Feel the Love for Recruitment This Valentine’s Day

Members of the REC’s Institute of Recruitment Professionals have been getting into the Valentine’s Day spirit and sharing what they love about the recruitment profession. Hundreds of recruiters responded to our survey to investigate what makes recruiters tick and what attracts people into our dynamic industry.

A whopping 92% of respondents said they would recommend recruitment as a career and the top five reasons why recruiters love what they do are that it is challenging (83%), the people (76%), it’s rewarding (73%), the interaction (58%) and it’s exciting (54%). The industry also holds on to its staff – more than 50% of respondents said that they had worked in recruitment for five years or more.

Who better to ask what skills fantastic recruiters need than recruiters themselves? People skills were voted the most important, followed by understanding clients’ needs, ability to work under pressure and problem solving. Recruiters are also incredibly busy people with action packed days sourcing candidates, offering advice, visiting clients and, of course, placing people in new jobs.
Social media plays a vital role a recruiter’s day-to-day life as 82% said they use LinkedIn as their main work social media channel and 64% use Facebook as their private social media channel. The top reasons for using social media in their professional lives are for sourcing candidates (62%), raising brand awareness (56%) and posting jobs(51%).

Finally recruiters appreciate some recognition – 60% said they preferred a financial bonus if they were doing well and more than 50% of recruiters feel winning an industry award helps them to progress faster up the career ladder. (Don’t forget to enter our IRP awards this year! http://www.rec-awards.com/)

For more information on the survey and to download the infographic please go to the IRP website: http://www.rec-irp.uk.com/

The IRP is also running a competition to encourage IRP members to tell us why they love recruitment in blog form – for more information on how to enter go to http://www.rec-irp.uk.com/news-and-insight/i-love-recruitment-blog/.