So when I first got started in the recruiting world, learning the difference between a corporate recruiter and a staffing recruiter confused me at first. Now for those of you in either one of these roles, you are probably thinking to yourself: How in the world can that be confusing?

Well here’s why. My trainer was a head hunter on Wall Street for 8 years. Though he did staffing for many years, he had recently turned into a corporate recruiter and was focused on learning that side of the industry. So the interesting point here is that he began to apply all the principles of being a head hunter to that of recruiting. So as a result, it created a hybrid environment where I really didn’t know what it meant to be an HR generalist, or anything like that within the Human Resource division. Since my role has been commission-driven since the beginning, that was all I knew. To this day, it is still all I know.

The great part about what experience has taught me since, is that most corporate environments not only have the HR department and recruiting department in the same division, but the corporate recruiter is usually just someone in HR that posts ads out there to find people to put in front of managers, or spends hours looking on Monster, CareerBuilder or HotJobs and posts jobs there as well. The result: they limit themselves on candidates and sometimes have to hire those that may not necessarily be the right fit, but it is at least something to get by with until they do find a great fit. What a mess! Especially in a market right now where the unemployment rate is low, etc. So why not separate the HR from recruiting? Obviously you need a recruiter to be knowledgeable about guidelines, etc, but the reality is that a recruiter is the one solution that most organizations, especially small growing organizations, never think about. Also, with HR becoming more of a strategic partner in growing organizations, it would be wise to think about how you run HR, especially when it comes to your most important capital: the human element.

So what is the biggest difference?

Well imagine if your recruiter actively sourced to find people. What if your recruiter was establishing the relationships with managers needed to encourage more employee referrals? Or focused on the hiring so much that managers only needed to be involved for a final interview or final decision? What if your recruiter could bring costs to hire new folks way down because of their ability to not be so dependent on costly sources?

To me this is what the recruiter should be. In fact, someone with experience in sales makes for a great recruiter because they are not afraid of building rapport, staying in touch with people, networking, attending events, establishing relationships with local universities, businesses, social events, etc. This is how I recruit, and when I was looking to grow in my recruiting profession, I struggled to find a lot of materials out there that would focus on the corporate recruiter. So I am dedicating my recruiting blog to do just that. I will focus specifically on how all of these attributes contribute to making one a great recruiter. I hope you benefit from my insights, experience, and mentors. Who knows? Maybe one day I will find that I am pretty good at this recruiting stuff after all!