Let’s talk about what being a freelance recruiter involves
A freelance recruiter sells their services and skills as a recruitment consultant or headhunter to a company that has recruitment needs. Objectively speaking, a freelance recruiter provides similar services to a recruitment agency, but on an individual basis. A freelance recruitment consultant must build up a portfolio of clients and support them in developing their recruitment strategy.
A good freelance recruiter is a professional who is capable of understanding their client’s recruitment needs and sourcing the right candidate. Some skills are essential for any recruitment consultant, such as empathy in order to strike up a good rapport with potential candidates, the ability to communicate with ease and finesse, and the ability to analyse and summarise. Ideally, a freelance recruitment consultant should also be diplomatic, know how to negotiate, and adapt to the different personalities of their candidates and clients.
Focus on the tasks of a freelance recruiter
While becoming a freelance recruiter requires a very sociable temperament, other, much more practical skills are also an integral part of the duties of any recruitment consultant.
Pre-recruitment advice
In the early stages of the recruitment process, a freelance recruitment consultant may be asked to provide HR consultancy services to their client, such as establishing a job description, identifying the ideal candidate profile, and deciding on the recruitment strategy to follow. In addition to HR aspects, the freelance recruitment consultant may be required to carry out operational tasks.
Candidate sourcing
A freelance headhunter must first identify a suitable sourcing strategy to attract the right candidates.
They may then search for, identify, then directly approach candidates whose profile seems to match their client’s needs, generally through CV repositories or social media.
They may also post a job ad on one or more online media (jobboards, social media, websites, etc.) in order to attract candidates on the lookout for opportunities.
Qualifying applications
The freelance recruiter then sorts through the applications by reading the CVs and organising interviews with the candidates who are available and who they deem to meet the client’s needs. At the end of this qualification phase, the freelance recruitment consultant makes a shortlist of candidates and submits it to the client.
They may assist the client in organising interviews with the most suitable candidates and then serve as an intermediary between the two parties.
Recruitment follow-up
Once the candidate is recruited by the company, the role of the freelance recruitment consultant can extend to supporting the candidate in the onboarding process and during their first few months with the company.
Generally, the freelance recruiter undertakes to repeat the process if the candidate leaves the company within a predefined period. This is what is known as the recruitment consultant’s replacement guarantee.
Training and career path
To become a freelance recruiter, you must have been trained in the field of human resources. This statement can be divided into two parts.
- First of all, there is the theoretical training in recruitment consultancy. You can’t just become a freelance recruiter overnight: the legal rules governing the profession, the techniques and tools available to a recruitment consultant, and the psychology of the job must be mastered, and the personality of the freelance recruiter must be moulded accordingly. A university education is required for any recruitment consultant: a specialist degree in human resources or in management.
- Then, there is a need to learn on the job as a recruiter. A company will not outsource its needs to someone who has never worked in recruitment. There are various ways of acquiring experience as a freelance recruiter: working in the human resources department of a company, working as a junior recruitment consultant in a recruitment agency, or supporting a senior freelance recruiter.
Legal status of a freelance recruiter
A freelance recruiter can choose between two legal statuses for their recruitment agency:
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Either a sole proprietorship (entreprise individuelle), in which case they will be a recruitment consultant with micro-entrepreneur status, with all the advantages and disadvantages that entails. The advantages include ease of registration, the simple management rules and the lower social security charges. The disadvantages include the fact that there is no separation between the freelance recruiter’s personal and professional assets:
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or a single-person company (société à taille unipersonnelle). In this case, the freelance recruiter will open a recruitment agency in the form of a company, generally a limited-liability company (SARL - Société à Responsabilité Limitée) or a simplified joint-stock company (SAS - Société par Actions Simplifiée). Given that micro-entrepreneur status is only possible for those with an annual revenue of €70,000 or less, a EURL (single-person limited-liability company) or SASU (simplified joint-stock company with a single shareholder) are alternatives for recruitment consultants with no partners. These are single-person versions of the limited-liability company (SARL) and the simplified joint-stock company (SAS).
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