When it comes to your recruitment team, it’s rare to have too many cooks in the kitchen. Some may argue that a large number of hands in the pot is a good way to stir things up. Others argue that more than a few people in any given hiring process can make the whole endeavor more complicated and messy.
However, if you take the right steps beforehand, a large talent acquisition team can only benefit your recruitment team’s goals. Here are just a few reasons why you should be more collaborative in your hiring.
Do you need a recruitment team?
Of course, if your business only has a few employees, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll need a full stack of players lined up to gather your new talent. You’ve got to consider the size of your team and your hiring needs to understand the size and structure of the team you need.
- 10 hires/year – Startups and small businesses
- 10–20 hires/year – Medium size organizations
- 20–80 hires/year – Scale-ups and fast-growth organizations
- 80–1000 hires/year – Large organizations
- 1000+ hires/year – Multinational corporations
As you’d rightly guess, the first on our list, and probably the second, would typically be managed as an additional function for an existing staff member or a selection of such. As we filter through into the greater acquisition numbers, it’s apparent that a dedicated member of staff or a complete team becomes far more practical. It makes much more sense to the efficiency needed to have the right tools for the job. In this case, the tools are our people.
What does a recruitment team have to manage?
Recruiting operations vary from team to team, depending on strategies and resources. The following list covers all eventualities, so depending on which feature most highly in your process, you’ll need the appropriate number of relevant recruitment staff.
- Strategy – the plan of attack from start to finish
- Policy and process organization
- Monitoring productivity and operations
- Maintaining and utilizing operational systems
- Analyzing applicant and recruiting data
- Marketing and advertising
- Finance and budget
- Procurement of resources, negotiations, and measuring ROI
- Legal and compliance policy
- Managing change and team cultivation – organizing changes in your team to enhance its operation
Relevant: 20 recruitment terms all recruiters should know about
Benefits of a collaborative hiring team
1. Decreased risk of talent acquisition team burnout
We all know that recruitment can easily become a stressful task, not to mention a stressful career. It doesn’t help when all of the recruitment process tasks are delegated to one or two recruiters on the team. It’s called a “recruitment team” for a reason! Prevent recruiter burnout by sharing certain responsibilities with other departments.
This will allow workloads to be appropriately shared across teams and prevent recruiters from becoming overworked over an extended period of time.
2. Better business input leading to better fits
Company culture should include the entire company, right? If it doesn’t, it doesn’t include the entire company’s vision and goals. Team hiring or collaborative recruitment allows a culmination of ideas and opinions.
If you keep everything organized, a larger scope can help diversify your new hires and make sure they are going to fit in with the culture. The ability to collaborate with the whole team is just as important (if not more) than skillset.
3. An increase in hiring efficiency
The quality of hire will increase, but you won’t lose precious time! If you’re not utilizing team hiring or collaborative recruitment strategies, you may be neglecting other important recruitment metrics that make for a successful hiring process. It’s hard not to put all your eggs in one basket when you don’t have that many eggs to use in the first place.
By adding resources (aka people) to the talent acquisition team, you can delegate important tasks to different groups. This way, you can focus on quality-of-hire and time-to-hire simultaneously. No process left behind!
4. Fewer data silos
Recruitment data silos occur when chunks of data are kept and only accessed by one person or department. This can happen due to culture or technical segregation. If you employ collaborative hiring tactics, this is less likely to happen. Data silos stunt growth, and that doesn’t exclude hiring growth.
By collaborating effectively during recruitment, you can have access to all of the pertinent information you need to move forward and seal the deal with top talent.
5. A more inclusive, positive company culture
On average, a company using Recruitee has thirteen users on their talent acquisition team for each vacancy. That doesn’t mean thirteen is the magic number. In fact, it’s encouraged to have as many users as necessary!
What it does mean is that when an ATS allows you to have unlimited users, businesses should take advantage of the opportunity for their recruitment teams. Create a hiring crash course, and get as many people on board as you can.
With so many open seats on your new recruitment team, you might be left wondering who you should include. Here are the minimum key players you should have on your recruitment team.
How to structure a recruitment team – here are 7 key roles
1. The recruiter(s)
Recruiters arrange the recruitment process from start to finish, including, but not limited to:
- Delineating tasks across departments;
- Communicating with the hiring manager;
- Aligning with company vision and goals;
- Writing job descriptions;
- Coordinating interviews;
Value added to the recruiting team: Recruiters are generally responsible for the coordination and arrangement of the entire hiring process. They will fill the core role in your hiring team strategy.
