7 Productivity Tips to Become a Better Recruiter

Time is perhaps the most valuable resource for recruiters. What you do with that time directly affects how many candidates you recruit and what return you bring in. And spending time doing the wrong things eventually costs your company in the long run. 

Did you know that the majority of a recruiter’s time is spent on admin activities and repetitive tasks that usually don’t add much value to the core work of a recruiter? 

So why is this happening? Why are recruiters not able to focus their time on important tasks? 

It is probably because of poor planning, intense workload, mismanagement and a lack of productivity measures and tools. 

So, to help you out of this situation, we are here with seven tips that will help you manage your time better and boost your productivity.

Create a To-Do List and Focus on Important Activities

Overarching deadlines and hovering tasks are some of the reasons for feeling stressed and burnt out at work. However, making a list of tasks you need to do each day would help you plan your day better and allow you to make more room for important tasks. 

Having a target list of long-term targets and then breaking them down into different short-term goals helps in focusing your efforts in one direction. To keep track of your to-do lists, tasks, projects and deadlines effectively, you can use task and project management applications.

These tools allow you to keep all your projects and tasks related to them in one place and remind you about your tasks as the deadline approaches. You can also use them to automate mundane tasks, take feedback, keep a check on your team and share daily updates among many other things.  

Invest in Right Technology and Tools

Scaling, workflow management, process improvement and other issues are standard as a company grows. Managing an organization’s human capital becomes more difficult as the number of employees grows.

Especially if your organization is growing, it is more likely that the increasing size of the organization will exhaust the company’s recruiters at some point.

Investing in HR software and platforms will assist the HR department in meeting its goals and objectives by streamlining administrative operations across areas such as hiring, training, and workforce management. Employing the right tools makes things easier, saves time and cost, provides better insights and ultimately boosts the productivity and efficiency of recruiters. 

Automate As Much As You Can

Previously, the human resources department required manual operations such as clocking in and out, managing leave and calculating payrolls. But as of today, things have taken a 360-degree turn and are heading rapidly toward automation.

Automation technology continues to revolutionize businesses across industries, and the recruitment market is no exception. Not only does it save you time by allowing you to focus on important responsibilities, but also results in better hires and streamlines the candidate experience.

Some of the processes that take up a lot of time and can be automated are:

• • Payroll Administration – One of the most important tasks of human resources is to appropriately calculate and pay salaries on time. This computation takes into account the number of hours worked, the number of leaves taken, bonuses and any other incentives.
  • Leave Administration – Manually managing leave necessitates keeping separate payroll records. Companies, on the other hand, can utilize a proper leave management system to apply, authorize and check to leave requests without any fuss.
  • Employee Onboarding – The recruiter is responsible for several duties that must be completed regularly and might be time-consuming. Some of these include gathering and sorting resumes, creating employee handbooks, providing new hires with access to tools, clarifying business rules and much more. Nowadays recruiters can automate employee onboarding activities as well.
  • Timesheets for Employees – Again, manually tracking employees’ time and attendance is not an option. The process can be time-consuming and exhausting. You can use an automatic timesheet app or attendance management software to track the number of hours worked, the amount of commission received, leaves taken and other information.

Leverage the Existing Talent Pool

You’re wasting your time if you have to hunt for fresh candidates every time a new requirement pops up. An effective and proactive recruiter requires maintaining and using a strong talent pool rather than searching every single time.

A talent pool is a database of people who have previously shown an interest in working for your organization or those you’ve identified as being well-suited through social media, employee referrals, networking events and other channels.

You need to keep a database of these eligible candidates and contact them whenever a relevant post comes up. 

This proactive strategy will save you both time and money, as well as increase the quality of your hiring.

Utilize Email Templates

A large part of a recruiter’s day-to-day tasks involves communicating and sending a whole lot of emails. 

Rather than writing each email from scratch, it’s better to keep email templates ready for each situation, whether it is a cold recruiting email, interview request, job offer, rejection email or even an internal crisis communication email.

This way, you won’t have to start over with an email every single time and waste time in the process. The use of templates also helps to standardize the process and ensures a uniform experience.

Remember to tailor the emails to each candidate’s profile and needs before sending them. Also, make sure you sound both professional and natural.

Stop Multitasking

Multitasking is romanticized much beyond its necessity. Multitasking is an interesting talent to have, but doing so at the expense of your interest, productivity and health is not something you want. Working long hours and on numerous things at once will lead to burnout, lack of focus and decreased productivity.

So don’t be proud of your ability to multitask. Instead, consider strategies to arrange your day, stay focused and work smarter rather than harder.

The first place to start is to prioritize your work, assign proper time slabs for each task, and spend time focusing solely on a particular task at a time. This means, you have to master the art of managing time effectively, which brings us to our last but not tiniest tip – utilizing time management techniques.

Use Time Management Techniques

Among the multiple time management techniques, we have picked out four techniques that can assist recruiters to distribute their time efficiently across their activities throughout the day.

Inbox Zero Method

Recruiters communicate with candidates primarily via email. And emailing, especially when done on a large scale, can be extremely daunting and time-consuming if not well structured.

Using the Inbox Zero Method, you can allocate all your email activities to a specific part of the day and declutter your inbox while replying to important emails. 

• • Designate a specific time each day to manage your inbox, and stick to it.
  • Prioritize your emails, label them, reply to important emails, delegate less important emails and archive or delete unwanted old emails.  
  • Turn off email notifications and close your browser’s email tab for the rest of the day.

Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a popular, simple self-management strategy that enhances focus and productivity by dividing time into short, 25-minute work sessions separated by frequent breaks. 

The purpose of this strategy is to keep the individual focused while inspiring them to complete a task within a set time frame. It is great for people who struggle with task completion, overcoming distractions and procrastination.

• • Make a to-do list and set a timer for 25 minutes. Make sure you focus on one task until the timer goes off.
  • When your session is over, mark off one Pomodoro and write down what you accomplished.
  • After that, take a five-minute pause.
  • After four Pomodoros, take a longer, 15-30 minute breather.

Time Blocking Method

The time-blocking technique requires you to break your day into time blocks. Each block is dedicated to completing a single task, or a series of tasks and only those chores. Instead of keeping an open-ended to-do list of things to complete as you have time, you’ll begin each day with a specific timetable that outlines what you’ll work on and when.

• • The key to this strategy is to prioritize your to-do list ahead of time (with the help of a task management tool like SmartTask or Todoist). 
  • Take stock of the upcoming week’s events and sketch out your time slots for each day. 
  • Review any tasks you haven’t completed and any new tasks you’ve received at the end of every day to adjust your time blocks accordingly.

All you have to do is stick to your timetable. If you become sidetracked or off-task, simply refer to your calendar and return to the task for which you set aside time.

The Eisenhower Technique

This approach was invented by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Its primary goal is to assist recruiters with task prioritization.

You will be able to learn the following using this technique:

• • DO: Which tasks should be completed right away?
  • Delegate: Which tasks can be delegated?
  • Decide: Which tasks can be postponed?
  • Delete: And which ones should be excluded?

Final Words

Remember that the key to better productivity is efficient prioritizing. When you know what is more important and what is not, you will be able to manage things effectively. 

Always try to spend as little time as possible on non-important and mundane activities and focus that energy and time on the things that add value.

And by implementing these 7 productivity tips, you’ll surely be able to make room for critical tasks like monitoring your recruitment activities, promoting employee engagement, creating connections and identifying new sources for attracting talent.

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