Though conventional wisdom tells you to hire slow and fire fast, the recruiting world doesn’t run on conventional wisdom anymore. Nearly half of companies hire recruiting firms because they need to fill positions quickly. Here are some tips for speeding up your recruiting process.

The top five qualities that make a successful recruiter are persistence, ability to listen, tenacity, ability to follow-up, and communication. All five are about communication (one even is communication!). They are about your ability to connect, respond, and engage.

To be a stellar recruiter, you have to be savvy about every aspect of communication, from choosing the right method of contact to choosing the right words. With that in mind, here’s a breakdown of what your candidates really want when it comes to communication.

In staffing and recruiting, you need to remain ahead of the curve. Here are some of today’s top trends.

Mobile is the future when it comes to recruiting (and the future is now). Mobile devices have surpassed desktops as the primary way people access the internet. The talent you’re looking for may be searching for a job while on the elliptical at the gym or reading up on your clients during their morning commute. To keep your finger on the pulse, here’s what staffing firms and recruiters need to think about when going mobile.

Today, nearly everything we do -- from walking across the street with a cellphone in our pocket to researching a product online -- generates data. In many ways, we are as defined by our 1s and 0s as we are by our DNA. And, just like info about DNA can predict our eye color and blood type, businesses can glean surprising information about employees’ strengths and weaknesses from their data. How can big data boost your staffing game?

We all know what it’s like to fall into a social media wormhole and lose valuable time. While social media is a top recruiting tool, it’s also one of the biggest culprits of wasting time at work. As a recruiter, do you have the tools to avoid the time suck? Here are some tips to stay productive on social media.

2016 will be the Year of the Candidate Experience. With a recovering job market and more Millennials entering the workforce, success will be all about providing a fast, engaging experience for candidates. The hottest technologies will meet these candidates where they are (on their phones, mostly) and give them the connection and ease they expect. Take a look at what’s hot in staffing and recruiting for 2016.

If we were to distill many of the major business trends of 2015 into one word, it would be this: personalization. Virtually every form of interaction a company has with its customers is becoming more personalized, from content targeted toward specific people at specific times, to mobile apps with personalized user experience designs.

We asked 45 staffing professionals how they communicated with prospects and then created  this report to offer insight into strategies that your firm can use to grow faster.

Posted by Karen Locke via Staffing Robot

97% of text messages are opened in the first five minutes after they are sent, according to Bullhorn (via Smashfly), so it’s no surprise that jobseekers are embracing mobile recruiting. You’ve probably noticed candidates haven’t been super excited about a ton of phone calls from you. This is because the average jobseeker isn’t using his or her phone to make phone calls anymore.

Text messages have a high open rate and the delivery method is fast. This means job seekers can act quickly on opportunities in a competitive market. If you’re a recruiter and you haven’t been tapping into this communication method, you may be missing out.

Our friends over at Staffing Robot have a great post on the disconnect of mobile thinking in staffing and recruiting.

According to Jobvite, despite 43% of job seekers using mobile in their job search, 59% of recruiters currently invest nothing in mobile career sites.

SAY WHAT? 59% of recruiters in this survey invest zero dollars?

Maybe you’ve been putting it off because you’ve heard that apps are expensive. You’re in luck because you don’t need an app! You need a responsive mobile site!