Is this considered recruiting?

Anyone who has sought employment long enough has come across a recruiter. Have you ever wondered what Recruiters do, why they exist, or if there are different types of recruiters? Well, I am here to give you some insight and my opinion as to what we do, why we do it, and the different types as I understand them.

What is recruiting, or recruitment? In my words it is solving a Labor/talent shortage. Sounds simple enough, but how many different types of Recruiting Professionals/Agencies are their? In my research I have found different types, and several subsets. I am only going to address a few types of these Professionals/Agencies.

For myself I would have to consider my role and organization to be a combination of several of these. I have worked on over a dozen different programs for clients and all of them are different. Even within an organization there are differences in departments and divisions. This should be your first indicator that everyone and every organization has differences in their procedures, policies and best business practices.

The "Internal Recruiter" in the most basic terms I can use, is an individual who is a member of an organization that works to fill the needs and demands of a company's labor needs. This can be someone who exclusively dedicated to this function that is a High-Volume recruiter or it can be someone who does this as an additional duty to HR role.

There is the "Contingency Recruitment" which in my limited experience I have seen them used by larger organizations that outsource their Talent Acquisitions needs to other trained professionals.

Some organizations use " Retained Recruitment" which is sometimes called Headhunters by other. These agencies or recruiters are on a retainer and may also receive compensation when they place individuals for the client.

One of the larger programs is "Recruitment Process Outsourcing" or RPO. This can be where a 3rd party manages all or part of an organizations recruitment process. It is worth noting that they have what is called Full-Scale RPO and On-Demand RPO.

The Last one I would like to mention is "Staffing/Temp Agency". These companies fill talent needs for an organization. Typically, the workers they hire are actual employees of the Staffing company working on site for the client.

These may be the different organizations that recruiters work at but keep in mind that recruiters have specific titles such as Executive recruiter, Internal Recruiter, IT Recruiter, Technical Recruiter, Legal Recruiter, Management Recruiter, Military Recruiter, Pharmaceutical Recruiter, Sales recruiter, and Sports Recruiter just to name a few.

So far have addressed different Workforce Solutions but what else may a recruiter be doing when they do not get back to you right away? Here are a few items that may be a common fixture in the landscape of recruiting; talking with candidates, finding Key Resumes for contract proposal, phone screens, meetings with hiring managers, meetings with program managers, sourcing candidates, updating spreadsheets and tracking matrixes, scheduling interviews, scheduling drug screens, shipping equipment, addressing pay issues, addressing and resolving travel issues, terminating assignments, following up with applicants, following up with hiring managers about interviews, building your talent pipeline, and drilling down to truly understand what Talent issue an organization is truly trying to solve.

To recap, your recruiter or talent acquisition specialist is an individual who assists with your Workforce Solutions. They exist to assist in solving talent issues for an organization while providing their expertise to the client. Lastly, I would say if you can think of an industry that exists, there are probably recruiters out there supporting it.

** The opinions and views listed in this article are mine and no reflection of my current or previous employers.