Women make better recruiters than men?

Greg Savage in his blog "The Savage Truth" finally put in words what Ive suspected all along, at the cost of being sexist. Really, otherwise, why would the majority of recruiters in any agency at any level, in any market be overwhelmed by the number of women working there vis a vis men?

The reasons Greg enumerates are quite simple

Here is why;

• I have found women are far better listeners than men. They are more empathetic. It helps, because they get deeper into the candidates true motivation, the client’s real needs… and they make a better match. Bluntly put, many woman recruiters simply care more about the human element. It might not sound ‘commercial’ but actually it means they end up with more satisfied customers, and over time, that pays.
• You are not going to like this guys (and before you lynch me, remember, I am one of you) but women are more resilient than men. Sure, often they show frustration and emotion much more readily than the average guy, who tends to suck it up and try to tough things out. But actually I have found a steel backbone in so many women in this business. They cry a lot, but they bounce back! They keep going. Maybe it’s fear of failure. Maybe it’s just pure inner strength. I can’t count the guys who have lasted 6, maybe 12 months and dropped out, telling all and sundry as they leave to go back into banking or accounting, that “recruiting is not a real job after all”.
• And then there is the money. Mostly, recruiters get paid on results. The more you bill, the more you earn. And in a world where women routinely earn less than men doing the same job, that’s very attractive indeed. Indeed, women have told me straight out. “In this job I can earn more than the person sitting next to me, man or woman, because it’s a level playing field. I bill, I earn. It’s transparent. And I love that!”
• Its all true of course, all the above reasons, and in very equal markets that may well be all. There is another reason for a market like India for this to be true. There are lots more women than men studying HR in various business schools. And they all come out into the job market, and there are so many executive search firms/ HR firms which do temping or recruitment/ placement firms out there, that it becomes a very viable career option. So at the onset, the number of women entering the workplace in this industry is more. Men would probably rather go into sales or "banking or accounting".
• There is another factor in Indian recruitment firms. The industry is almost uniformly less paid than any other. Once men have a family, if they are the primary bread earners, junior or consulting positions in placement firms might not be a viable option for them. An HR Manager role in an IT firm, for example will be more lucrative, though infinitely less interesting as a job. Unless s/he has his own company, or s/he is at a senior or partnership role, it often does not make sense for an individual with high ambition to keep going in this industry. Often it is women with families, who prefer a more friendly work environment and flexible hours, which are usually provided given the nature of the job, who make it for long years. And of course it is a job which suits them, communicating, creating relationships, handling difficult personalities and ego-s, come to women naturally due to our social conditioning.
• For the full blog from "The Savage Truth": "Sorry guys, women are better recruiters than men"