How to Find a Recruiter

You can’t prevent every pause and slowdown in your business, so you build plans A, B and even C to keep operations running at normal levels as much as possible. But one key element organizations often overlook in business continuity planning is recruitment.

The right recruiter can help you minimize the impact of employee turnover and can help your organization ramp up productivity after being hit by layoffs.

A talented recruiter isn’t just valuable to your organization. They’re valuable to your competitors as well. So how do you get a good recruiter to accept your offer letter instead of signing on with another company?

We’ll look at options for finding dexterous recruiters, and we’ll show you how artificial intelligence can help you achieve the same goals for much less money over the long term.

Search Job Boards to Find Recruiters

A good recruiter isn’t afraid to take calculated risks. They’re self starters, persistent and passionate. They have great interpersonal skills, and they know how to sell things.

Yes, those characteristics sound like traits any hiring manager would want in any employee they hire. And like any other type of employee, you can find great recruiters on online job boards.

Certain job boards, such as ZipRecruiter, have established a good reputation for having a higher concentration of well-qualified candidates browsing their job listings. Hiring managers spend less time ruling out unqualified candidates and more separating great from good.

The candidate pools on other job sites, such as Indeed, may have more entry-level employees who are attracted to the many contract and part-time jobs on the site. Still, hiring managers can find great candidates on any of the top job search sites.

Work with Staffing Agencies

You know what traits to look for in a recruiter, but you have trouble identifying these characteristics in job seekers. If this sounds like your situation, consider working with a staffing agency.

Just as you can enlist a staffing agency to help you find a recruiter to hire, you can also use them to serve as your company’s recruiter.

As the hiring company, you’ll still have the final word on who gets brought on board. But a staffing agency with a good reputation can handle sourcing and vetting recruiter candidates who are in the job-search process.

Search firms usually charge you a percentage of what the hired employee will earn at the hiring company, which can be off putting for small businesses. But you typically have to pay to hire someone, one way or another — whether that’s through paying to access a job board, paying your HR team or paying recruitment agencies.

Let ZipRecruiter Find Recruiters for You

A few of the more popular job boards are taking advantage of advances in artificial intelligence to streamline hiring, but ZipRecruiter has developed what’s akin to a virtual recruiter.

It won’t do everything for you, but its toolbox of candidate-sourcing tools can simplify hiring and empower even the smallest of HR departments — including those that are one-employee strong.

You decide what you’re after, a recruiter in this case, and what qualities you want in a hire. ZipRecruiter’s AI-based “Sponsored Reach” will help match candidates to your job openings.

The job site says Sponsored Reach finds candidates by analyzing millions of attributes, such as experience, education level, job title, keywords on resumes, proximity to your location and many more.

ZipRecruiter won’t just show you candidates. It’ll also show candidates your job and will even invite the most relevant among them to apply.

Hiring a Recruiter vs. Contracting a Recruiter or Staffing Agency

Do you need a recruiter who knows your business intimately? Do you want your hiring needs to be your recruiter’s only priority? If so, even one or two full-time recruiters may be a much bigger benefit to your business than a staffing agency with the might and means of a corporation.

Pros of Hiring a Recruiter Instead of a Recruitment Agency:

• Your hiring needs are their only priority.
• They have the time and opportunity to learn your business’s needs intimately.
• The cost of employing them can be more predictable and affordable long-term than negotiating contracts with an agency.

Cons of Choosing a Staff Recruiter Over an Agency Recruiter:

• An internal recruiter’s contacts won’t compare to those of recruiting agencies.
• You may not always need them full-time.
• They may not work as efficiently as even just a few recruiters at an agency.

Questions to Ask a Recruiter

There’s enthusiasm on both sides. You like a particular candidate’s experience and attitude, while they seem to express a genuine hunger for winning the recruiter role you’ve been advertising.

So how do you know if this candidate is the best fit? How do you make sure this isn’t just someone who talks a good game or who has pulled buzzwords from a Google search, but someone who’s on top of their game?

Ask them these questions along with the standard questions you ask in job interviews:

How were your last few employers?

This question can help you get a better idea of where this recruiter is in their career and what it would be like working with them.

What types of businesses have you recruited for?

Ultimately, you want to know how much or little training this candidate will need to understand your company’s industry as well as related verticals.

How do you know when you’ve found an exceptional candidate?

This one helps you get a better understanding of a recruiter’s ability to identify talent. The better they are at recognizing high-quality candidates, the better the quality of resumes they’ll send your way.

What do you do to prepare candidates for interviews?

If your recruiter doesn’t prepare candidates by helping them understand what the job entails, you risk missing out on strong candidates that end up making a weak impression during the hiring process.

What has changed about the way you recruit talent?

Even the top recruiters have to keep up with tech, trends and the evolution of recruiting best practices in order to remain among the best. This question helps you determine if a recruiter continually seeks to improve their craft.

What level of success have you found in keeping in contact with job seekers?

A good recruiter should identify and build relationships with exceptional candidates, even if they don’t fit the role your company is currently hiring. This could help you fill future vacancies that much quicker.

How big of a role does data or tech play into your recruiting process?

Does this recruiter rely on gut feelings, or do they lean on data and technology to help choose candidates objectively?

Final Word

Your business’s needs will help guide you in deciding which means and methods you use to interview potential recruiters and ultimately onboard someone who makes a true difference.

At this point, you’ve probably already realized the most efficient route to finding recruiters is a multi-pronged approach. And job boards like ZipRecruiter let you do just that.

With ZipRecruiter, for example, you can search recruiter resumes in the job board’s database, while using its AI-matching technology to help you narrow down your search. And with its company profiles, you can research talent-search firms and read reviews about their performance.

One thing to keep in mind is that whoever you hire will serve as an ambassador for your company. This person will be the first representative of your company that job seekers will come in contact with.

What do you want a recruiter to say about your organization?