What is a recruiter?

Understanding the role of a recruiter

If you’ve ever applied for a job, chances are you interacted with a recruiter – even if you didn’t realize it. When a company is trying to find new employees for its open roles, recruiters are responsible for many steps of the hiring process.

A recruiter’s work can involve all kinds of things that happen behind the scenes, like writing job descriptions, publishing them on job boards, reviewing applications and deciding which candidates to interview. Sometimes recruiters even proactively look for people who they think would be a good fit for a specific role and reach out to them to see if they’re interested, an activity that’s often called “sourcing.”

Later in the application process, recruiters contact applicants to schedule and conduct interviews. Depending on how big the company is and how many steps of the interview process there are, recruiters will often be the main point of contact for candidates, keeping them informed about the status of their application and helping them prepare for upcoming interviews.

Recruiting is critical to a company’s success since businesses can only create products and services (and sell them, support their customers and run their business efficiently) if there are people working there who can do all these things. In other words, recruiters play a major role in finding the people who make a company run.

It’s worth mentioning, though, that recruiters don’t always make the final decision about who gets hired. That’s usually left up to the person the new hire will report to (the “hiring manager.”) Still, recruiters and hiring managers work closely together, and recruiters bring specialized skills to this relationship.

What are the skills and qualities someone needs to be a successful recruiter? Here are a few of the essentials:

• Clear written and communication skills to be able to write job descriptions and communicate with both hiring managers and candidates
• The ability to work well with multiple deadlines and priorities because recruiters are often trying to fill several roles at once
• A positive attitude since recruiters have to deal with a lot of rejection and ghosting from candidates
• Attention to detail when reviewing resumes and conducting interviews
• Familiarity with different tools like sourcing tools, applicant tracking systems (ATS) and candidate relationship management tools (CRM)
• Collaboration skills since recruiters have to work closely with many other people in the company, such as hiring managers and anyone else who participates in the hiring process

In some cases, recruiters need to develop very specialized knowledge about their company’s industry and the roles they’re hiring for. They will need to feel comfortable describing the work that a candidate will be doing and make a compelling case for them to consider this specific opportunity.

Overall, recruiters also need to have top-notch people skills. Their job often requires delivering tough news (like telling a candidate they haven’t been selected for a job) in a clear and empathetic manner. When sourcing, they may need to break out their persuasion skills to get a prospect’s attention or to elicit a response. And they often need to follow up with hiring managers or other hiring team members to remind them of their overdue tasks. They constantly need to walk the line of being persistent without being pesky.

Recruiting strategies for finding top talent

Let’s say you’re interested in learning more about what it might be like to work as a recruiter. What are some of the activities you could expect to be doing daily? Here’s an overview of what your role is likely to involve:

• Creating effective job descriptions

Writing clear, concise and engaging job descriptions is a key part of a recruiter’s job and the foundation of structured interviewing. You’ll likely work closely with the hiring manager to define what success would look like in a role and then craft a job description that focuses on those skills and qualities, as well as what the candidate will gain by joining your team. If you’re curious about what that might look like, here’s a helpful template you can use.

• Utilizing job boards and online platforms

Once you’ve perfected your job description, you’ll want to publish it so prospective candidates can find it and apply for the role. Most recruiters start by publishing the job description on their company’s careers page, but they usually post it on other job boards as well to broaden its reach and increase the number of people who apply for the role. You might also use other online platforms or sourcing tools to identify good candidates and reach out to them to see if they’re interested and encourage them to apply.

• Networking and building relationships with candidates

In some cases, you’ll open up a role, review applications, conduct interviews and hire the candidate the hiring manager selects. But the process doesn’t always run this smoothly. Sometimes you’ll have to hire many people for the same role (this is often the case for sales development representatives or engineers, for example) and sometimes you’ll encounter people who are a good fit for your company but not quite right for the role you’re considering them for. In cases like these, it’s important for you to build relationships with prospective candidates (a practice that’s often referred to as creating a “talent pool”) so you can reach out in the future when you have a role that’s a good fit.

Streamlining the hiring process

Successful recruiters are always looking for ways to get better at their jobs, whether that involves picking up a new skill or learning how to use a tool that makes them more efficient. Here are a few ways you might streamline the hiring process as a recruiter.

• Using applicant tracking systems (ATS)

Being a good recruiter means understanding how well your hiring process is working and where there are areas for improvement. Using an applicant tracking system (ATS) lets you see how long candidates spend in each stage. For example, after a candidate submits an application, how long does it take you to review it and move them on to the next step? Or, once you’ve reviewed a candidate’s application, how long does it take you to schedule an initial interview with them? Your ATS can help you keep track of this information and even send you reminders so that you don’t let candidates spend too long in one stage.

Depending on your specific ATS, you might also be able to use the data and reporting features to learn which sources tend to give you the most qualified candidates, which hiring managers are most likely to reject candidates, how long hiring team members take to provide feedback after interviews and much more.

• Interviewing techniques and best practices

Here at Greenhouse, we’re big proponents of structured interviewing. We mentioned earlier that the first step of structured interviewing is defining the ideal candidate’s skills and qualities and conveying that information in the job description. The next step involves designing an interview process that assesses candidates on those skills.

Imagine that you’re hiring someone who’s going to manage a team and you want to assess their people management skills. You would want to make sure that your interview questions ask them about their experience as a manager. Or if you were interviewing for a customer success role, you’d want to ask questions or design assessments that would help you evaluate their communication and decision-making skills.

Structured interviewing ensures that you ask all candidates the same questions and use the same criteria to assess them. This reduces bias in your hiring decisions and creates a consistent experience for all candidates. Learn more about how to design a structured interview process here.

• Negotiating job offers and closing the deal

Once your hiring team has decided which candidate they’d like to hire, as a recruiter you may need to step in, make the offer and negotiate with the candidate. In some cases, candidates may want to negotiate their salary or other benefits, and as the recruiter, you will be your company’s representative in these conversations.

There are plenty of tools to help you navigate these conversations, including Market Data with Offer Insights by Greenhouse. Some places now require companies to publish the salary band along with the job description, which also helps ensure candidates’ expectations are aligned with your company’s compensation before they get to the final stages of the hiring process.