Your First Recruiter: A Guide for Startups and Entrepreneurs to Hiring the Right HR Talent
A few months ago, I published an article on why it might be time to fire your HR manager, which sparked quite a reaction. Entrepreneurs appreciated it, bringing me new clients, but my HR colleagues were less than thrilled, leading to some intense discussions within the HR community.
Now, I want to focus on the other side: how to hire a great recruiter. We all know that in interviews, candidates often present themselves exceptionally well. Still, there’s a catch - let’s dive into what it takes to evaluate a recruiter effectively, from where to find them to the specific qualities and skills that matter.
A recruiter with the right skills - technical proficiency, strong interpersonal abilities, and innovative sourcing methods - will help you build a capable, cohesive team and shape your organization’s future.
I’d suggest that you keep your company’s unique needs at the center of the process, evaluating soft and hard skills with an eye toward your growth goals. By carefully testing and verifying their abilities during the interview, you’re more likely to find someone who not only fits but excels in the role.
When done thoughtfully, this process ensures you won’t just hire someone good on paper, but someone ready to make a tangible impact. Good luck, and if you need further guidance in finding HR talent, feel free to reach out—I’m here to help.
Building the Ideal Recruiter Profile
In my experience, factors like the length of time someone’s worked or the companies they’ve been with don’t necessarily reflect a recruiter’s level of knowledge or productivity. Instead, more telling indicators include:
The types of positions they’ve worked on,
The industry or niche they focus on,
And the speed at which they’ve been able to fill roles.
These factors don’t need to match your company exactly but can guide you in understanding the recruiter’s versatility. For instance, if your company primarily needs high-volume hiring (like engineering, technical trades, or sales), these areas often demand more creative outreach due to candidate shortages.
Conversely, sectors with a high number of applicants, like marketing or legal, require recruiters skilled in effective assessment and selection.
To further clarify your focus, check industry indexes showing the supply-demand ratio across different professions. These indexes indicate the number of active resumes relative to open roles in each field, offering insight into where your hiring challenges may lie and helping define your ideal recruiter’s profile.
Defining the job profile is a critical first step. This means spelling out the recruiter’s primary tasks and required skills, both soft and hard. Here’s a comprehensive outline, adaptable to various companies:
Role Description and Requirements Outline the conditions you’re offering, including salary (even as a private range for internal reference), work environment (in-office or remote), and workload (full or part-time).
Soft Skills These skills are often crucial but harder to gauge. Later, I’ll detail methods for evaluating soft skills to ensure you’re not missing out on essential qualities.
Hard Skills Specify technical skills based on your company’s needs: recruiting for international markets, language proficiency, experience with high-volume hiring or executive roles, and familiarity with relevant software.
Primary Duties Outline key responsibilities, such as candidate onboarding or setting up evaluation systems. Tailor these to your existing team structure.
Candidate Preparation Inform candidates beforehand to attend the interview on a laptop and share their screen for task-related assessments.
Interview Structure: In-Depth Assessment
To effectively gauge a recruiter’s skills, I prefer real-time evaluations during the interview. Assigning homework or take-home tests often misses key indicators like problem-solving speed and adaptability. Below is a structured approach with specific questions and tasks:
Key Interview Questions
“Tell me about yourself.” Listen for details about past responsibilities, tools for candidate sourcing and assessment, and the types of positions closed. Take notes for deeper follow-up.
Example follow-up: If the recruiter mentions closing 15 positions in a month, ask for details on how this was achieved. Explore their budget, resources, and candidate assessment methods. Seek out specifics if they offer general responses.
“You mentioned using [ATS System]. Which features were most useful, and why?”
This verifies the recruiter’s familiarity with the tools they claim to have used and the extent of their involvement.
“Tell me about a time when your manager was unhappy with your work.”
Address challenges the recruiter faced, any unmet hiring timelines, or mismatches with the candidate profile, and ask how they’d approach similar situations now.
“How was your performance measured?”
A qualified candidate will list clear metrics, such as KPIs, conversion rates, or time-to-hire.
