What else can a Recruiter Do!!

What else can a Recruiter Do!!

The great debate within companies has been around for some time. You are a "recruiter", that is all and what you do. That is what they say and think. However that is so far from the truth and it is our jobs as recruiters to explain and prove it to them. But before we do that we need to know what it is we can do besides recruiting ourselves. You would be surprised how many recruiters do not realize the other things they can do. Below is a list of the types of positions a recruiter could do beyond recruiting, please keep in mind this is not all inclusive.

HR- Obviously if you have been a recruiter for any length of time you have touched on all parts of HR.

Training- Again if you have been a recruiter for any length of time you have had to train people. Whether it is, other recruiters, hiring managers, candidates, and usually on subjects ranging from; sourcing, to interviewing, HRIS/ATS to writing JDs, to resume writing and more.

Resume Writer - This is an obvious one, I mean what recruiter cannot write a good resume. Believe it or not there are jobs were that is what you do.

Researcher - Any recruiter worth their salt, knows how to do research. If you look at several of my blog posting you will notice research is a key ingredient to being a good recruiter. Sourcing is researching. Again some companies call their sourcers researchers, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Compensation - Now this one is trickier, however if you have been a recruiter for awhile at some point you were involved in compensation strategies, range setting, classification, research (hmm again) and more

HRIS/ATS analyst - Once again if you have been a recruiter for any length of time, you have touched on being a HRIS or ATS analyst. Meaning you have had to analyze data coming from these systems.

Project Manager - Yes PM, if you read my blog on 'Rules to recruit by", you would see how PM fits.

Management- Of course within recruiting and all these positions there is a management track.

Career Coach- Another Hmm one, but if you are read my blog on " The Candidate Experience" You would know that we as recruiters often do the job of career coach. We help candidates internal and external with resume writing, interviewing tips, career advice, training requirements etc..

Sales-As recruiters part of our job is sales.

Resource Manager- A resource manager is mainly used within the consulting world. It is a person who keeps track of the consultant who are not on projects, and helps fill project teams. the scope of this job is well within the capabilities of a recruiter. There are allot of similarities between the 2 positions.

Of course there are plenty more but this gives you a good idea, that a recruiter is much more than just a recruiter.

Comment by Randy Levinson on April 5, 2010 at 1:00pm: Dean, Thanks for writing this post. Now, if we can just get the rest of corporate America to see this. You touch on a few things very close to my heart. Sales - I have always said that in any company - sales sells the products, but recruiting sells the company.

I spent a lot of time in my career straddling the line between recruiting and HR only to find that the HR people I would talk to about my next career step could not see past the staffing and recruiting experience and further they could not extrapolate what that experience really meant. I think if more "strictly HR" professionals understood what you spell out in this post, the role of recruiter would be held in much higher regard internally.

Comment by Chris Fleek on April 5, 2010 at 2:01pm: This serves as a good reminder for recruiting professionals - our skills inventory certainly could include each of those things you've listed. I imagine we don't often take the time to think about our own skills/competencies so thanks for prodding me to do so.

Comment by Paul Alfred on April 6, 2010 at 1:08pm: Hmmmm ... Before I got into Recruiting I used to work for IBM as a Business Systems Analyst to get that I needed to get a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Marketing ... No where in your blog do I see that Recruiters need to retrain themselves (HRIS, PM Compensation) these are specialties and you need to go to college or University to get the focused training and the expertise to add to your Recruiter experience.... I wish it were easy as 123 ..... Just looking at the HR profession alone You have folks who only deal with Labor Laws and Unions, or Compensation, Employee Relations or HRIS Systems all very focused directions in HR.

Comment by Dean Da Costa on April 6, 2010 at 2:15pm: First if you noticed all the other things a recruiter can do, is predicated on them having some OJT, or as I may have said touched on, been involved with, etc. While I agree you do have folks within these different positions that are specialists, that does not mean as a recruiter, who has been around awhile, cannot do another part of the HR function. I have no compensation certifications, but I have filled the role of compensation analyst. Why experience and OJT. While I agree education and certifications are important, it does not mean you overlook experience and OJT. The point of the post was to show some other roles a recruiter could do, depending on their background and experience and above all to show that we can do more than just be recrtuiters.