Barbara Bruno, President, Good as Gold Training, HRSearch

The recruiting profession is one of the most rewarding professions because what we do each day is change people’s lives for the better. We identify the top talent needed by our hiring authorities and we help individuals make their next logical career move.

Today we are going to discuss what makes some recruiters great.

ATTITUDE
Attitude can make or break someone in our profession. If you can or can’t do something you’re right. You have people’s lives in your hands, which is a serious responsibility. You do not have the luxury of a bad day and need to be at your best during interactions with your hiring authorities and candidates.

Each day as you enter your office, you need to envision a suitcase sitting outside the door. Open it up and put problems, issues, family members, bills and all other distractions in the suitcase and shut it tight. Personal issues can wear you down and prevent you from peak performance.

Arrive at your office each day expecting great things to happen, and they will.

CARING
Recruiting is a relationship building business. In any type of relationship, people basically want to know three things:

1. Do you care about me?
2. Can I trust you?
3. Do I have your commitment?

Think about your relationship with your candidates. Would they answer yes to these three questions, or do they feel like a number? Did they feel you cared about them during your interview? Did you establish trust during your conversations? Do they believe you are committed to helping them find a job?

What about your clients? Can they trust that the candidates you present have the credentials they requested? Do they feel you’ve made a commitment to identify the talent they will hire? It’s the recruiter who truly does care, can be trusted and makes a commitment that is truly a great recruiter.

Never forget that you are helping individuals make decisions that impact not only them, but the people they love. Hiring authorities will spend more time with the candidate you provide than they do with their family members. These are just two reasons why it is important to be a responsible caring recruiter.

KNOWLEDGE
It’s important that you have extensive knowledge about your company, your hiring authority and the various opportunities you are trying to fill. There is no quicker way to lose credibility than the inability to answer questions.

This is a candidate driven market so it is more important than ever for you to sell the differentiators between your company and your competition. Don’t underestimate the importance of selling your company and opportunity to each and every candidate.

PASSION
Your hiring authorities and candidates can sense if you are passionate about your career. It shows in the way you handle them, present information and follow-up with them. People are drawn to individuals who are passionate about what they do.

Would you describe yourself as passionate about your career? If the answer is yes, you have the potential to become great at recruiting. If your answer is no, you need to do whatever it takes go reignite the passion for your profession. You will be much more successful and will become a magnet for top talent.

FOCUS
It is important to plan 100% of your outgoing calls each day before you leave work. If you don’t plan your day, it will be controlled by the urgent issues vs. the important result-oriented tasks. Great recruiters control their own destiny by their outgoing not incoming calls and plan them out daily.

Each Friday, identify the 20% of your efforts that provided you with 80% of your results. Then do more of those tasks the following week.

Follow the advice in this article and you will never be accused of being a mediocre recruiter.

Barb Bruno, CPC, CTS is one of the most trusted experts, speakers and trainers in the Staffing and Recruiting Profession. Barb has spent several years helping Owners, Managers and Recruiters increase their Sales, Profits and Income with her top-rated web based training Course, the Top Producer Tutor. Follow Barb on Twitter @barbbruno.