HR can be a tough job at times. There are plenty of aspects to it that prove challenging. Today, I want to ask for a little love for the internal recruiter.
Recruiting is a seriously hard job, and sometimes I feel that it doesn’t get the acknowledgement it deserves. I rarely see much devoted to it in the conference space, unless it is about the latest new social or technology recruitment thing. In-house recruitment is a constant balancing act:
Balancing all of line managers, for whom their vacancy is their priority
Handling the recruitment agency sales calls. Every single one of them.
Making sure the candidate has the best possible experience, even the ones that you are saying no to.
Managing all of the social recruiting channels.
Getting the best value from the advertising budget
Driving the employer brand.
Managing the ATS and the PSL and the KPIs.
Making sure that the hiring manager doesn’t do something dodgy. Guiding the hiring manager through the process.
Writing the job adverts liaising with the job boards reading all of the CVs agency briefings speculative applications candidate feedback agency feedback job descriptions person specs interview coaching time to hire cost per hire jobs that are a pain to hire psychometric profiles aptitude testing assessment centres careers fairs.
All of this is the day to day stuff of the recruitment manager. My question is simply this. Do we value it enough? The recruitment process is too often pushed over the fence to external party who are not necessarily incentivised to get you the best candidate or the right candidate but simply place a candidate. Focusing on time to hire and cost per hire rather than quality of hire. More often than should be the case, recruitment also slips to the bottom of the line manager to do list. Find me a recruitment manager who doesn’t spend a whole heap of time chasing down hiring managers. Recruiting great people is one of the most important responsibilities of any manager.
We need to move beyond contingency recruitment. It is time for a new approach. But I don’t believe it is an RPO. I am a big believer that you should never outsource anything that is core to your business. And for me, recruitment is a core, key activity. Bringing is the best people, the right people for your place is one of the most important activities and responsibilities of any HR function. Managers too. Because the rest of the people stuff all flows from there.
Get it wrong, and it’s all about performance management, probationary reviews, discipline, dismissal. The wasted time, wasted money, the disruption. And then doing all of the recruitment stuff all over again.
All that people stuff we talk about? It all starts with good recruitment. And for me, doing it in-house, wherever you can, is always going to be preferable. So can I get a little love today for every hard working, ball juggling, candidate liaising, line manager supporting recruitment manager?
