What Is a Recruiting Manager? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

The goal of a recruiting manager is to support the growth of the organization by enabling the recruiting function to hire the right people in a timely manner. Here’s what to know about a recruiting manager’s salary, needed skills and how to become one.

What Is a Recruiting Manager?

A recruiting manager is a leadership role within HR that oversees the recruiting function. Depending on the company’s organizational structure, a recruiting manager may also provide mentorship and direction to a recruiting team.

What Do Recruiting Managers Do?

Depending on the needs and size of a company, a recruiting manager may have a range of responsibilities that differ from company to company.

Recruiting Manager Responsibilities

• Leading, mentoring and growing a recruiting team.
• Design and optimize the recruiting process.
• Setting expectations and accountability.
• Uncovering opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure a company is meeting recruiting compliance requirements.

Types of Recruiting Managers

Functional management in recruiting refers to managing how recruiting works within a company. This means that a functional recruiting manager oversees sourcing strategy, approaches to interviewing, extending offers and relevant performance metrics. This person also keeps a close partnership with hiring teams to get a sense for role prioritization. 

People management in recruiting refers to the responsibility of leading, mentoring and growing a recruiting team. People managers do this through employee check-ins and career development conversations. A recruiting manager with people management responsibilities also provides their team with clarity on priorities, while setting expectations and accountability for each recruiter. In addition, they are also functional managers and are responsible for overseeing the overall recruiting function.

Recruiting Managers Within a Company

Recruiting managers who are purely functional managers don’t have recruiters who report to them. However, they may eventually become people managers once there is an organizational need for additional recruiters. Start-ups and smaller organizations would typically have these purely functional managers in recruiting but larger organizations may have dedicated recruiting operations teams that oversee processes and responsibilities within recruiting. In this case, a functional recruiting manager partners and collaborates with recruiting operations.

Importance of Recruiting Managers

It’s important for a company to invest in a recruiting manager because the role provides an organization with someone who has the expertise to ensure an efficient and effective recruiting process.

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Recruiting Manager?

Qualifications to Be a Recruiting Manager

• Learning new and different ways to recruit.
• Mentorship experience.
• Get training experience by onboarding new recruiting team members or training junior recruiters.
• Hands-on experience in developing another person’s skills.

Recruiting Manager Prerequisites

• Most companies may not require a specific degree or certification.
• Taking courses and certification classes help recruiters keep their skills sharp while learning new and different ways to recruit. 
• Universities and companies like Udemy and Built In offer various learning programs depending on what recruiters are looking to learn.

Recruiting Manager Hard Skills

• Tracking recruiting and hiring regulations.
• Analyzing interview feedback and recruiting metrics.

Recruiting Manager Soft Skills

• Active listening.
• Leadership skills.

How to Become a Recruiting Manager

Recruiting Manager Education and Experience

Learning from a mentor is a great way to accelerate your learning as a recruiter. A mentor can provide advice, suggest learning opportunities and clear roadblocks you may come across as a recruiter.

Gaining mentorship experience is valuable for those who are looking to be recruiting managers in the future. By working with a protege and supporting their growth, recruiters are able to hone their active listening and leadership skills.

Recruiting Manager Salary and Job Outlook

The full compensation package for a recruiting manager depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average recruiting manager salary.