Dos and Don’ts of All-Star Recruiting

At Building Team Solutions, we’re all about learning and growing as recruiters while help candidates find jobs that will enable them to learn and grow. We’re committed to constantly looking for and utilizing new recruiting strategies and figuring out innovative methods to finding the best possible candidates for our clients. We know that in order to impact lives positively and help build quality teams, it’s important that we’re always looking for ways to improve the recruiting process. With the help of this article from The Recruiter and this article from Fast Company we’ve compiled a list of some of the best practices we’ve found in the recruiting industry. In this two-part blog post, well share a few of the Dos and Don’ts of good recruiting that we at Building Team Solutions use on a daily basis.

DO see the whole picture

Don’t limit yourself to zeroing in on just one particular candidate attribute. Before making a hiring decision, make sure that you’ve considered the whole picture. As Fast Company discusses, don’t just take one impressive past accomplishment – or, conversely, a lack thereof- and make a quick decision. Check out all of a candidate’s prior work history, skills, attributes, and education, and look for a long-term proven track record of success. Then, move forward to considering the information you gather from the interview, specifically a person’s attitudes and motivations. Overall, ensure that you gather enough intel to make a truly well-informed decision based on a number of different attributes and accomplishments.

DO put in some extra effort

In our busy-fast paced world, we can sometimes get caught up in bad habits in an effort to maintain efficiency and please all of our clients simultaneously. For example, The Recruiter mentions that some recruiters begin to discard resumes by the pile when they spot certain red flags, or come across a candidate that’s difficult to place.  Obviously, you should always keep can eye out for red flags, but you should also get in the habit of taking just a minute or two to do one last scan through a candidate’s profile. Make sure you didn’t miss anything, and make notes to remind you why you decided not to place them in a job. A little extra effort will surely save you time later on in the process-especially if you happen to come across the candidate again. A quick glance at your notes will remind you why you went in another direction for the position, and might help you identify a different position they might be good for.

DO check your references

I can’t emphasize this enough! This should be obvious, but unfortunately, there’s always a chance that a recruiter will get so caught up with other projects that they don’t have the time to thoroughly check a candidate’s reference list. Even if it’s not your favorite thing to do, it is a fantastic way to ensure that your candidate will actually be able to truly become an asset to the team you place them in. Come up with a list of insightful, open-ended questions and encourage the references you speak to not to hold back. For more on references, check out my previous post on this topic.