Introduction

Greetings fellow recruiters. You are in an awesome industry. Worldwide, the only industries that are consistently showing growth is in services. The trend to outsource non-core functions will continue as companies are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of focusing on their core business.

The recruitment industry brings with it another major growth opportunity. The opportunity to grow yourself! Human interaction and the sheer fact that you are matching talent with opportunity requires that you look beyond just the job specification. A deep understanding of the individuals attitude, motivating factors and ability to deal with adversity, for example, are just some of the aspects of the human self that needs to be explored. The organizations culture, leadership styles, methods of rewarding people and stimulating projects on hand become non-negotiables in determining who you send forward for the interview.

Only if you can understand yourself can you understand others. It is through this interaction with both candidates and clients that you learn to take a look inside yourself , identify your core values and with compassion and a deeper understanding you move to make the decision of who will be the right fit for the company.

Compassion is the key element to understanding. The opposite would be judgement. Yes, we do need to assess a candidates competencies and the clients needs, but we do not need to judge. If we judge, we generally have closed the door on potential. If we assess, we open the door for further exploration on living to one’s further potential and ultimately purpose in life.

Remember, people come to you, from all walks of life, sharing their experiences, good or bad. They place their trust in your hands. They look to you as a professional who can assist them in not only finding a job, but in finding an opportunity that allows them to grow and be stimulated. More and more the reward does not necessarily lie only in the amount of money they receive at the end of the month , but also in recognition, projects, fellow employees, further training and career advancement.

This blog is to help the new recruiter to become a professional in the recruitment industry and should be viewed as a toolbox for success. The checklists serve as guidelines in the recruitment process. Too often experienced recruiters take short-cuts and wonder why their perfect candidate quits the job after only a few months or why the client is dissatisfied with the performance of the individual. In a production environment short-cuts spell disastrous results in quality of product. In a human resource environment, short-cuts affects the lives of others and their families and can have serious repercussions. Can you afford not to be a professional?

It has been said that every individual should have had 12 mentors in their lives. Mentors are individuals that are either assigned to us, enter our lives by divine intervention or people we approach to assist us in our careers and personal development. They could be mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues, leaders etc. Don’t be afraid to approach people and ask them to be a mentor. Most will be honored to serve in this role. There is enormous knowledge and experience present in these individuals. I like to refer to it as “oldie power”! I would like to thank my mentors. They know who they are. It is they that released within me the energy to propel myself to great heights.

The blog is aligned to unit standards in the National Certificate Labour Recruitment Consultant NQF4. Any information over and above the minimum standards are the collection of knowledge and experience that I have gained during my years of recruiting. The assignments are voluntary. Should you wish to do them, build yourself a Portfolio of Evidence and have them assessed by an accredited assessor in the Labour Recruitment industry. It could gain you credits towards obtaining the National Certificate.

You will be getting weekly chunks of learning. Every Monday a new lesson will be posted and last post will be your check list.

Lastly, I would like to add the wise words of Socrates:

“I cannot teach anybody anything,I can only make them think.”