Our Internal TA team is sh&t!

Our Internal TA team is sh*&t!

Talent Acquisition, the heart of any organization, the function that determines whether you live or die, at least from a revenue, delivery, and productivity perspective anyway, is more often than not poorly designed.  

Why is that?

It is interesting to see that organizations (not all by the way, there are some beasts out there) set these teams up to fail by getting the basics wrong.  Time and time again I see the decision makers design an operating model that resembles a payroll shared services or contact center or heck a nursery school for all that it matters, because it worked really well, at some point in their career or in fact, their current payroll division,  and so they copy and paste that, hoping it sticks…. And yup, you guessed it, it does not….

Recruiting is so incredibly diverse with so many varying sets of skills called upon depending on where you play, from niched specialized sourcing to high volume, from tech to pharmaceutical, from agency to internal, there just isn’t a one size fits all model. 

You must understand your business model and then ensure you design a machine that delivers against its business objectives.  You must understand the technology and tools available to support this machine and ensure it is fit for purpose. 

There is so much tech available in the market, more so now than ever before, that will cause more confusion than a lightbulb ‘ahaaaaaa’ moment if you do not understand what makes your machine tick.

If you wanted to enter Miss Physique at the Worlds Body Building championship, would you train by following a long-distance marathon runner program? Ummmm you could, but the only prize you would win is Miss Skeleton. 

Internal recruitment has gained massive traction over the years with companies waking up to the idea that hiring their own talent acquisition teams, who partner with them directly, at a fixed cost, will most likely be the most cost-effective recruitment model, and it is, yet I see internal salaries becoming less and less competitive and workloads becoming more unrealistic. (

Have you ever seen the donkey on the side of the road? So overloaded that he can barely put one foot in front of the other? That’s your TA team my friend) 

Common workplace is having (for example) one tech recruiter sourcing specialized, scarce skills sitting with over 60 open requisitions at a time, none of which are actually even remotely similar and they have to deliver against this, on their own with little or no support.  Completely unrealistic. (bet you just saw the donkey again, didn’t you?)

There isn’t funding to provide them sourcing resources, support, or tools they need to automate their process and deliver or WORSE they have the wrong tools because someone (probably someone who is not in recruiting) implemented a solution that is not fit for purpose.

What does this mean?

This means they take longer to fill these roles, likely with B, C possibly Z level candidates and guess what? Your business LOSES MONEY! Every day that resource is not hands on deck delivering against a project, your business LOSES MONEY!  Every day you spend 3 hours (or more) interviewing less than ideal candidates, your business LOSES MONEY! I am sure you get my drift here. 

Hiring subpar candidates, will cost you money and you would be forced to extend your reach by calling on Rock Star agencies (who probably have a well-oiled machine in place), which completely defeats the purpose of having your own TA team. (#insanitymuch?) 

So why not invest wisely upfront and set your teams up properly to SAVE YOU MONEY, set you apart and ensure you have a healthy heart = healthy body? 

Get the basics right. 

Do’s 

✔ Employ a strong leader IN RECRUITMENT or someone who is exceptionally entrepreneurial-minded or the very least in human capital.  You cannot have someone take your function to where it needs to go, if they themselves, are not in tune with the heartbeat of recruiting. (If she is in tech and she thinks Github and StackOverflow is the name of your internal CRM system, I suggest you back away slowly.) 

✔ Have a clear strategy in place and align your operating model accordingly. Without this, it is as ludicrous as climbing into your car and driving to an unknown destination without your Sat nav –How can you go anywhere if you do not know where you are going?

✔ Quantify your problem (cost of poor hires, delayed hiring, poor performance, interviews, agency spend etc.) and cost it against your solution.

✔ Hire for optimal delivery based on expected output over both an immediate and extended period of time.

✔ Ensure tools and tech are fit for purpose.

✔ Adopt an Agile culture because we know this landscape changes frequently in our current time.

Do not…

❌ Leave recruitment undefined.

❌ Hire lean for the sake of applying a buzz word on budgets. That cannot afford you the right talent who will actually save you money, grow your brand awareness, and actually deliver top talent.

❌ Squeeze your assets for all they are worth in the name of saving money. This does nothing but decrease engagement and productivity, increase stress, increase anxiety, increase frustration, and decrease delivery because guess what? This COSTS YOU MONEY.

Irrespective of the current economic climate or any excuse that there may be, if your recruitment function is not set up correctly, it will fail and that will impact the business second to none.  A body without a healthy heart …… well………is dead.

Authors

Kerry De Mendonca

Kerry is passionate about recruiting and tech, each as its own component and of course, the magic when you bring the two together. She enjoys enabling recruiting functions with tech and in doing so, strives to be at the forefront in the industry. She has 360 recruiting experience in banking and technology both as an agent and internal recruiter which gives her a well-rounded perspective of the industry. Kerry currently leads the recruiting function for a medium-sized Microsoft Shop and loves every second.of it.  She surrounds herself with superstar recruiters which keeps her sharp.