The most commonly required skills recruiting positions now demand are technology-driven. What are hiring recruiters looking for?
The skills you need to get into HR’s most in-demand function are becoming increasingly technology-driven. An analysis of HR job advertisements by Wanted Analytics found nine of the top 15 skills both corporate and outsourced recruiters need are software-based.
Most Commonly Required Hard Skills in Recruiter Job Ads
1. Applicant tracking software (ATS)
2. Fully lifecycle recruiting
3. Technical recruiting
4. Oracle HRIS
5. Customer relationship management (CRM)
6. Internet recruiting
7. Oracle PeopleSoft
8. Bilingual
9. Social networking sites
10. Online databases
If you’re looking to get into talent acquisition in the corporate world, bear this in mind: only one in five companies does all their recruiting in-house, according to The Novo Group’s 2013 survey. And just 35% of companies have more than two full-time equivalent positions dedicated to recruiting.
According to The Novo Group’s CEO Cindy Lu, many corporate HR functions need recruiters who can think strategically, and candidates looking to dip their feet in recruitment need to demonstrate an ability to design strategy.
“As a result one of the things we often look for are recruiters who not only know how to be good recruiters who can make phone calls and track down passive candidates,” says Lu, “but we also look for recruiters who have an aptitude toward thinking strategically, helping companies design a structure that allows them to be successful at corporate recruiting.”
As for professional certifications, Lu doesn’t believe they’re essential if you have experience behind you. Instead, she trains her own hires within the company’s in-house program, NovoU.
“At a tactical level there’s AIRS, and that’s certainly valuable, but we haven’t seen anything on a strategic level, and that’s why we created our own,” she says.
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