so take some chances!

If our internal view of ourselves is not one of authority with powerful resources, recruiting becomes much more difficult. Most of the time our verbal technique is what is judged because we do so much work on the phone. People make thousands of decisions all day long that are based on fleeting impressions and perceptions.

Improve your verbal presence by speaking slowing, enunciate clearly, use a positive, enthusiastic tone, speak from your gut, and sit or stand up straight. Speak with authority.

Authority

The weird thing about headhunting is we really have no authority. Yet we must get our clients and candidates to cooperate and work with us. Ultimately we must convince all parties it’s in their best interest to listen to our advice and we close the deal. Everyone wins. Once we ‘get’ the process we orchestrate and our work becomes fun. When both employer and candidate have had a great interview, they are invested in the process and want the deal to happen. We help by ironing out the details. We facilitate, which is no small matter.

Non-Verbal Cues

Ann Cuddy’s video on TED about non-verbal cues explains how we are judged and judge others with primal consciousness. Part of being a successful recruiter is using common sense and trusting our intuition. We often face the possibility of the deal falling apart. It’s our job to get to the truth about why one side or the other feels a need to withdraw. Surprisingly, once objections can be voiced solutions miraculously appear. Deals that should be done get done. Everything in Cuddy's video applies to recruiting and I believe it's worthy of your time.

Recruiters need to be able to set their ego aside and do whatever it takes to help all sides make good decisions. Communication skills are paramount. It’s not that hard. We ask questions and when someone is hedging, we ask more questions. Everyone tells white lies and when the topic is changing jobs emotions can magnify and charge the process with electric intensity. Changing jobs is stressful. 

The 2-Minute Power Exercise

Use Cuddy’s 2-minute power exercise and better still, help candidates prepare for an interview by asking them to watch the video. Skills matter certainly but chemistry is what propels a hiring manager to want a certain candidate. Chemistry is about “Presence”: Enthusiasm, confidence, passion, charm, kindness, friendliness, and a captivating personality, are a few subjective qualities.

As a Recruiter, I want to create a win/win irresistible experience for my clients and candidates. I listen to my clients’ wish list. I honor what they require and prefer in a candidate. On the flip side I listen to candidates. I honor what they’re looking for in a new position and corporate culture. I tell the truth tactfully. It works exceedingly well.

Some recruiters and some recruiting firms give the great headhunters and the industry a bad name by using a ‘throw spaghetti against the wall and something will stick’ routine. Placements (even if they are not right) and money are their primary motivators. For over twenty years these stupid routines have perpetuated distain for our industry. Clients may feel wary and cautious until they work with a pro. Then they feel they have an ally and partner in their recruiter.

Use your power wisely

Empower candidates by helping them present themselves in the most favorable light. Remove the discomfort of pending interviews. Help prepare hiring managers who only interview and hire once or twice a year. Coach them and provide questions that will highlight why the candidate is indeed a great match for their company. Never underestimate your power to influence, change, or impact good decisions by those involved.

by Kimberly Schenk, Executive Recruiter, Trainer, and Author

Recruiter Training: It's All About The Conversation

Talking with candidates is the most essential part of recruiting. Knowing how to manage the conversation and steer it where it needs to go is crucial to making placements or adding new hires to your team. The fastest way to make a candidate mad is to ‘wing it’ yet that’s what the majority of new recruiters do if they bypass recruiter training.

The Goal

The end goal is to hire the best talent for the position. Initial conversations weed out less qualified candidates quickly and conduct in-depth interviews with the candidates most worthy of our time. Fundamental to finding success in recruiting is the ability to ask good questions right out of the gate.

We have about 30 -45 seconds max to gain the cooperation of a candidate who is probably at work when they answer our call. Thus, a good script is needed to engage. A good script disarms and shuts down an automatic response of, ‘Go away I’m busy’. When a recruiter can engage and build a little trust fast, a candidate will spend five – ten –twenty minutes talking about their situation so they can hear about what you have to offer.

Big Mistake

The biggest mistake new recruiters make is telling a candidate too much about their opportunity before the candidate is ready. This error flips the control of the process to the listener. If one gives out all their info too soon, they have no more carrots to dangle in front of the listener to keep them talking. If a prospective employee uses this power to prematurely dismiss an opportunity the call is shut down. The recruiter is left without knowing whether that was an appropriate decision or not because they failed to get enough information to qualify the candidate.

In the initial give and take, for the ultimate win/win result is to unfold one must create an atmosphere where the candidate is given bits of information in return for information provided. When they demonstrate they may be a good to great match for the job the floodgates of information open. The process is the same no matter if we’re speaking with CEOs or entry-level sales people. The process remains the same for every industry, and every position. What changes is the terminology and hiring criteria.

Closing

Recruiting is a series of small closes. Contingency fee recruiters work with a sense of urgency because they provide superior service by working quickly. We work on commission so if we don’t produce, we don’t get paid. By honoring our main objective, which is to provide the best talent, we almost guarantee our client will use us again and again.

