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Job description: Recruitment Executive
The right employees are the best building blocks for building a better business. But where to find them? As Recruitment Executive, you'd be providing employers with staff that are right for them to take their business further.
Knowing the needs or your clients would be an important part of your role. You'd be keeping excellent relationships with employers, whilst helping them find the best employees for their business. This would mean overlooking the whole recruitment process from job descriptions to making sure Recruitment Consultants were choosing the correct candidates.
Daily you'd be talking with the businesses to understand what it is they must have and advising them on what they may require. You'd also be interviewing potential employees, overlooking teams of consultants, deal with a number of recruitment enquiries.
Social relations would play a large part of your role also. You'd have to promote your organisation, often looking for new clients to build a larger contacts list to expand the business, whilst taking care of existing employers.
Hours/Environment
In most cases you'd be working from nine until six, Monday to Friday, although extra hours could be expected on some occasions.
For most of the time you'd be based in an office building, often with your own separate room. Due to frequent meetings with clients, travel would come with the job. For this reason, a driving license would be handy.
Due to the senior position, formal dress would be required at all time.
Skills and interests
To be a good Recruitment Executive, you must:
- have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
- be tactful and articulate
- have strong leadership skills
- be analytical and methodical in your approach to problems
- be an excellent judge of character
- be motivated and results driven
- be able to act quickly and decisively
- have good IT skills
- have a good eye for detail
- have excellent organisational skills
Entry
There are no specific qualifications needed to become a Recruitment Executive, but a management degree or qualification, as well as a good academic background, would work to your advantage. More and more employers that deal with executive placements are now taking on graduates.
If working in a specific sector then a detailed knowledge and experience of the field would be extremely important and help stand you in good stead.
Several years' experience in recruitment would be needed, as this is how many people enter the role. This can include work in personnel, sales or office work, but managerial experience would be particularly important. Good personal qualities would be looked for, particularly 'people skills' and your judge of character. You'd particularly need to demonstrate leadership skills, strong initiative.
Your success rate will be looked into, as employers will often look for candidates with a strong sales record.
Training
When you start your job as a Recruitment Executive, you will be expected to already have good sales and management skills. Your employer will normally provide some training in their products and in-house sales administration systems.
In this role, you could work towards NVQ levels 3 and 4 in Sales, or other advanced qualifications such as:
- Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Advanced Certificate in Professional Sales Management Practice, and Diploma in Strategic Sales
- Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM) Level 5 Diploma in Sales and Account Management
- Managing and Marketing Sales Association (MAMSA) Advanced Diploma in Sales Management.
See the CIM, ISMM and MAMSA websites for more details about their qualifications.
You could also choose to take qualifications in general management, such as NVQ levels 3, 4 and 5 in Management.
Opportunities
There are thousands of recruitment agencies in the United Kingdom. Most deal with office workers, but if your interests or expertise lie in a specific area, there are many specialist agencies also. If you work in a general agency, it is possible to transfer your skills over into a specialist placement.
With experience, larger companies with a defined promotion structure may offer opportunities to move into a management position and then onto Regional Manager. Alternatively, you could choose to set up your own agency.
Annual income
As a Recruitment Executive, your standard salary would range between £30,000 and £50,000. As much of the work is commission based, your earnings would increase depending on how well you reach your targets. With high levels of achievement, your On Target Earnings (OTE) can be between £35,000 and £60,000.
Salaries will depend on the type and size of consultancy and organisations in London are likely to pay higher. Some of the top OTEs can range up to £100,000.
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