How To Feature Recruitment Skills On A Resume (With Example)

Organisations depend on personnel with high-level recruitment skills to find top-quality candidates for various positions. Human resource (HR) professionals actively engage and recruit promising individuals for hiring managers, who then ascertain whether those individuals have the necessary hard or soft skills. If you are applying for a recruitment job, knowing how to effectively highlight your skills can help you attract a recruiter's interest and secure an interview. In this article, we discuss what recruitment skills are, explain how to include them on a resume and provide a template and sample resume.

What Are Recruitment Skills On A Resume?

Recruitment skills on a resume highlight an HR professional's skills that help them attract new talent to a company. These hard and soft skills combine to help them identify and hire suitable candidates for an organisation. This skill set includes effective communication, digital literacy, active listening, curiosity, precise attention to detail and time management strengths. Hiring managers prioritise resumes that highlight these skills, as they indicate a candidate's ability to excel in the position.

Related: How To Become An HR Manager (Duties, Salary And Skills)

How To Include Recruitment Skills On A Resume

To get a hiring manager's attention, it is important to highlight your recruitment skills on a resume. Here are some steps that you can follow:

1. Choose a resume format

Your first step in creating a resume is choosing the right layout that features your skills and qualifications. You can select from chronological, functional, targeted or combined resume formats. If you are applying for multiple jobs, choose the functional resume format, which focuses on the candidate's skills. If applying for one position, you can use a targeted resume format centred on the specific job opening and the skills required for the job. Once you have selected a suitable layout for the application process, you can find a template and begin filling in your details.

2. Study the job description

Next, study the job description and identify the key skills that the employer is looking for in a candidate. You may notice keywords indicating the abilities required for a particular task or responsibility. Include those phrases in your resume to show your suitability for the role. Some companies use screening tools to search resumes for certain words and shortlist candidates containing them. Adding the keywords you found in the description can help you pass through screening.

3. Identify any related skills that you have

The next step is to identify the skills you have that can help you excel in your role as a recruiter. Create a list of all the skills that are important for the job. You can then categorise these skills into hard and soft skills and determine how they are essential to you as an HR professional. If you have created a long list, shortlist the skills you want to include in your resume.

4. List your skills on your resume

Once you have decided what skills to include in your resume, start adding them to the skills section. Follow the pattern of your chosen format to add the details in a consistent, organised fashion. It is good to include additional details about how you can leverage each skill to execute the job through bullet points instead of single words.

Examples Of Recruitment Skills Effectively Highlighted On A Resume

Here are some examples of how you can highlight your skills on your resume:

In the resume summary

Your resume objective or summary gives the hiring manager a quick overview of your profile and can help them understand your experience and career objectives. You can use this section to highlight your strong suits as an HR professional and define how you can apply them to meet any goals. If you are applying for multiple jobs, customise your resume for each one by mentioning the position you are applying for and the organisation's name.

Example: I am an organised, dedicated recruitment manager with over 15 years of experience in recruitment and staff development seeking to become the hiring manager for Drupti Logistics and help the company streamline hiring and selection processes while bridging any gap between the management team and employees.

Related: Resume Objective Writing Guide (With Examples)

In the skills section

If you want to draw attention to multiple skills, create a separate section that focuses on them in detail. Instead of using single-word descriptions, create bullet points that include relevant information. It is important to include a combination of hard and soft skills. If you use a combination or functional resume, you can select your top five skills to highlight in the relevant section. Then, you can add three to four bullet points for each skill.

Example:

Performance management

• Improved employee productivity by 25% in seven months

• Organised team-building activities, seminars and workshops

• Regularly conducted performance appraisals and created training programmes accordingly

Through your work experience

Another way of highlighting your skills on your resume is through work experience. List any responsibilities you have had in the past that relate to the skill you wish to highlight. For example, if you want to focus on your leadership abilities, include an instance of when you successfully led a team or a campaign. If you are an expert in any software relevant to the job, mention your experience with it in this section.

Example:

Human resource manager
Srujana Enterprises
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
2018–2020

• Administered the compensation and benefits programme across the company for 325 employees

• Helped shape the company's hiring policy with a consideration for diversity

• Executed the recruitment and selection of top-level management

• Led and managed several recruitment drives at the university level

• Led a team of 12 human resource professionals for 14 months

Related: Professional Resume Samples To Help You Land A Job

Resume template for highlighting recruitment skills

Here is a template that you can follow to understand how to highlight your recruitment skills:
[Your full name]
[Official phone number] | [Email address]

Professional Summary
Write a brief summary of your professional career. Use keywords that describe your skills and align them with the position you are applying for and your career objective.

Work Experience

[Job title]
[Name of the organisation]
[Location of the organisation]
[Period of employment]

• [Major job responsibilities in bullet points indicating important skills]

Educational Background
[Name of the course pursued]
[Name of the institute]
[Location of the institute]
[Year of graduation]

Certifications You can include any relevant training or certifications that you have attained and have helped you build recruitment skills.

Accomplishments
In this section, highlight any awards that you may have received for your recruitment skills.

Skills
Using bullet points, list a combination of hard and soft skills that can help you succeed at your recruitment job and embolden the keywords in each sentence.

Sample Resume With Recruitment Skills Included

Here is an example of a resume that includes the recruitment skills that you want to highlight:

Monika Singh
Ostwal Apartments | +91 8762345671 | monika.singh@email.com

Professional Summary I am a motivated and driven HR professional with 13 years of experience managing the recruitment and staffing for multiple multinational corporations. I am currently looking for an opportunity to become a learning manager at Advaita Solutions, where I can use my skills to train candidates and contribute to the company's overall performance.

Work Experience

Talent manager
Logitime Private Ltd
Manipal, Karnataka
2016–2020

• Conducted company-wide performance improvement campaigns

• Designed performance management policies for all departments

• Managed and led talent acquisition campaigns and projects

• Trained department leaders to drive the growth and development of their teams

Recruitment manager Artistic Minds Training Academy
Bangalore, Karnataka
2010–2014

• Recruited more than 70 permanent employees with a retention rate of 89%

• Led the recruitment campaigns for multiple mid- and senior-level positions

• Monitored the recruitment cycle at every stage and led a team of four recruiters

Educational background

Master's in Business Administration, HR Pragati University
Noida, Uttar Pradesh
2014–2016

Bachelor's in Business Administration
Heritage College
Bangalore, Karnataka
2007–2010

Accomplishment

Recognised as the Best Performing Recruiter for three consecutive years (2011–2014) by Artistic Minds Academy

Skills

• Strong interpersonal skills for building employee relations

• Well-developed leadership skills to manage teams of HR professionals

• Motivational and inspirational abilities to help build employee morale and reduce turnover

• Organisational skills for maintaining high productivity

• Excellent communication and active listening skills for all business-related communications