With all the talk of robots taking over the workplace, could they replace human recruiters? At first glance, employers may find robots to be quick, less costly, and possibly more effective at reducing unconscious bias of human recruiters. But robots…well, robots obviously lack the human touch. 
Robots are meant to complement a recruiter’s work, not take it over.
In my career, I have been fortunate to have worked with many human recruiters over the years. All the best ones possess certain qualities that make them the best at their jobs. From my experience, those qualities include:
Great Recruiters Have Relationship Building-Skills
A great recruiter has a connection with their candidate. In such a relationship, the recruiter acts as an advisor to the candidate, someone whom they can trust when asking such questions as: Should I leave my job? What’s the market like? A great recruiter can help their candidate find answers to questions like these—and they can help the candidate identify skills they possess that employers are seeking.
Great Recruiters Have Empathy
A great recruiter is empathetic and a good listener. A great recruiter really needs to hear what the candidate is saying as they share information about their strengths and weaknesses—and their concerns. Maybe the candidate just experienced a layoff. The recruiter needs to be able to empathize with any feelings the candidate may be having about that. Or perhaps the candidate is hesitant about switching jobs.
Great Recruiters Know the Market
Genesis10 recruiters focus on and have knowledge and understanding of the technical and functional skills our clients seek. We have to be sharper than our competitors. We become knowledgeable through experience and training and goes back to my earlier point about being a trusted advisor. A great recruiter needs to know what they’re talking about when they speak with a candidate, for the sake of both the candidate and the client. The knowledge provides the basis for questions the recruiter asks when speaking with the candidate.
Great Recruiters are Proactive Thinkers and Creatives
Very infrequently do two plus two equal four in recruiting. The recruiter has the candidate, the resume, and the job description and tries to fit all the pieces together. Sometimes we have to be creative. Can the candidate do this because they’ve done something similar before? Can they make the transition easily because we have seen it before? And we need to be proactive. What role might we see next week or two weeks from now that might be a better fit for the candidate? What do we need to do to get ready for that now? Being proactive might mean learning more from the account executive and the candidate. Perhaps the candidate may need to beef up their resume before we present them to the client.
Greater Recruiters are Constantly Learning
Change, as in many industries, is rapid in IT. There are new technologies, new versions of technologies. A great recruiter is inquisitive and loves to learn, both through internal training opportunities presented by Genesis10 and on their own using such tools as LinkedIn Learning and YouTube. In a recent blog, Remster Bingham wrote that “a continual commitment to growth and an insatiable appetite for trying and learning new things are important qualities of a successful technology consultant.” Remster, who is Vice President of Recruiting at Genesis10, could have been writing about recruiters.
Great Recruiters are Consistent
A great recruiter has high-quality relationships both internally and externally. They need to be consistent, when they are sourcing, talking to candidates, building new relationships. Recruiting really is not an up and down cycle. Being consistent with everything we do yields good results for our candidates and our clients.
Finally, it goes without saying that a great recruiter needs to be proficient in using technology. A recruiter needs to be comfortable using such tools as Applicant Tracking Systems, LinkedIn Recruiter, and Google.
This blog is the second in a series that examines all facets of the value of using human recruiters and staffing services companies.
The next blog in this series explores this topic further. In it, we will look at how recruiters use AI. Read the first blog in our series, Recruiters vs Bots: Bring it on!