No doubt you've heard about "The War for Talent." The economy is rebounding and organizations are scrambling to find people to help keep up with a growing business. Some of you reading this may be wondering why these organizations aren't fighting to find you. My answer is simple: they are, they just have broken mechanisms to find you.
In most organizations the responsibility for finding people falls on Human Resources. This is the department that is in charge of ensuring that the company is compliant with federal, state, county, and municipal law; researching, negotiating, and administering increasingly complex benefit programs; developing programs to maximize return on employee investment; making sure employees are properly trained, that leaders are following prescribed procedures for managing & promoting people on their teams, that existing employees are happy, and that no one is being sexually harassed or discriminated against. They make sure the workplace is safe and (while they're at it) they're charged with attracting, screening, vetting, and on-boarding new talent (seeing as how they have so much spare time).
Job seekers generally give HR a bad rap. Some of this reputation is earned - when I see job descriptions that include requirements such as "While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear" it makes me question their understanding of how to attract talent. I'm fairly certain silly requirements like that come from legal, but just as bad is "must have excellent communication skills" which I'm pretty sure was included in a description 20 years ago and the HR team has never bothered to take it out.
The big reason they have a bad rap isn't their fault. People educated and/or trained in Human Resources have a LOT on their plate. Take a look at the required courses for a Masters Degree in HR Management at one of the top schools in the area for HR (Ottawa). One class in recruiting. ONE. It's not a priority. They have too many other pieces of the organizational puzzle to manage to be effective at talent acquisition.
HR professionals are simply too busy to dedicate 100% of their time to recruiting. Frankly, I'd be shocked if they have 20% of their time available to recruit. They aren't effective recruiters because they simply aren't given the time necessary.
Here's the rub - to say recruiting is a full time job is an understatement.
Recruiting is the only job I've had where I could work 24x7 and not run out of things to accomplish. Organizations that are effective at talent acquisition usually have two strategies. The most effective is a great referral program. Happy employees make great recruiters. They other strategy is having dedicated Talent Acquisition teams. These may or may not be people trained & educated in Human Resources, but their time is 100% dedicated to recruiting. Without one (or both) of those programs I have to question how much priority the company puts on hiring great people.
If it was up to me, recruiting would be a separate department under sales and marketing. They're already out there promoting the company brand, they know how to get the audience's attention and get them to act. Good customers like your company and trust you enough to earn their business.
I'm sure some of them would like to be on your team.
