30 Essential Talent Acquisition Skills

You might be intimidated by the length of this list. But don't worry: you don't have to
master all these skills and competencies yourself. For some, it's enough if at least one
member of the recruitment team can tick the box. And even if no one in the team is, for
example, knowledgeable about social media, you can enlist help from other departments —
or even outside the organization.

Most of these recruitment skills are closely related to your personality, and can serve you
well as a recruiter. Others can be further developed over time if you set yourself to it.

We recommend going through this with a notepad and recording any gaps you notice
between this list and the skills present in your organization’s recruiting department. Let’s
get started!

Project management skills

Preparation

Garbage in is garbage out. To fill in vacancies, you need an in-depth understanding of the role,
the team, what kind of leader the hiring manager is, and what makes the organization an
attractive employer. In other words: preparation is the key to your success.

Planning

Many recruiters work on 10, 20, or even 30+ vacancies simultaneously. That's a lot of balls to
keep in the air. In addition to proper tools and strong recruitment skills, you need excellent
planning skills — or you may find yourself struggling to keep up.

Expectations management

Hiring managers and candidates will always have high expectations. Managing these
expectations, and having conversations with both parties about their dreams and ambitions, is
crucial for success. You should combine this with clear and honest communication. Share
what each can expect, and keep the lines of communication open.

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Time management

Hiring new employees can take some time. But sometimes the process needs to be a sprint,
not a marathon. For instance:

● During the final days of the month, candidates in the last stages of the process may feel
the urge to close the deal before the next calendar month starts so that they can
formally quit their current job on time.
● Candidates often apply at multiple organizations at the same time, so you need to act
fast to beat the competition.
● Hiring managers suddenly have an urgent vacancy to fill, because a slower recruitment
process might cause loss of turnover or profit.

All of the described situations, and more, require time management.

Self-management

Next to managing multiple vacancies, the recruitment process encompasses many activities,
such as:

● Doing vacancy intakes

● Doing some desk research
● Writing job ads
● Screening resumes
● Running background checks
● Scheduling interviews
● Communicating with candidates and hiring managers
● Contracting
● Preparing the onboarding

Mastering both self management and time management is crucial.

Data-driven

As more and more of the talent acquisition process goes digital, recruitment has become a
data-driven game. A critical, 20th-century recruitment skill you should master is the ability to
analyze and use data to your advantage. Take your time to find out which KPIs and metrics are
most important to gain success. Embrace data-driven recruitment to hire more effectively
and more efficiently.

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Management and influencing skills
Excellent communication

You can communicate with all kinds of personalities on a variety of levels and situations. You
communicate efficiently, clearly and pleasantly through mail, on the phone, and in real life. You
realize that you are the face of the company to candidates and the outside world, the central
point of communication to the hiring manager, and the essential link between the two parties
throughout the recruitment process.

Confidence to be a serious sparring partner

People think you are knowledgeable and that they can learn from you. Recruitment means a
lot of networking and interacting with lots of people. You are expected to speak confidently to
candidates, hiring managers, co-workers, and experts in many different industries. This is why
recruiters need to be confident in how they act and communicate.

Recruiters sometimes work on vacancies that are new to them, or even step into industries
they are not yet familiar with. It takes quite some confidence to hold yourself up in such
situations. And to rely on your general recruitment skills and experience to help hiring
managers and candidates making the right choices.

Sense of non-verbal communication

The importance of understanding body language is highly underrated. People do not

communicate precisely what goes on in their minds. The art of reading body language gives
you precious insight into others' actual thoughts and intentions. Next to that, showing
positive body language during meetings and interviews is a valuable skill.

Sense of business administration

Recruiters should understand how organizations, teams and people work. This means you
need to see and have a grasp of processes, interests, and both formal and informal hierarchy.
View your recruitment strategy, recruitment processes, and individual hiring as part of a
larger machine driving the organization forward.

Every now and then, take the time to view your activities in the context of long-term talent
acquisition processes that will help develop the organization.

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Advisory skills

Hiring managers and candidates expect you to be a professional in:

● Assessing whether or not the candidate fits the position

● Legal matters concerning contracting
● Salary scales and other benefits
● The state of the labor market for relevant target groups
● And many other ways

Not only do you know all about these issues, you can also explain them in an understandable
and reliable way.

Your image as a trusted advisor will help you build relations with candidates and hiring
managers, and as a result they will probably communicate with you in a reliable way. This will
provide you with information from both sides that a more distant personality would not.

Creativity

How do you reach and draw in candidates that other recruiters can't persuade, or maybe
don't even know about? Creativity!

Listening skills

If you don't listen, you can't gather information. Putting energy in really hearing out your
candidates, hiring managers, and co-workers will give you more valuable information than any
other approach. By listening intently to what your counterpart says, you will understand
exactly what they want.

Independent mind

You probably know at least one: recruiters, HR advisors, and hiring managers who are proud
to assess candidates during the first handshake. For some positions, a first impression is
absolutely important. But, when you look at your closest friends, are there people among
them you did not like at first glance?

Write down your first impression, positive or negative, and put it aside as just one of the
factors you might weigh in your final assessment. Next to that, do not let the hiring manager
(or the consultant of the agency that has introduced the candidate) influence you too

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much. Use your own independent observations to find out whether you think there is a match
or not, or if the role the hiring manager has in mind is doable and makes sense. Critical
thinking, therefore, is an incredibly important recruitment skill to ensure that you’re making
decisions based on the facts, rather than gut feeling.

