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​Unless you actually work in the recruitment industry, recruitment is a mystery to most.

It sounds straightforward ‘you get jobs in and you find people to fill them’. It SHOULD be straightforward, but it isn’t.

Why?

This is because you are dealing with many variables; budgets, personalities, holidays, negotiations, changing scope, internal conflicts, external conflicts…the list goes on!

If you are a company, it’s always best to search your own networks first because if you know someone suitable for the role, you could save yourself time on the search (and time equals money), but if you don’t, then it is more cost effective to use the right external recruiter. This is due to many factors; the cost of your time, the cost of having a vacant position, the extra stress and pressure that it can put on the team…etc…
Recruiters are in existence because there is still a need for people who know their industry, can assess personalities quickly, can resolve issues fast, can negotiate effectively and can organise many parties smoothly. This comes in handy as, instead of trawling through a plethora of CV’s, endless interviews and background checks, your agent will have done this work throughout their career.

Identifying the candidate is just the beginning and is far and away the easy part. It’s the ability to read motivations, measure actions against what they say, ensure they are seriously looking, selling the opportunities, discounting the people who say they are keen but we know deep down they may leave in 3 months when something better comes up, getting the right candidate who is probably passive in the market to actually apply, knowing what projects are happening, when people maybe rolling off their current contract, ensuring visas and insurances are in place.

A recruiter’s job is never done

The day to day tasks of a recruiter never stop.  Information gathering, fact finding, reference checking and skills testing continue week to week, year to year. This makes using an agency very valuable to a client. All of this knowledge saves your company time (and therefore money) and allows you to concentrate on your actual job.

A day in the life

It’s difficult to list ‘a day in the life’ of a recruiter, but below is a list of the many tasks that recruiters are responsible for in their role;

• Telephone and skype interviews

• Face to face interviews

• Understanding the Job Description

• Meeting with the client for a job debrief

• Conference calls with clients

• Understanding the culture of the company

• Background checks

• Reference checks

• Explaining the position (in the right way and in a precise way)

• Market mapping

• Networking

• Understanding your clients business

• Understanding a candidates thought process

• Being a shoulder to lean on and a sounding board

• Organising interviews

• Preparing candidates for interviews

• Debriefing candidates and clients after interviews

And also…

• Clients drinks

• Contractor drinks

• After work drinks

• Lunchtime drinks

• Easter drinks

• Christmas party drinks

As you can see, there are many aspects to the day in the life of a recruiter. You need to be a psychologist, a friend, a business partner and of course, know your industry! If it were as easy as “just putting up an ad” we wouldn’t still be here today.