How to hire the best recruiters

Many of our clients ask us for tips when hiring recruiters. At Rocket, we have interviewed thousands of potential recruiters en route to building our team of superstar recruiters like Spencer, Ariella, Nikki, John, Austin and many more. These recruiters are a combination of folks who have recruited before either in house or at agencies and folks who were new to recruiting when they joined us.

Based on our experience, here are some attributes of a top notch recruiter:

1. Experience: Ideally, the recruiter you hire should have experience in the industry and the type of role you are looking to fill. This experience can help the recruiter understand the specific requirements and challenges of the job, and can also help them build relationships with potential candidates. If they don't have recruiting experience, look for experience working with people such as customer success, coaching etc.
2. Communication skills: As a recruiter, a key part of the job is communicating with candidates, hiring managers, and other stakeholders. The recruiter you hire should have strong communication skills, including the ability to listen, to articulate their thoughts clearly, and to adapt their communication style to different audiences.
3. Organizational skills: Recruitment can be a complex and fast-paced process, with many different tasks and deadlines to manage. The recruiter you hire should have strong organizational skills, including the ability to prioritize tasks, to manage multiple projects simultaneously, and to meet deadlines.
4. Attention to detail: The recruitment process involves a lot of data and information, from resumes and job postings to candidate interviews and feedback. The recruiter you hire should have a keen attention to detail, to ensure that they can accurately track and manage this information.
5. Team player: Recruitment is often a team effort, with recruiters working closely with hiring managers, HR, and other stakeholders. The recruiter you hire should be a team player, with the ability to collaborate and work well with others.
6. Work ethic: Recruiting is a hard job. Candidates often reply to emails or schedule calls at all times. Folks who have a strong work ethic tend to do better in recruiting.
7. Resilience: It is very important to be resilient as a recruiter. You can have 2-3 candidates decline an offer and suddenly a job recquisition that seemed done needs to be started again. Someone who is resilient can take a deep breath and go at it again.

In addition to these attributes, there are a few tips that you can follow when interviewing recruiters and building a talent function in a startup:

1. Clearly define the role and responsibilities: Before you start the recruitment process, take the time to clearly define the role and responsibilities of the recruiter you are looking to hire. This will help you attract the right candidates and ensure that they have the skills and experience required for the job. How many roles will they recruit for? Will they do outbound or inbound or combination of the two?
2. Use a structured interview process: To ensure that you are making a fair and objective decision, use a structured interview process that includes the same questions and evaluation criteria for all candidates. This will help you compare candidates on an equal footing and make the best decision for the role.
3. Invest in training and development: As a startup, you may not have the same resources and experience as a larger company. To ensure that the recruiters are equipped to succeed, invest in training and development programs that can help them improve their skills and knowledge.
4. Be transparent and honest: The recruitment process can be stressful and uncertain for candidates, especially in a startup environment. To build trust and credibility with candidates, be transparent and honest about the role, the company, and the challenges and opportunities that the company faces. This will help you attract the best candidates and retain them once they are hired.

Here are some sample questions to ask recruiters:

1. How would you describe your recruiting philosophy?
2. How do you stay organized when you’re recruiting?
3. What have been some of your most successful recruiting strategies?
4. What have been some of your most challenging recruiting experiences and how did you overcome them?
5. What do you think are the most important traits for a successful recruiter?
6. Describe a time you went above and beyond to ensure a successful hire.
7. How do you use social media to identify and recruit new talent?
8. What strategies do you use to source and attract passive candidates?
9. How do you ensure that you stay up to date on the latest recruiting trends?
10. How do you handle difficult conversations with candidates?
11. How do you manage a high-volume of recruiting requests?
12. Describe a time when you had to think outside the box to source a great candidate.
13. What do you think makes for a successful candidate experience?
14. How do you prioritize different recruiting tasks?
15. What metrics do you use to measure recruiting success?
16. How do you build relationships and stay in touch with candidates after the recruiting process?
17. How have you been able to make a positive impact on the recruiting team?
18. How do you stay motivated in the recruiting process?
19. What do you think are the most important skills for a recruiter to have?
20. Describe a time when you had to make a tough decision about a candidate.

Conclusion

The ideal candidate for recruiting should have strong interpersonal and communication skills, organizational and time-management skills, be able to effectively multitask, and demonstrate excellent problem-solving skills. Good luck hiring your internal recruiting team - please reach out if you want to chat more about what makes a good recruiter and how to set up an internal recruiting team from scratch.

About Rocket

Rocket pairs talented recruiters with advanced AI to help companies hit their hiring goals and knows technology recruiting inside out. Rocket is headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley but has recruiters all over the US & Canada serving the needs of our growing client base across engineering, product management, data science and more.