Eagerness to learn and develop yourself

The world (and its effect on recruitment) is changing continuously. For example:

● Irregular economic waves

● New technologies
● Generations leaving and entering the labor market
● New competitors or even disruptors in a market your company thought was quiet and
safe
● Organizations from different industries that unexpectedly enter ‘your’ part of the
labor market and ‘hijack’ candidates

Changes like this are why should continually develop yourself, your team, and the way you
work.

Marketing skills
Empathy

Research tells us that changing jobs can be a very stressful and emotional activity for
candidates, especially if desperation or urgency is involved. Hiring managers regularly suffer
from figurative headaches caused by problems resulting from open vacancies. Recruitment
should continuously be aware of these emotions and uncertainties. Be their empathetic tower
of strength during hard times.

Marketing - target groups

You need to speak the language of the people you would like to engage. If we would drop you
in, let's say, Bhutan, the first thing you would have to do to be successful as a recruiter is to
master the local language Dzongkha. The same is true for understanding the way your
relevant target groups think: what makes them tick? What should you offer to really convince
them to sign the contract?

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The topics that matter to a specific target group when choosing their next employer, are
called pull factors. In every touchpoint you have with the labor market in general and more
specific with candidates, you should consider these pull factors.

To come across the people you want to get in contact with, you need to find out which
channels latent and active candidates use. And what words and style of communication appeal
to them.

Knowledge of and curiosity for social media

Social media has become a vast and effective channel for recruitment. Especially latent
candidates, who do not actively search for your vacancies, might come across your outings as
a company and think you might be an interesting next employer to them. Recruiters,
therefore, should incorporate social media into their activities in the labor market.

Sales skills
Convincing candidates

Recruitment is all about selling your organization to potential candidates. Recruiters need to
develop a pitch to sell the benefits of working for their company, and prepare convincing
answers to candidate questions.

Understand buying motives

Consumers and purchasing professionals tend to have various reasons to buy. Candidates are
prospect buyers of a product called ‘job’, and have the same variety of buying motives. Some
examples:

● The highest salary possible

● You make great products that they like
● They want a well-known and respected employer
● They want to learn a profession, and you are famous for that
● They live nearby, so they hardly have to commute

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Closing the deal

You understand that sharing information and having pleasant conversations is nice, but in the
end, you have to close the deal. Or not. You are able to convince the hiring manager and the
candidate that there might always be an amount of uncertainty, but that the conditions and
time are right to put some signatures under the contract.

Networking inside the organization

A recruiter knows their way around within the organization and feels as comfortable speaking
to direct colleagues as to senior management. You have internal customers, (or external
clients, if you are an agency) all over the place, and all employees could turn into internal
candidates.

It is hard to find positions that deal with as many different disciplines within the company as
recruitment does. These all are reasons to build a solid network of contacts that will help you
out when you need them.

Networking with relevant target groups

Recruitment is a people’s business, which is all about finding and meeting as many qualified
people as possible to make connections that may one day lead to a great hire. Networking,
therefore, is an invaluable skill for recruiters.

Great networker to external organizations

As a recruiter, you want to be on top of the latest recruitment tools, you're curious about
what the developments within relevant job sites are, and you need to know the best agencies.
Building connections within your industry and among recruitment peers will help you stand at
the forefront of the evolution of recruitment.

Purchasing skills
Exploring and finding a win-win situation

It doesn't matter whether it concerns candidates, hiring managers, or suppliers: if one party
thinks they have the ultimate deal, but the other signs with some reservations, the deal will
not last long. So start exploring what is important to the various parties and what

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the bandwidth is in their attempt to shake hands. Find a deal that is sustainable for everyone.

Patience

Patience is sometimes the best skill a recruiter can have, and will often pay off with
persistence and quick thinking.

Curiosity for tools and tech

Today’s recruiters must be tech-savvy. The better you understand recruiting technology and
(such as ATS) and how to use it, the more effective you will be in its use. Since many positions
contain aspects of tech, understanding technology helps you to understand these roles and
recruit them.

Psychology skills
Understanding your interview partners

This is a mix of executing a thorough vacancy intake to understand the position, talking to
specialists within the company, listening skills, and preparing yourself for the interview by
trying to find out what kind of people you share the table with.

Curiosity

Recruiters should always be eager to learn more about the job, the team they're working for,
and the candidate — beyond what is written on their resume or motivation letter. It takes
quite some curiosity and research to understand people, which is a decisive advantage when
trying to become a successful recruiter. The same counts for trying new tactics, ways, and
channels to find relevant target groups. Curiosity is the driver of career improvement.

Radiate reliability

A recruiter must be a reliable partner to both the hiring manager and the candidate. Only
then will your advice, opinions, assessments, and information be valued highly. Reliability
might be condition number one to be a trusted advisor and effective

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communicator. The candidate relies on you as the point of contact for the company that they
intend to join. The hiring manager puts all his money on you to fill an important position in his
team. Both sides have a lot to lose and thus need a reliable person to get crucial things done.

Reliability means:

● Clear communication and a trusted follow-up

● No worries about the advice, opinions, assessments, and information you provide
● The mutual feeling of willingness to work to a solution that fits both sides’ interests

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