Plastic Surgery for Recruiting Does Not Make It Better

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ~ William Shakespeare

It is an understatement to repeat the ongoing story line that there are drastic changes happening to the concept of recruitment. Anyone associated with the employment side of business knows that there are revolutionary new ideas being applied to the process. It is probably time to rename “recruiting” as “talent acquisition” or something more descriptive because the concept of recruiting can conjure up a much more shallow definition of the actual process. Name changes without substance are not worth the effort. If this is only a lipstick-on-a-pig exercise then nothing much will change. Changing the signs on the doors and printing new business cards is only a cosmetic change.

Most of us that profess to be recruiters go far beyond the traditional definition recruiting. Talent acquisition is a process that involves attracting, sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding employees within an organization. To be successful the recruiter must employ elements of employment branding, marketing, training and relationship building within potential talent communities to continually build and enhance the pool of viable candidates.

• Attracting – To attract the best candidates means more than just not driving them away, but obscure job postings, convoluted application processes, and unnecessary rules enforcement causes many to give up before the recruiter has the chance to consider them. Focus on the primary reasons that someone might object to working for the company and provide honest and concise data to give offsetting evidence. Job security is important, so give assurances that the job is not a dead end. Market the company as a place for a career for tomorrow, not just a paycheck for today.
• Sourcing – Every tool in the sourcers toolbox is useful, so target the players that are most likely to be qualified and interested. Fish where they are swimming. Professional recruiters often assume a sophistication of knowledge in job seekers that is often not really there. There are no professional job seekers. Many still rely on job boards to post for jobs, so datamining some of the niche boards as well as the big ones can reap results. Job boards are not dead [yet]. Social media is gaining in popularity in the job seeker’s game plan, so go there to find them.
• Recruiting – Once identified, candidates must be engaged in a dialog that lets them know what to expect as well as selling the benefits of the job. Failure to set and meet candidate expectations is often the root cause for a failure to score a hire. Recruiters often know their processes in depth, but fail to relate that to the applicants. Remember that they are dealing with more than one employer and the process is different everywhere. Train them on how to keep on track and coach them on how to be a successful hire.
• Hiring – Candidates need to know their status at all times in the process. Letting them know that their application is in play may be automated, but once a personal contact is made it is essential that the communication from that point forward is personal as well. Interviewing and final selection requires a lot of hand-holding on both sides of the interviewing table. Post interview feedback is important and the stage for the timing of offers is set at the close of the interview. Verbal offers of employment must be confirmed in writing with all pre-hire activities listed in detail.
• Onboarding – Tossing the final paperwork over the transom for somebody else to handle may expedite the administration of onboarding a new employee, but any such handoff must still maintain a high touch relationship with the candidate. There is no such thing as overkill and recruiter follow-up shows that this was not just a robotic placement. The recruiter will be the most memorable member of the team and the first place the new hire will look for help.

If your definition of recruiting includes all of these things, the actual title on the business card can say anything. “Human capital management” seems a bit cold, “people management” may be too loose, but anything that gets the job done while keeping it personal will work. The term “talent acquisition” seems to be the current trending title until something new comes along. Wordsmithing titles seems to be in vogue, but what’s in a name?

 
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