Recruiting for Other Recruiters

Recruiting for Other Recruiters

Recruiters are busier than ever as organizations struggle to find talented workers during the Great Resignation. The staffing and recruiting industry itself has not been immune to this phenomenon, and the demand for recruiters far exceeds the current supply.

Agencies hard at work helping clients fill open positions are now being challenged to successfully fill their own ranks. Openings for recruiters have exploded and competition is fierce. To keep up with client demands, agencies need to focus on their internal talent procurement strategies more than ever before. Here is how you can succeed in recruiting other recruiters for your agency.

The Staffing Challenge

American workers left their jobs at astronomical rates in 2021, with tens of millions of resignation letters being served through the new year. At the same time, job openings continue to grow as the economy rebounds from what seems to be the worst of the pandemic. Together, this means that talented workers are in no short supply of potential job prospects.

Staffing and recruiting agencies that can’t keep up with demand are facing many of the same problems as their clients when recruiting to expand their team. From the beginning of the pandemic to late 2021, job postings for recruiters more than doubled, and there are not enough trained recruiters in the country to fill the openings. The world needs more recruiters.

One of the recruiting challenges agencies face is the fact that there is no set career path that most recruiters follow. Many come to the field with vastly different educational backgrounds: from human resources and business administration, to English and computer science. There are no “recruiting” graduates, and although this lack of a well-defined talent pipeline can be difficult, it also means that great recruiters can be found nearly anywhere. The key to recruiting more recruiters is knowing where and what to look for.

Finding New Recruiters

Without enough recruiters to go around, organizations must get creative with their internal talent procurement. This can include making an opportunity out of the Great Resignation: many skilled professionals from other sectors are considering switching jobs. Agencies should consider workers new to recruiting but familiar with industries they would be recruiting for, be it finance, healthcare, or tech. Recruiters with technical industry knowledge may have an advantage in accurately evaluating candidate competencies. They can be a great asset even with no prior recruiting experience.

Candidates with strong backgrounds in human resources and people management can also successfully transition into recruiting roles. They will bring client-side insight into the recruiting process to better serve the internal HR teams of your clients.

Looking for candidates with strong backgrounds in sales is another potential recruitment strategy. Successful salespeople are goal-oriented, can perform under stress, and are great with people—attributes that are shared by any successful recruiter.

The Skills to Look For

Recruiting for recruiters from other sectors means identifying the transferable skills that will serve agency needs. Look for candidates with past experience in roles that require high emotional intelligence, strong networking skills, and the ability to manage stress and tight deadlines.

What will set recruiters apart in the COVID era of recruiting is their ability to combine people skills and digital savvy. These days, it is not uncommon for recruiters and hiring managers to bring on new employees without ever having met in person. The best potential recruiters can connect comfortably, pick up on nonverbal communication, and create genuine interactions with candidates in fully remote interview processes. If you are looking to recruit outside of the staffing industry, candidates with strong digital skills and experience as part of a distributed workforce may have better success taking on the new demands of recruiting.

Revisit Your Value Proposition

As a staffing and recruiting agency, you can use the insights gained from recruiting for your clients to inform what you can do to attract new talent internally. By knowing what employees increasingly seek, you can revisit whether or not your value proposition as an employer matches the current expectations of candidates. Some key aspects of your employer value proposition that may be worth reconsidering include:

  • Flexibility: Does your firm offer remote or hybrid work situations for employees? What are your current policies on work hours? Do candidates feel empowered to structure their work in a way that works well for them?
  • Benefits: In a highly competitive labor market, attractive benefits packages matter more than ever. For example, the lack of childcare benefits has been cited as a top reason for employees leaving their jobs during the Great Resignation. If you are challenged in filling recruiting positions, it may be worth reassessing employee benefits and perks.
  • Professional Development: Educational and professional growth opportunities are highly valued by candidates. They will help you grow and cultivate talent, and are essential especially when hiring new recruiters from other industries. Well-structured training programs and cultivating opportunities for advancement will help you retain your best workers for many years to come.

Full-time, part-time, contingent workers, or independent contractors. Onsite or remote employees. Our capabilities empower you to serve your clients and contract workers with the same efficiencies and scalability of a Fortune 500 company, while maintaining a personal touch. No matter what kind of work arrangement your clients need, we can provide them. So why stop at finding and providing talent for a one-time fee? Use our comprehensive services to create multiple revenue streams of monthly annuities. Contact us today.

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