The job of finding talent, representing your brand to the general public, and helping you meet your staffing needs is one of the most important jobs in your organization. Acquiring talent isn’t cheap. You rely on your recruiters to get the job done right the first time. However, they are only as effective as the training they receive. Here are a few guidelines for creating a training program that produces top performing recruiters.

Always Cover Your Bases Legally

It doesn’t matter if you are training an entry-level recruiter or one with decades of experience. It is extraordinarily important that you ensure that every recruiter working for your company understands the regulations by which they must abide. Remember that discrimination or other legal violations during the recruiting process impact more than the recruiter.

Make Things Relatable Through Examples And Context

The more people understand the reasoning behind the procedures they are asked to follow, the better they can adapt to the training they receive. Context is very important. For example, if you’re training recruiters to focus more on company culture when creating job listings, let them know it’s because there have been several new hires that simply didn’t mesh with the work environment. This is especially true with recruiters who have been with you for quite some time, and are being asked to change deeply established methods.

Almost any training is more effective when you incorporate examples. Create various scenarios in your training to help drive concepts home. This can also teach recruiters to empathize with all people involved in the recruiting process. If it’s feasible consider employing roleplaying to make examples even more impactful.

Get Feedback From Managers About Their Hiring Needs

As you are designing training programs for recruiters, remember to seek out insights from your managers and supervisors. After all, they are the ones who often make the final  hiring decisions. They count on recruiters to bring them candidates who meet their needs. Count on them to give you information about how and where things are working well, and where their needs to be retraining. Here are some questions to ask hiring managers and clients about your current recruiting methods:

• Do you feel as if recruiters truly understand your requirements?
• Are you satisfied with the number of candidates who are sent your way?
• Are applicants adequately screened?
• Are their unique needs that your department has that are not being met?
• Do you find the turnover rates in your department acceptable? If not, do you believe recruiting impacts this?

Familiarize Recruiters With Your Branding

In a sense, a good part of recruiting is like sales. Sales people using branding to attract target customers who are most likely to make a purchase. Recruiters must incorporate company branding into their recruiting efforts as well. This is how they attract great talent who will fit in with their coworkers and company culture. When recruiters know the desired attitudes and personality types of potential hires, they can select candidates that are most likely to remain loyal.

Training should include a focus on company history, values, and work environment. Recruiters should be trained to communicate branding when they write job listings, conduct phone screenings, and participate in initial interviews. It’s important that recruiters know how to treat branding as both a screening and sales tool.

Make Training Specific

If your recruiters work with hiring managers across your organization, you can probably take a more generic approach to your training programs. However, in many companies, recruiters work within a specific discipline or for a specific department. In this case, they need specific training that helps them to meet the needs of those hiring managers.

For example, the processes one might follow to attract marketing talent may not be the same processes used to attract IT professionals. Identify where different recruiters may need adjustments made to the training that they receive based on the needs of the business areas for which they are working.

Ask About Recruiting in Exit Interviews

When exiting employees are willing to participate, exit interviews can be quite informative. One area that is often ignored in this process is recruiting. When employees leave or are terminated because they don’t fit in with an organization the issue can be recruiting. The same is true if there are issues with job duties.

Ask exiting employees questions about their experiences during the recruiting and hiring process. Do they feel as if the company culture, benefits, and job description were communicated to them effectively? Are their things that they weren’t told about that they wish they had been? Use this information to identify any training gaps to cover during upcoming training sessions.

Your recruiters are a key part of ensuring your organization attracts the most qualified talent that is also a great fit for your organization. They need excellent training in order to ensure their skills are up to date, and that they can meet the needs of your managers and supervisors.