6 ways Top Recruiters distinguish themselves from others and win the War for Talent

To deliver quality as a recruiter it is important to become a strategic partner of the business. Gain insight on the vision of the organization and make sure you are in close contact with the business, so they will see you as a trusted advisor. An important part of this strategic partnership is the workforce planning. This is the planning process where the number of employees is mapped against the right competencies in the right position, while considering the mission and goals of the organization. This means you define - together with the business - the needed skills within the workforce. Doing this you make sure you never lag behind events and you are one step ahead so you can anticipate the upcoming recruitment needs.  

Research shows us that 87% of HR employees get overwhelmed by the speed of changes that come with recruitment technologies. These technologies can, however, contribute to the quality of the recruitment and selection process. Think about the use of social media for candidate sourcing or an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that makes your life easier by managing your vacancies and candidates. There are many other technologies that are used for automatization such as video recruitment, chatbots and other artificial intelligence methods that can help you screen candidates. Make sure you know which tools exists and use them. After all, they offer you the opportunity to focus more on the human aspect of recruitment.  

As said before, as a recruiter you need to position yourself as a strategic partner of the business. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct a thorough intake with the hiring manager so you can analyse the recruitment needs and determine the right job description for the vacancy. By objectifying the need of the business, you can, together with the hiring manager, immediately define the right profile: what are the right competencies? What are the must haves and nice to haves? Besides all that an intake is the perfect opportunity to involve the hiring manager and decide on who takes on what role in the recruitment process.  

You’ll probably know the saying “humans will be humans”. This also applies for recruiters. Years and years of psychological research shows that everyone has some inevitable “human errors or biases” in their brain. One of the most powerful and potentially harmful mental models you will encounter in your life is known as the “horns effect and halo effect”. It is a cognitive bias that causes you to allow one trait, either good (“halo”) or bad (“horns”), to overshadow other positive or negative traits, behaviours, actions, or beliefs. Another example of human biases is the “similar to me” effect: we all tend to prefer people similar to ourselves. Being aware of these occurring biases is important to help you make an objective candidate evaluation.  

Compare your vacancy with other vacancies your candidate considers. One of the ways of doing that is by making a competitive comparison, including aspects like growth opportunities, impact on organisation, base salary and other extra-legal benefits. Make sure that you conduct in-depth interviews with your candidate, so you have enough information to show him or her your position matches with the job elements he or she is looking for. Use details and facts to be persuasive.  

Onboarding is the process that welcomes new employees in the company and ensures that they know what is expected of them and how they can add value. During this process the new employee gets more insights on company culture. Research shows that companies that spend more time on this socialisation process get higher job satisfaction, lower turnover and higher productivity rates than companies that spend little time on onboarding. A successful onboarding process is a joint venture between different parties: recruitment, learning & development, HR business partners, line management and the team itself.   

 These six top recruiter hacks will help you win the war for talent. Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as there are many other important elements to take into account to guarantee a qualitative recruitment & selection process.  

Want to know more? We at beople^dd have some off-the-shelf trainings about interview techniques or how to optimize your recruitment process. We are also more than happy to help if you have any specific questions about the topic.  Contact Raf Vanzeer for more information.