Why Company hired Recruitment Consultant | Required Skills

The recruitment consultant assumes responsibility for the research and selection of a collaborator on behalf of a company after being associated with the job and profile definition.  Recruitment consultant is also known as head hunter, junior consultant, senior consultant and Associate consultant, etc.

Why Recruitment Consultant is Important for Business

Economic Monitoring

• Gather information (press releases, articles …) relating to the activity of clients of the firm.
• Collect general information on the evolution of the functions and sectors in which the firm operates.

Customer Needs Collection

• Meet with the client to learn about their recruitment needs.
• Advise the client on the drafting of the function definition and especially the profile.
• Give a sense of the feasibility of the mission in relation to the labor market and the appropriateness of the proposed remuneration in relation to market wages.

Development of a proposal and methodology

• Write and send a proposal to the client, which summarizes his / her understanding of the position.
• Define direct and / or indirect approach methodology.
• To validate the methodology by the client and, in particular, to obtain his agreement and his comments on the possible media plan (publication of advertisements in the press or on the Internet) and the associated announcement project.

Realization of the Recruitment Consultancy Mission

• Coordinate or carry out the first steps of the direct approach (targeting, identification, contact) and indirect (exploitation of candidate libraries, sorting of CVs received during advertisements, exploitation of spontaneous applications …).
• Ensure regular reporting to the client on the progress of the assignment.
• Select candidates for interview and explain to them the recruitment project of their client.
• To implement complementary means of evaluation (control of references, tests, graphology …).
• Develop application forms.

Steering and follow-up of the candidate presentation phase

• Present the client the short list (short list of the selected candidates).
• Follow the presentation process with the customer.
• Take part in the negotiation phase of the remuneration and the start date.
• Manage negative responses from unsuccessful candidates.

Possible Activities

• Upstream of the research process, the recruitment consultant may assume organizational consultancy missions in order to elicit the characteristics of the position to be filled and the profile required.
• In many firms, he oversees (hierarchically) or animates (functionally) a small team of researchers and document lists.
• He also works frequently in the “transversal” activities of a recruitment agency: sorting and management of speculative applications, presence at trade shows, participation in round tables …
• Further downstream, the client sometimes associates the consultant with the candidate’s integration phase.
• The recruitment consultant can be associated with the firm’s NIC projects: it will possibly pilot the website project or its redesign, or will be the driving force in the development of means of searching via the Web.

Variability of Activities

The job of the recruitment consultant varies according to the following criteria: 

The organization of the cabinet itself dependent on its size. In the bigger firms, the consulting profession can be divided into three families:

• The “producer” consultant is mainly responsible for the phases of selection of candidates and the drafting of applications;
• The consultant “contributor” assumes essentially commercial responsibilities and does not invest in the research and selection phases;
• Some consultants have a “hybrid” form and are both contributors and producers of all or part of the recruitment missions.

In smaller firms, the consultant (s) performs the three functions.

The diversity of the firm’s services

• In some firms, recruitment is the only service provided and the sole mission of the consultants of the company.
• In other, more diversified firms, other services (outplacement, training, skills assessment, HR studies, etc.) are provided and the recruitment consultant can be involved. He then moved closer to the role of HR Consultant.

Responsibilities of the client’s contact person

• When the recruitment consultant works directly with a general manager, he / she assumes duties similar to the board of directors or the organization council: he or she considers how the position fits into the organization, drafts the definition of Function with the client and is very closely associated with the choice and even the integration of the candidate.
• When dealing exclusively with an operational one, its missions are very wide and include in particular an important work on the definition of the position.
• When “briefed” by an HR framework, its role is primarily oriented towards the definition of a methodology to approach the candidates, their research and evaluation. The HR framework assumes to him, the leadership of the upstream phases (Job Definition) and downstream (relations with the operational integration and final evaluation of the candidate).

The sectoral and functional specialization of the firm

• Depending on the sectors in which he or she works, the role of the recruitment consultant may vary.
• In the computer field, short interviews and technical skills of specialized profiles can constitute its daily life. Recruitment consultants are often found to be specialized in a type of profile, with relatively similar interviews in their content.
• For sales positions with large volumes, he can become a facilitator of group recruitment sessions.
• For senior management positions, interviews will be fewer and longer, so the number of missions will be less.

Required Skills for Recruitment Consultants

• Technical skills. The recruitment consultant has an excellent knowledge of professions, qualifications, initial training associated master interviewing techniques, testing and other methods of evaluating candidates.
• Personal qualities. The recruitment consultant has a good listening and a capacity for analysis and synthesis. On the one hand, it collects the expectations of the client and the aspirations of the candidates and, on the other hand, manages the information in order to draw a synthesis of these sometimes contradictory data. He can bring out the proposals and take the decision both to the candidate and the client. Its discernment and its demand credibilize it and are part of its added value. Diplomat in difficult situations, he shows empathy with clients. He also knows how to withstand stress, because recruitment is an anxiety-prone activity, subject to many cyclical and situational reversals. 

Professional Evolution of Recruitment Consultant

• Hiring coordinator
• HRD
• RRH
• Human Resources Consultant
• Director of the consulting department
• Consultant in Accompaniment