Kristina FinsethDecember 15, 2016
Topics: Recruiter Experience

I Recently Interviewed a Wide Range of Recruiters, and Here's What I Found Out

Over the last couple of weeks, I interviewed a variety of front-line recruiters with different backgrounds, levels of experience, and focuses - from agency, corporate, and a combination of the two.

Although this group of recruiters is extremely diverse, there are several pain points they all share when it comes to the recruiting world.

They spend way too much time on the administrative aspects of recruiting If you work in recruiting, you can probably relate to this pain point. Too often, a large percentage of time is spent on the administrative aspects of recruiting such as paperwork, scheduling, updating your ATS, reference checking, and even on-boarding of new hires.

In addition, most recruiters are spending a lot of time weeding through tons of resumes for just one position in the company.

They don't have enough time to source for talent, but wish they did Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with spending a ton of time on the administrative aspects of recruiting - but sourcing needs are high with little dedicated time to focus on it.

After all, sourcing for the right talent takes a lot of mental energy.

From crafting the right Boolean search string to hit the jackpot of candidates to mining through job boards to social media outreach - it all takes time, focus, and commitment. Unfortunately, the other tasks in the day are getting in the way of effectively sourcing for talent.

They all desire stronger partnerships with internal and external hiring managers There's no denying that some recruiters and hiring managers just aren't able to get on the same page. It can be difficult for recruiters to effectively find the right candidates without forging strong partnerships with their internal or external hiring managers.

Some hiring managers have unrealistic expectations when it comes to the recruiting process. We've all worked with that hiring manager who wants a unicorn candidate that doesn't truly exist - or the one that says, "Get us five people by tomorrow and we'll pick one."

Additionally, difficult hiring managers may have worked with poor recruiters in the past - making it that much harder for recruiters to break down the barrier to gaining their trust in the fact that the process can be different working with another recruiter.

They are tired of other recruiters making a bad rep for the rest of them The general consensus is that there are recruiters out there that are negatively impacting the recruiting world.

They are treating their candidates like numbers. They aren't following up or giving feedback to candidates. They aren't getting to know their candidates. They aren't personalizing their messages. They aren't embracing social media.

The list goes on.

On a positive note, they are all extremely passionate about recruiting So, this isn't a pain point, but almost every recruiter I had a conversation with stated that they fell into the recruiting career field by chance, not by choice. However, they all share the same enthusiasm and passion for what they do. Many of them view recruiting as a long-term career, and can't envision themselves doing anything else in the future.

Here are some of the commonalities:

  • They love talking to people
  • They strive to help people find their dream job
  • They love what they do
  • They feel that recruiting is a very fulfilling career

The purpose for getting all of this feedback is so we can better understand recruiters' daily challenges in order to help our team solve these pain points with the Phenom People Talent Relationship Marketing (TRM) platform.

Here are just a few ways we're doing that now:

  • The TRM platform integrates with your ATS to create seamless sharing of information - ultimately automating and minimizing the administrative aspects of recruiting such as identifying solid candidates, keeping data up-to-date, and just funneling all information into one central location.
  • You have the ability to see candidate information for those individuals visiting your career site, even if they do not apply to your company - making sourcing that much easier by bringing passive talent to your fingertips.
  • Our in-app communication tool makes it easy to share candidates, discuss position specifics, and receive feedback - enabling a stronger channel of relationship building with internal and external hiring managers.

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Fellow recruiters, what additional pain points or challenges would you add to this list?

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