Hard Skills Evaluation
Without the right hard skills, even the best soft skills won’t carry a recruiter’s performance. Below are tasks for hard skill assessment:
Labor Market Analysis Give the candidate a position (e.g., a marketer) and ask them to perform a quick labor market assessment, identifying salary ranges, work schedules, and preferred formats based on demand.
Expected response: The candidate should open a job portal, like hh.ru, and apply filters like experience, region, publication date, and language requirements to pinpoint candidate availability and salary expectations.
Boolean Search & Cold Sourcing Ask the recruiter to use specific search techniques to find a suitable resume, observing how they search, select, and explain their process.
Expected tools: They should be familiar with tools like Boolean searches and cold outreach, and have a clear approach for budget-efficient sourcing.
Labor Law Knowledge Present a scenario requiring a respectful rejection of a candidate based on incompatibility, focusing on legal language.
Expected response: Recruiters should avoid personal factors in rejections, instead using neutral phrasing like, “The position has been filled” or “The search for this role has been paused.” They should also know that certain rejections—based on age, disability, or family status—are legally restricted.
Copywriting Skills Have the recruiter write a brief job post for a social platform, like a Telegram channel. Evaluate how effectively they appeal to the right audience and structure the post. Candidate Assessment Techniques Ask them to outline their interview structure, specifying how they’d assess competencies in strategy, stress management, or market entry. Metrics and Reporting Skills Ask what metrics they prioritize when working on a role, such as cost per hire, candidate pipeline conversion rates, or feedback from hiring managers.
Soft Skills Evaluation and Techniques
Adaptability
Present a scenario: “If two key candidates back out at the last moment, what’s your next step?” This shows how they manage pressure and reprioritize.
Creativity and Innovation
For a challenging market, ask them to suggest unique talent attraction methods, such as localized events or partnerships with educational institutions.
Collaboration
If a hiring manager often delays feedback, ask how they’d address this issue. Look for a solution-oriented attitude toward improving teamwork.
Understanding Motivations and Career Fit
The candidate’s personal goals and work preferences are crucial. Here’s a sample set of questions to gauge alignment:
“What factors are most important to you when choosing a company? What would make you leave?”
This helps reveal the deeper motivations that drive them to stay committed.
“Which fields would you avoid working in?”
This shows any limitations in the recruiter’s adaptability to different industries.
Salary and Stability
Inquire about their minimum acceptable salary to understand financial expectations and stability. You might learn, for example, about a candidate’s family situation or financial responsibilities.
“Why would you leave your current company?”
A candidate might give socially desirable responses initially, but dig deeper to understand specific changes in the team or project that influenced their wish to departure.
“What tasks do you enjoy? Which do you dislike?”
A preference for non-routine tasks might suggest a poor fit for recruitment, where repetitive tasks are common.
After the interview, if satisfied with the candidate’s responses, provide a thorough overview of your company and the position. Outline upcoming tasks, performance expectations, growth opportunities, and any employee benefits. Be transparent about your current hiring process and goals, and take the opportunity to highlight aspects that matter to the candidate.
UnitiQ: Flexible HR Solutions for Growing Businesses
UnitiQ offers flexible, on-demand HR services tailored for companies that need high-quality HR support without the commitment of a full-time hire. Their fractional HR model allows businesses to tap into experienced HR professionals who assist with talent acquisition, HR operations, and strategic people management.
By working closely with both in-house HR teams and founders directly, UnitiQ ensures each client receives personalized guidance, whether it’s building teams aligned with company values, enhancing workplace culture, or providing fresh, external insights on engagement and compliance.
With a single point of contact and access to sector-specific experts, UnitiQ simplifies collaboration, making it easy for businesses to scale their HR needs as they grow.
Trusted by companies in diverse fields—like aerospace, robotics, and food tech - UnitiQ brings deep industry knowledge and 25+ years of expertise, led by CEO Olga Fedoseeva, to help organizations attract and retain top talent effectively.
Happy to help you with Talent Acquisition and HR tasks, please contact me, Olga Fedoseeva, Founder at UnitiQ, directly: My Telegram My LinkedIn