Sam Woodward works for BlueSky PR. She recently attended a course run by one of BlueSky’s clients; Lander. Here is her summary of the event including some tips she picked up during the sessions. Of course it’s a bit of a PR pitch – but if you are thinking of getting training for yourself or one of your team it’s a nice little review of the course.
Although my work is focused on recruitment, I’m a PR person, not a recruiter. So when I went along to a recent training course for recruiters I didn’t really know what to expect.
Lander Associatesis a client of ours and specialise in training and development for the professional recruitment sector, so last month I went along to their Fast Track Induction…with a 2010 twist to observe and see what it was all about. All the delegates were new to the recruitment game – some had a few months of experience, others as little as eight days! So in effect it was “Recruitment 101” – all the basics taught over a two day period. It was a full course but even that meant only ten recruiters – a good number for an effective and interactive experience.
Trainer Alan Clark was great – his upbeat and engaging personality meant attention was never lost, whilst he tested the trainees on what they’d learnt the day before and gave them opportunities to put into practice the skills they would need to use on a daily basis. With lots of participation and questioning it was impossible not to take part and learn something new whether it was how to organise your day or how to ask questions effectively. Not only are these key skills for a recruiter, they are valuable for any business professional – I certainly felt like I took something away from the course and I didn’t even participate!
The part I enjoyed the most was a role play Alan undertook – playing the part of an MD with a vacancy he wanted filling, Alan got each of the delegates in turn to ask him a series of questions about the position. Not only did this test the recruiters’ ability to make sure they could collect all the necessary information, it put their questioning techniques into practice and allowed them to assess each other too. If someone asked a closed question, they would get a closed answer; if they asked two questions in one, Alan would reply so that it wasn’t clear which question had been answered. It really highlighted the importance of choosing your words wisely and gave the trainees examples of what they should and shouldn’t be saying. Alan’s advice was: make the client think through things rather than making assumptions or putting words into their mouths and always ask ‘what else?’
All the delegates had positive feedback too, including: “Ask the right questions and you’ll get the right answers” and “you need to listen rather than hear”.
As Alan discussed, some of the qualities of a successful recruiter are being: confident, a good listener, organised and able to establish rapport. The course certainly addressed these skills. I’d recommend the course to any recruitment businesses looking to develop their new consultants – or to refresh the skills of recruiters who perhaps never learnt these basics. Not only will they learn a lot, they’ll have an information pack to refer back to and an action plan to start working on too. Plus there is unlimited access to Alan, or any of the Lander team, for ongoing post course telephone advice and support – no doubt an excellent start for a successful career as a recruiter.
The next course is on 18th and 19th May in London. Call Julia on 01582 791 838 or email julia@landerassociates.co.ukfor more information.
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