3 powerful questions that will make you a better recruiter
Here are 3 questions that – if asked with the appropriate explanations and follow-up questions – will start to differentiate you from other recruiters. They may also help you fill more of these job.
Q1: Who have you previously met, worked with or interviewed, that you think might be the right kind of person for this job?
The first question sets the tone. Regardless of the answer, the Hiring Manager will start to take you more seriously because you’re already demonstrating your ability to think laterally and your desire to help solve their problem.
Q2: What specific companies have previously successful candidates and current staff worked for, before joining you?
The second question acts as an information gatherer (assuming you don’t already know the answer) and continues to condition the Hiring Manager into thinking they may finally be talking to the right recruiter.
Q3: Would you have any objections to me speaking to members of your team to get referrals to people they may know?
The third is the jackpot question – especially if they agree to the request, because once you’re able to talk to existing employees on the recommendation of the Hiring Manager (I don’t think many HR Managers will agree to this), not only do you have access to high quality candidate referrals, you also have access to high quality information about the job and the company.
But more than that, what you’re really doing is leveraging the power of referrals, recommendations and other people’s networks.
This post is adapted from Mitch’s book; ‘On Recruitment’. You’ll learn more about what questions to ask with our online mini-course ‘Taking the job brief‘.
