Recruiting a recruiter: 3 tips for agencies

06 Jul, 2017

Recruitment agencies are in the business of hiring – however, that doesn't mean it's always easy for them to head hunt or hire the best recruiters on the market. In addition to ensuring that your daily administrative tasks are taken care of, it's important to be able to scout the best talent – not only for clients, but also for your own agency.

Here are some tips for finding, vetting and hiring another recruiter for your firm.

1. Keep your eye out

In the same way that recruiters are almost always looking for passive candidates, they should also be keeping their eyes peeled for potential new colleagues. There are many ways to find the best recruiters for your agency, including scouring unrelated talent pools – these can actually yield the most promising new hires for your agency.

Neil Bolton, CEO of Recruitment Systems, claimed that he had better luck hiring personable non-recruiters who didn't come with bad habits and limited perspectives.

"When I was recruiting everyone 'knew' that a recruiter could only manage maybe 25 active contractors. But I hired someone from outside recruiting who did not have that internal restriction, and within two years she was running 70 contractors. She didn't know what the limit was."

If you encounter someone with the potential for recruiting, follow that instinct – you never know what could happen.

2. Do some digging

Once you've located some quality candidates, the next step is to take a look at their track record. Entrepreneur suggests asking recruiters questions like, "How do you source and manage candidates?" and "How do you assess cultural fit for your clients" to see how engaged they are in their job.

In cases where a candidate shows potential but doesn't have concrete recruiting experience, ask questions about the ways in which they build relationships and networks, how thorough they are in their jobs and how they work on their own personal development.

3. Give them the day-to-day treatment

Observing how a candidate handles the day-to-day responsibilities of being a recruiter can be a revealing step in the process, primarily because you're hiring them for essentially the same job you have. Consider setting up a faux phone interview, or seeing how they would write a specific job posting.

It might also be beneficial to show them how helpful administrative platforms, such as TRIS recruitment software, can be for agencies. For a demo of the product, reach out to Recruitment Systems today!