Top 10 In-Demand Skills For Recruiters In The Gen AI Era

We live in the Gen AI era, where recruiters must adapt and possess essential skills to stand out in the market. A recruiter is the first person represented to a candidate, and making a first impression is necessary. Hence, recruitment skills such as communication, relationship building, and interviewing are helpful.

So, do you have these in-demand skills of a recruiter? Read today's Aniday's guide and identify the skills you need to upskill or reskill.

What Are The 10 Most In-Demand Skills For Recruiters?

To truly stand out as a recruiter, you’ll need a blend of soft and hard skills. That’s why Aniday has curated a selection of courses to help you enhance and sharpen these abilities.

Soft Skills:

1. Communication

The recruiter is the first person a candidate communicates with and handles the candidates during the hiring process. Hence, recruiters must have effective communication skills to make a first impression. 

Communication skills are handy when handling Zoom meetings, phone calls, emails, and more! Here are a few courses to help you upskill your communication skills:

• Communication Foundations course offered by Tatiana Kolovou and Brenda Bailey Hughes (on LinkedIn)
• Effective Communication (on SC Training)
• The Complete Communication Skills Master Class for Life (on Udemy)

2. Customer Service

Since recruiters primarily connect and work with people, you should be on the delivery end to provide effective customer service. 

To maintain a long-term relationship, it would be best to make the people feel you are enthusiastic, respected, heard, and attentive to details. Here are some courses recommended by Aniday to help you enhance your customer service skills:

• Building Rapport with Customers with Myra Bryant Golden (on LinkedIn)
• Talent Acquisition (on Coursera)
• The Manager's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work (on Coursera)

3. Teamwork

Whether in recruitment or any other position, you primarily work in a team. Hence, teamwork includes understanding your colleagues, developing effective relationships, and cooperating. 

When you work as a team, you can achieve your goals with strategies faster than your usual capacity. Hence, if you want to upskill your teamwork skills, here are some courses you can consider:

• Teamwork Essentials: Stand Out as a Valuable Team Member with Shadé Zahrai (on LinkedIn)
• Teamwork Masterclass - Guide To Team Building & Teamwork (on Udemy)

4. Time Management

A recruiter's day is more challenging than it is when there are multiple tasks such as preparing job applications, reviewing resumes, filtering the fitting resumes, contacting candidates, conducting background checks, etc. 

Above all, to handle these tasks, time management is the primary skill for keeping track of the workload. If you have difficulties in managing your time, here are some courses you can learn it from:

• Productivity and Time Management for the Overwhelmed (on Udemy)
• Business Leadership Management, Time and Project Management (on Udemy)

5. Networking And Relationship-Building

In a recruitment position, just like communication, networking is equally important. A recruiter will handle many parties, such as managers, candidates, employers, recruiting agencies, etc. 

Effective networking and relationship building help to identify the team's requirements and the right candidate fitting the company's expectations. Here are some courses you can take to upskill networking skills:

• Getting Your Voice Heard (on SC Training)
• Managing Talent (on Coursera)

Hard Skills

6. Sales

Are we talking about selling products? Of course not! But, as a recruiter, you should be talented to find and sell the company to candidates. For example, you should be able to understand the requirements the candidate is looking for and persuade them that this is the right company (helps to retain talented candidates if you want to). 

Alongside this, recruiters should handpick high-quality candidates to hiring managers. Here are some courses where you can learn about the sales strategies of a recruiter:

• Increase Sales with ChatGPT with Jake Dunlap (on LinkedIn)
• Human Resource Management: HR for People Managers Specialization (on Coursera)

7. Human Resources (HR)

As part of the talent acquisition team, you should be familiar with effectively connecting with people, finding talented candidates, coaching candidates, and reaching the targeted goals. 

You need the ideal HR skills and knowledge to do this task by ensuring employee well-being, equity, and diversity. Here are the essential courses to upskill HR skills:

• HR Foundations: Core Human Resources with Wayne Cascio (on LinkedIn)
• Equal Employment Opportunity (on SC training)
• What is Gender, and Why Gender Equality? (on SC Training)
• Hiring Practices (on Coursera)
• Karamo's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training (on SC Training)

8. Interviewing

A recruiter should know how to ask the right questions and make the candidate comfortable. Even though interviewing is challenging, it is essential to learn and assess the candidate to identify whether the candidate would be a perfect fit for the role you are looking for. Here are some courses to enhance your interview skills:

• Skills-First Interviewing with Shweta Mogha (on LinkedIn)
• Interviewing Talent for Startups (on SC Training)
• Recruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding Employees (on Coursera)
• Interviewing Best Practices (on Coursera)

9. Sourcing

While candidates can apply via job advertisements and go through the screening process, one of the most effective ways to discover top talent is by actively sourcing candidates.

Whether you use a personalized outreach strategy or reach out to them based on platforms such as social media - LinkedIn, professional networks, or job boards, you are more likely to identify the top and most talented candidates. If you have difficulties in using sourcing strategies, check out these courses to learn this skill:

• Talent Sourcing with Barbara Bruno (on LinkedIn)
• Utilize LinkedIn for Career Search (on Coursera)
• Attracting and Sourcing Diverse Candidates (on Coursera)

10. Technology Knowledge

Even in recruitment positions, they use recruitment tools to streamline the hiring process. One of the critical tools used is an applicant tracking system (ATS), which helps to handle job postings and job applications effectively. 

To be comfortable using technology-based tools, you must be tech-savvy, have basic technology knowledge, be familiar with hiring platforms, and be a self-learner. Here are the recent technologies you can learn that would be helpful to enhance your technical skills:

• Human Resources Analytics (on Coursera)
• Human Resources Applicant Tracking System (on Udemy)

How To Become A Successful Recruiter

You can become a successful recruiter by building the ideal skills and paying attention to several points. Here are the strategies from Aniday to become a successful recruiter:

• Track your work: Based on your work and goals, identify whether you have effectively achieved your to-do list or tasks. If not, pay attention to why you didn't and take action accordingly. 
• Discuss with your colleagues: You can have a friendly discussion with your coworkers about how well the work has been going and even ask for suggestions for improvement based on their points of view. 
• Identify your weaknesses: Identifying and turning your weaknesses into strengths helps you stand out in your company. 
• Take online courses: Based on the required skills you need to improve, take online courses and upskill yourself.  

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, you can become a successful recruiter by enhancing your skills and following ideal strategies. upskilling or reskilling helps you to stand out in your company. 

If you are looking for excellent Executive Search Services, Aniday is your go-to partner for finding ideal talents among the talent pool. Reach out to us directly or connect with our expert headhunters today!

We hope this guide helped identify the critical skills of a recruiter!