Stop Treating Your Recruiting Team Like the DMV

by: Ken Kanara

Almost everyday I hear someone complain about their recruiting team…

“They take forever”

“They don’t understand the type of people we want to hire”

“They keep sending me candidates that want too much money”

I usually follow up with questions to understand the situation better, but it typically boils down to process and culture problems between the hiring managers and HR. The most common areas of issues I’ve observed include:

In other articles, I go through each of these and offer solutions, but for this piece, it’s important to observe one thing…these are all interdependent and compounding problems. For example, if you haven’t established clear business objectives for a role, you can’t really identify what an ideal candidate should look like. Then you will reach out to the wrong talent pool, conduct a meaningless interview process, and then offer the wrong candidate the wrong package, and be surprised that the quality of people on your team is declining!

Recruiting as a Strategic Partner

Recruiting as a Strategic Partner

As I mentioned before, the problem is often a mix of culture and process, so you need to address both. Culture changes take time, but they start at the top. If you’re a hiring manager, stop speaking negatively about your recruiting team with other colleagues. Stop complaining that they are slow and ineffective, and start treating them like a strategic partner. That means taking them seriously when they have concerns AND telling them when they have not met expectations. If you’re a recruiting leader, ask questions and try to understand how you can help support their objectives. Take a proactive approach to providing updates and escalating issues, and ask for feedback. They can’t treat you like the DMV if you don’t act like it!

Process is easier because you can make those changes immediately and monitor the impact. Some easy process changes I always recommend…

Schedule a 30 minute internal kick-off for new (or atypical) roles
Put 15 minute weekly or bi-weekly check-ins on the calendar to discuss search progress, with mutual opt-out if there is no need to meet
Agree on a “Solutions Only” policy for both parties…issues can be brought up, but solutions must be presented
Schedule a 30 minute search close meeting to discuss lessons learned and provide mutual feedback

If you continue to treat your talent acquisition team like a government agency, you’re going to get all the mediocrity that comes with it. In a world where technology is increasingly accessible at declining costs, talent becomes a key differentiator, so it’s in your best interest to treat it that way.