Organizational Mason, Talent Acquisition Enthusiast, Rebellious Recruiter, Purple Squirrel Hunter, and Challenger of the Status Quo. Semper Fi. Opinions mine.
I continue to find it interesting that the focus remains on tools that help with “search” or “sourcing.” That’s really all Linked In does. Granted, it makes it easier but it leaves me asking – What if people could easily “find” great opportunities? What if you could defragment a very fragmented recruiting marketplace? Now that would be “disruptive!” I think recruiters tend to think of themselves as always being central to the recruiting process. If 60% to 70% of a recruiter’s time is spent “searching,” figure out how to drive that time out of the process. Companies want the best candidate they can hire to show up on their doorstep when they need them – figure out how to make that happen!
Thanks for the insight, contribution, and engagement. You make some great points. The JIT model for recruiting is the coveted “holy grail”. Certainly something to strive for.
Harry, I aolpogize but I couldn’t disagree more with your contention that recruitment and retention are separate. In the recruiting process, you mention that line managers take over the on-boarding and orientation and that may be accurate but the recruiter will also never have a successful hire until the candidate has been integrated in the organization. If the new hire is released before their probation period ends, then you haven’t properly identified what the hiring manager wanted in the first place. I realize I’m being simplistic and that there are examples of hidden flaws that lead to dismissal but the statement generally holds true, even moreso when the turnover rate increases.As for retention being a different process, I’ll go as far as saying that the tools used to retain employees are the same tools used to bring them into the organization. As well, there has to be a reason for losing any employee. It may simply be from external circumstances such as a need to relocate for family reasons. However, when an employee is lost due to internal circumstances, those circumstances should be made known to the recruiter.Here’s an example: an employee best described as hard working but socially withdrawn may not be able to handle a high energy environment where the manager may occasionally vent frustrations. The manager may derive maximum efforts from everyone else in his team so firing them won’t be the solution but making sure you recruit someone who can work in that environment would be. Part of the retention process would be to conduct exit interviews and determine the above circumstances.
This doesn’t sound like a problem with recruiting or a problem with retention. It’s a leadership problem and HR, as much as they would like to think otherwise, can’t make the necessary decisions to prevent this from happening again in the future. If it really mattered and was a high enough priority, do you think this would be allowed to continue? That seems to be the most critical question here that needs to be asked.
Bill Fitzgearld
February 29, 2012 4:37 PMI continue to find it interesting that the focus remains on tools that help with “search” or “sourcing.” That’s really all Linked In does. Granted, it makes it easier but it leaves me asking – What if people could easily “find” great opportunities? What if you could defragment a very fragmented recruiting marketplace? Now that would be “disruptive!” I think recruiters tend to think of themselves as always being central to the recruiting process. If 60% to 70% of a recruiter’s time is spent “searching,” figure out how to drive that time out of the process. Companies want the best candidate they can hire to show up on their doorstep when they need them – figure out how to make that happen!
Brenden Wright
February 29, 2012 8:35 PMBill,
Thanks for the insight, contribution, and engagement. You make some great points. The JIT model for recruiting is the coveted “holy grail”. Certainly something to strive for.
Brenden
Cahviezel
March 1, 2012 3:01 AMHarry, I aolpogize but I couldn’t disagree more with your contention that recruitment and retention are separate. In the recruiting process, you mention that line managers take over the on-boarding and orientation and that may be accurate but the recruiter will also never have a successful hire until the candidate has been integrated in the organization. If the new hire is released before their probation period ends, then you haven’t properly identified what the hiring manager wanted in the first place. I realize I’m being simplistic and that there are examples of hidden flaws that lead to dismissal but the statement generally holds true, even moreso when the turnover rate increases.As for retention being a different process, I’ll go as far as saying that the tools used to retain employees are the same tools used to bring them into the organization. As well, there has to be a reason for losing any employee. It may simply be from external circumstances such as a need to relocate for family reasons. However, when an employee is lost due to internal circumstances, those circumstances should be made known to the recruiter.Here’s an example: an employee best described as hard working but socially withdrawn may not be able to handle a high energy environment where the manager may occasionally vent frustrations. The manager may derive maximum efforts from everyone else in his team so firing them won’t be the solution but making sure you recruit someone who can work in that environment would be. Part of the retention process would be to conduct exit interviews and determine the above circumstances.
Bill Fitzgearld
March 7, 2012 8:44 PMThis doesn’t sound like a problem with recruiting or a problem with retention. It’s a leadership problem and HR, as much as they would like to think otherwise, can’t make the necessary decisions to prevent this from happening again in the future. If it really mattered and was a high enough priority, do you think this would be allowed to continue? That seems to be the most critical question here that needs to be asked.