Recruiters working remotely may face many challenges they might not have otherwise. You can find advice on many aspects of remote work, including fighting distractions or organizing online interviews with your candidates.

Perhaps apart from ensuring you perform your duties to the best of your abilities. You might have also wondered about how to improve these skills. This article provides some tips on how to try to achieve that goal while staying home.

Improve the skills – diagnose your knowledge gaps

First of all, you need to diagnose where there’s room for improvement. Basing on your assessment and feedback from your boss or colleagues, or even candidates. There are several things you might need as a successful recruiter: presentation skills, industry knowledge, soft skills (including the power of persuasion), Employer Branding, or even marketing acumen. Identify the competencies that are key to boosting your work performance. It’s best to focus on fewer things to make sure you devote enough time to each of them. Try to specify a timeframe for this learning project and break it into smaller steps to make it less overwhelming.

Improve the skills – Internal sharing

Once you’ve selected the areas to be improved, there are two paths you might take. Depending on the resources available, you might seek help inside your organization. If you’re an IT recruiter and your technical knowledge is lacking, online workshops with developers might be the best option. Think about a series of sessions on different technologies and tools used at your company.

If you feel insecure about your soft skills or giving feedback to candidates, pair up with recruiters from your team and practice answering tricky questions or using proper body language to get your intended message across during an online interview. It’s also an opportunity to get more familiar with that new and confusing video conferencing tool your company has just introduced, but in safe, less stressful conditions. Usually, team members have different skills, experiences, or knowledge so sharing this expertise is the greatest treasure. It is worth discussing with your Manager that you would like to schedule regular conference video calls to brain-storm on difficult topics. Team members can also prepare internal webinars or presentations to share their case studies or topics they are more specialized in than others.

External sources

These are simple and free steps you might take immediately. However, sometimes you might need to consider external help, to broaden your horizons, for example. The Internet offers strong support when it comes to learning opportunities. Look up recruitment-related podcasts, blog posts, or webinars. Follow their creators to regularly gain new insights into the best practices or changes in the industry you recruit for. Join groups on Facebook or Linkedin In to discuss difficult issues with fellow recruiters.

If you think you’d benefit from more structured learning, there are a lot of free and paid online courses on almost any topic you might find interesting. As a recruiter, perhaps you already have a premium LinkedIn account. This allows you to explore and take advantage of the numerous courses offered there. Another option might be a Udemy course, among many others. The choice is up to you. What is important is assessing your progress. Some courses offer certificates that serve as a confirmation of your achievement.

If you chose any other form of learning, just go back to your checklist and see whether you’ve managed to cover all the points listed there. Organize a final feedback session with your colleagues or survey your candidates after each recruitment process to discover their thoughts about your performance. And remember, there might always be something new to learn in the future, regardless of whether you’ll be working remotely or at the office, so keep an open mind and look out for those opportunities.