Have you ever wondered what makes a good recruiter? Or what skills recruiters need to possess to hire the right finance and accounting personnel?
Most successful recruiters share common skills that help them achieve effectiveness in their work. These skills are a combination of professional knowledge and soft skills, either linked to the recruiter's personality or learned and honed over time.
Knowledge related to the field of finance and accounting.
Finance and accounting is a highly specialized job position; therefore, as a finance and accounting recruitment officer, in addition to relevant HR knowledge, recruiters also need to equip themselves with fundamental knowledge of finance and accounting to apply to the recruitment process, making it easier to perform tasks such as:
- Design job descriptions that closely match the company's professional requirements.
- Screening ensures that the right candidates meet the required expertise in corporate finance and accounting.
- Prepare a list of questions relevant to the company's recruitment content to easily identify talented candidates suitable for the financial accounting position.
- Able to understand technical jargon, easily communicate, connect, and reach common ground with candidates.
- Organize and plan training programs, connect new employees, and support their integration into the company.
Soft skills that employers look for
Soft skills are skills closely related to your personality. They are a part of who you are and are things recruiters can leverage to their advantage in the job market. Many people can also hone and improve these skills over time with the right effort.
Here are some essential soft skills, as shared by most top finance and accounting recruitment experts:
Good communication skill
Communication skills are an extremely important soft skill in today's world. Regardless of the job position, it encompasses a set of rules and artful ways of behaving and responding. These skills are honed through daily practical experience, helping recruiters communicate effectively, persuade, and build relationships with candidates.
Furthermore, the ability to communicate flexibly across multiple channels is an essential skill for recruiters. You will need to write effective job postings and social media content, communicate with candidates via email, phone, and in-person meetings. Recruiters are expected to act as the face of the company to candidates, bridge the gap between the business and applicants, and maintain communication throughout the recruitment process.
Because of these responsibilities, employers need to be able to communicate clearly, tactfully, and concisely, not only with candidates and colleagues but also with the community.
Confidence
Recruitment involves extensive networking and interaction with many people. Recruiters are expected to speak confidently with candidates, colleagues, and professionals in the finance and accounting industry. Therefore, recruiters need to have a certain level of confidence in their abilities.
Therefore, self-confidence is also a necessary skill when recruiting for positions requiring specialized knowledge such as finance and accounting. Recruiters need to be confident in their own abilities and experience, thereby making the right choice for the job being recruited for and being able to quickly answer candidates' questions when they arise.
Time management skills
The recruitment process typically involves a large volume of work that needs to be done simultaneously, including writing job advertisements, screening applicants, running background checks, scheduling interviews, and finally, finalizing job offers. In addition, recruiters need to communicate with numerous applicants, act as a liaison between the company and candidates, and seek advice from finance and accounting professionals. Above all, their workload is multiplied many times over, along with immense pressure.
Therefore, the first step to effectively managing their recruitment process is for recruiters to improve their time management and planning skills. These skills will help recruiters allocate time for daily tasks, reduce stress, and collaborate effectively with team members and experts.
Organizational and problem-solving skills
During the recruitment process, recruiters need to manage numerous candidates across different stages. Organizational skills are essential, enabling recruiters to efficiently schedule job interviews and ensure that no potential candidates are overlooked among a multitude of applications.
Recruitment is a lengthy process with many stages, from designing job descriptions and posting job advertisements to screening resumes and conducting interviews. Meanwhile, recruiters must simultaneously connect with numerous candidates, each with different personalities, strengths, and questions. Therefore, recruiters will encounter many situations during the recruitment process. Without flexibility and problem-solving skills, it is very difficult to effectively handle various unexpected situations during recruitment.
Observation and listening skills
Recruiters must be able to observe and analyze candidates, as well as the overall picture of the company. This is also part of the recruitment process; a successful recruiter is one who observes a candidate's style, gestures, and demeanor and analyzes to determine the candidate's suitability for the company's recruitment context.
During an interview, observational skills are demonstrated through focus and attentive listening. By focusing on the core of the conversation, listening to what candidates, accounting and finance professionals, and colleagues have to say, recruiters can sense the other person's emotions and understand exactly what they want. This information can then be used to develop recruitment and negotiation strategies. The more you listen, the more valuable information you will gain to guide your decision-making.
Body language reading skills
It's evident that 80% of the information we gather from a conversation isn't through spoken words, but through body language. This type of language includes facial expressions, gestures, and attitudes towards things and events, reflecting to some extent their thoughts. Therefore, reading a candidate's body language will help recruiters gain a deeper understanding of their true thoughts or intentions, allowing them to assess the difference between the candidate's perceived abilities and their actual capabilities.
Furthermore, the ability to read body language helps recruiters control and project positive body language during face-to-face interviews, creating a valuable negotiation strategy. It can help recruiters control the overall flow and emotions of the interview.
Teamwork and independent work skills
Recruiting finance and accounting personnel is a lengthy process involving the entire human resources department within a company. Even if you are the sole recruiter, you need to work with the finance and accounting department to understand the personnel requirements, professional skills, and educational background of potential candidates. Furthermore, when recruiting for positions requiring high-level accounting and finance expertise, which may be outside your area of expertise, recruiters need to collaborate with senior finance and accounting personnel within the company. Therefore, strong teamwork skills are essential for a successful recruiter.
Furthermore, in the process of recruiting finance and accounting personnel, there are tasks where recruiters need to make decisions independently. At this point, the ability to work independently is essential, helping recruiters make decisive decisions to successfully complete the recruitment process.
Negotiation skills
During an interview, there will inevitably be differing opinions on the same issue; concerns about benefits, employment contract terms, etc. At this point, negotiation skills will help the employer and candidate reach a consensus based on mutual agreement; compromise on job responsibilities; and resolve issues related to the interests of both the company and the candidate.
In specific cases, even if the company lacks the resources the candidate desires, a skilled recruiter can suggest alternative options the company can offer, making the finance and accounting position more attractive and compelling.
Technology utilization capabilities
Another skill that employers need, and considered crucial for recruiters today, is technological literacy. An effective recruitment process in the digital age combines recruitment skills with the ability to utilize technology, such as candidate tracking systems and job posting management platforms.
The better an employer's technological skills, the more opportunities they have in recruitment. Leveraging the resources of technology platforms allows recruiters to access and select more suitable candidates. The speed of candidate searching is also significantly increased, leading to improved work efficiency.
How to become a successful recruiter?
If you've researched the skills employers are looking for and find you're still lacking a bit, don't worry. There are always ways for employers to help you learn new skills and expand your existing ones. Here are a few suggestions:
- Define specific, measurable, and achievable goals within each timeframe.
- Track your own progress against those goals. Achieving those goals signifies that the employer's skill development and improvement phase is progressing.
- Discuss your current practices with colleagues and candidates, and incorporate their feedback. Use this as a roadmap for improvement.
- Focus on improving your weaknesses, make a list of the skills you struggle with the most, and concentrate on improving those skills.
- Participate in skills training courses and useful technology courses.