The Conversation

Think of the recruiting call strategically. Make a list of what a candidate must have in terms of skill sets and personality in order to qualify for an interview. Design your questions around those factors. Before you call anyone you must clarify in your own mind what constitutes a poor, fair, good, or excellent answer. Ask the same questions to each candidate to gather objective information.

We make decisions on objective and subjective information so your information must be detailed and accurate. Check the facts. During the conversation your currency is information so parcel it out based on what the candidate needs to hear in order to move forward. Be friendly but make sure you manage the call.

When ten minutes passes the right candidate will be really excited to move ahead. 10 times out of 11 it will be our job to let the candidate know they're not quite right for the position or the employer, if we've done our job correctly. There are a dozen ways to respectfully and kindly set aside less than desirable candidates. Put yourself in their shoes and down the road when you re-contact them with an opportunity that does match their experience, they’ll greet you like an old friend.

The steps in the recruiting process are easy to learn and take practice to perfect. Without recruiter training so much time is wasted on trial and error that a vast number of new recruiters quit the profession. Working without success sucks. Learning how to effectively handle any question, situation, or surprise will help anyone close more deals and avoid pricey conversational collisions.

It’s all about the conversation so develop the recruiting skills, know-how, and follow the process. One more thing…you’re going to need a wheel barrel. The wheel barrel is for taking your money to the bank and believe me, that’s one job you’ll never fail to enjoy.

by Kimberly Schenk, Executive Recruiter, Trainer, Author

Recruiting Skills & The Talent Grab In IT

Growing IT companies are in competition with just about everyone for the best technical talent. The workforce landscape is changing and it’s time to notch up the headhunting capabilities of your recruiting staff. Increasing the quality of 1-on-1 recruiting conversations is not a luxury in-house recruiters can side step any longer. Refining this critical recruiting skill is one of the fastest ways to decrease those pesky tough-to-fill vacancies.

Face it, the people you want to hire are busy working somewhere else and sending boatloads of emails into cyberspace is not getting the recruiting job done. The northwest part of the country is just one of the market segments squawking about how difficult it is to sell quality candidates on coming to work for their company.

Here are 3 strategies to implement now to win top talent:

1.    Improve your research capabilities

Sourcing well is a specialized talent. A great sourcer can uncover names and numbers at lightening speed. They save us time. These people are quickly become SMEs (subject matter experts) in their own right. Their minds work like detectives. They can find entire directories complete with organizational charts of your nearest and dearest competitors. Use them and pay them well.

 Everyone uses LinkedIn, all-be-it not well most of the time, however inmails are no match for an authentic and effective recruiting conversation. The other day a recruiter I coach once or twice a year called. She places upper management executives at universities. She dislikes cold calling (like most of us) and tries to initiate all conversations via email. Her request for advice centered on how she should proceed to fill a COO position for which she had an ideal candidate because no one was responding to her emails.

My advice was (no surprise), pick up the phone! C’mon! If a twenty-some thousand-dollar fee is not enough motivation to conduct our work professionally then we’re in the wrong business. She knew what to say and her manner is excellent. In fact I believe she knew what I would say before she called. All she needed was a nudge because she has the know-how. My prediction is she'll have the placement complete within a week now that she's decided to make the calls.

2.    If cold calling feels intimidating, seek out training. Recruiting should be fun, not painful.

No one likes rejection. The best way to minimize rejection is to succeed consistently. Nine times out of ten a recruiting call can be rewarding and fun. As recruiters we reject people all day long! The easiest remedy to cold calling is to make sure one knows how to conduct a recruiting call effectively.

A good call engages the other person within seconds. It builds rapport and trust quickly by asking direct, professional questions the typical recruiter does not ask. Simple techniques trigger curiosity and authenticity disarms. Candidates don’t get the opportunity to talk about themselves all that often and it should be an enjoyable experience if the call is managed properly. Focus on the goal and it will come quickly.

3.    Don’t fight the sales process.

Recruiting is a sales job. Yes, we are consultants but ultimately we are sales people. The sooner one recognizes their responsibility the easier it is to get help. Tips and training on the consultative sales process are everywhere.

Consciously develop your sales skills. I prefer the need-satisfaction method of recruiting. Don’t manipulate or push a candidate to accept a position that you and he know is not right. It won’t last and your client won’t like or trust you. Worse yet, they won’t use you again.

The wonderful thing about a recruiting career is solo operators can compete against the big boys simply by being effective. Recruiting can feel positively elegant when done well. The competition for talent is fierce but there’s no need for your in-house recruiting staff to feel their efforts are futile. The answer lies in understanding how to engage and close the candidates you want to hire. The secret lies in making sure both sides are happy; this is simple not difficult.

by Kimberly Schenk, Executive Recruiter, Trainer, Author