Something about a shiny new year makes us stop and think about what we want for the year ahead and we may even wish we had a crystal ball to predict the future. Occasionally I have been known to engage in crystal ball gazing e.g. when I spoke at the @rcsa recruitment conference in 2015 about one day recruiters being reviewed just like restaurants and hotels. Seems so obvious now. So what’s in store for recruiters ahead and what skills will you need? Last year the top coaching topics for the industry were:

Leadership skills to cope with the growing teams of rookies and experienced recruiters
Negotiation skills so you could increase your fees rather than decreasing them
Influencing skills to persuade candidates to talk to you AND your clients about new opportunities
Strategic thinking to take advantage of the current market conditions
As talent shortages bite further forcing employers to be more open to people from anywhere working from anywhere, an important additional skill is the cultivation of Cultural Intelligence. As the talent pool is increasingly becoming more global, consider if you need to expand your CQ (cultural quotient). Things have certainly improved vastly from when I started in recruitment waaaay back when and we simply changed any foreign sounding name of our candidates to something more familiar and acceptable e.g. Sandeep to Bob. Totally unthinkable and completely cringe worthy now, but “are we there yet?”

By developing your curiosity and genuine interest in others, you can gain a deeper understanding, which in turn WILL make you a better ( read a more successful) recruiter. So instead of thinking of candidates as one large homogenous pool, think more about each individual. Happy recruiting in 2022 and here’s to expanding our horizons!