Do’s and Don’ts for Using Recruiters When Scouting Top Talent (Part 1)

Over the past decade or so, there’s been a significant rise in the number of recruiters for hire and the number of recruiting tools and platforms available online. And jobseekers and recruiters alike are overall becoming more comfortable with the entire job search, candidate search, and hiring process online.¹
However, there are a few do’s and don’ts you’ll want to be aware of when using recruiters to scout top talent for your organization if you want your investments in recruiting to yield great and long-lasting results.

Benefits of Hiring a Recruiter

Before getting into the do’s and don’ts of using recruiters, consider why you’d want to hire one in the first place. Successful recruiters will:

• Significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to fill open positions.
• Help your organization build an identifiable brand that consistently attracts top talent.
• Cultivate and nurture internal and external pools of talent you can dip into when needed.
• Build valuable relationships with others outside of your organization.
• Use data and analytics to help you identify your talent needs and goals so you can remain competitive and only hire qualified candidates.

Do

Here are a few thigs you’ll always want to do when relying on recruiters to scout top talent.

Set Performance Metrics for Your Recruiters

Whether they’re contract-based or full-time employees, be sure to keep your recruiters on the right path by providing them with performance metrics. For example, make it clear that you want at least half or more of your new hires to remain with your organization for more than 2 years. Or, tell them that you want all open positions to be filled within 2 months, assuming there is a healthy pool of qualified candidates.
Essentially, it’s important to set clear expectations for your recruiters that are trackable and tangible. Otherwise, they may unknowingly fail to meet the particular recruiting requirements for your organization.

Offer Recruiters Real Incentives

Even if your recruiters are contract-based, offer them real incentives to keep them motivated and working hard to find top talent. For instance, for every 20 employees who stay with your organization for more than 2 years, you could offer your recruiters a bonus. Or, you could offer recruiters real stakes or shares in your company so they are literally invested in its success. Whatever the incentives are that you offer your recruiters, make sure that they’re desirable to both your recruiters and your organization and that they’re trackable.

Give Recruiters Access to Valuable Online Tools

Offer your recruiters access to all the best recruiting platforms, including social media. Allow them access to tools that will allow them to collect and analyze metrics about candidates and industries, archive profiles, track communications with qualified leads, etc. This will allow them to be more organized, efficient, and effective at their jobs. In addition, you may want to ensure their tools are linked up to your organization’s talent management tools, if they aren’t already.
Watch out for tomorrow’s post, which will cover the don’ts for using recruiters.

1. Online and Social Media Recruiting – Statistics & Facts. Accessed 3/23/2018.