“Recruiter” has become a catch-all term for someone who sources candidates and sometimes manages candidate communication. In reality, the recruiter (or recruiters) on your team is probably doing so much more: coordinating and conducting interviews, taking job specs from the business, extending offers to candidates.
Don’t let a multi-faceted role be bogged down by time-crunched tasks. They need assistance from time to time, just like we all do! Make sure to include some team members that overlap into the “recruiter” category.
2. Head of Human Resources or HR Lead
Along with other employee life-cycle tasks, the HR Lead plays an integral role in the recruitment process. Although it can be a bit behind-the-scenes, this role is key for:
- Organizing candidate and employee documents;
- Maintaining the ATS (Applicant Tracking System);
- Ensuring forms are up to date;
- Orchestrating salary and benefits when bringing on a new hire;
- Extending offers to candidates.
Value added to the recruiting team: HR leads provide back-office organization and accuracy. Don’t waste valuable time scrounging around old emails when you could be losing potential talent. HR Leads make sure that everything from candidate resumes to ratings and reviews are correct and available to the hiring team. Organization = sanity in recruitment!
3. Resourcer (or Sourcer)
A resourcer’s job is to find talent that is able to be submitted to appropriate open positions within the company. They are the ones doing a lot of the legwork when it comes to hunting down the right talent for vacancies. This entails:
- Understanding the company’s vision and goals;
- CV parsing;
- Aligning candidate skill sets and personality with the right position;
- Rounding up applications into an ATS (no resumes lost in email inboxes!);
- Screening candidates.
Value added to the recruiting team: Resourcers are the ones that provide a steady source of candidates for your vacancies. This is often what people think of when they think of recruitment, in general! However, it takes a team’s involvement in your recruitment to ensure organization and alignment with the company vision.
4. Hiring Manager
Role: A hiring manager is typically the person who has an open position in their department and is directly hiring for that position. They set the recruitment process in motion with tasks including:
- Requesting that a position be filled;
- Defining the job requirements/duties;
- Coordinating with the recruiter(s);
- Interviewing candidates;
- Making the final hiring decision.
Value added to the recruiting team: Hiring managers have extensive knowledge of department needs. They know the open role intimately and most likely be working with the new hire on a day-to-day basis. After the employee is onboarded, they will be directly affecting the hiring manager’s own KPIs and professional goals. For those reasons, it’s important to include this role in your collaborative hiring every time.
5. Core team member(s)
Role: This is another role that can (and most likely should be) divided among several individuals. Core team members are the people that the new hire will work with on a day-to-day basis. Their close relationship with the prospective hire means that they should be heavily involved in the recruitment process in order to ensure the best fit. This includes:
- Showcasing top-performing attitudes to potential hires;
- Communicating the company vision and goals to candidates;
- Interviewing candidates;
- Conducting work trials;
- Giving input to the hiring team on candidate performance;
- Onboarding.
Value added to the recruiting team: Core team members add perspective from future coworkers of the new hire. They can let you know if a candidate just doesn’t jive or seem like they would be able to work well in the environment they’re used to day-to-day!
Finding someone who is a top performer in a similar position also allows your recruitment to be that much more honed in and precise. This top performer (or performers) are a valuable asset to your recruitment team, ensuring the new hire will be beneficial and able to perform the tasks required.
6. The direct supervisor
The direct supervisor of the new hire should be involved in the hiring process. Even if they are not the ones putting in the requisition for the position to be filled, they will still have an impact on (and be impacted by) the recruitment process.
They likely know the type of person that will thrive in the open position, because they are aware of the ins and outs of the department and requirements. The direct supervisor can inform your hiring team of gaps that need to be filled when sourcing for this new employee. This includes tasks such as:
- Deciding job qualifications;
- Interviewing candidates;
- Conducting work trials;
- Delineating tasks to core team member(s);
- Giving input to the talent acquisition team on candidate performance;
- Onboarding.
Value added to the recruiting team: The direct supervisor provides an on-the-ground perspective and likely has experience finding quality hires in that specific department. They will be crucial in the interview process, as well, as they can determine what type of candidate will excel in their section of the workforce.
7. CEO/Owner
Role: While the CEO of a large corporation isn’t always physically be able to greet each and every candidate, they can still have a part in the recruitment process virtually. Whether it is the owner of a large, medium, or small company, within the recruitment process they are responsible for:
- Creating and disseminating the company’s vision and goals;
- Making employees feel included, involved, and important;
- Serving as the positive face of the company;
- Making executive decisions about new hires;
- Guiding the hiring strategy informed by business strategy.
Value added to the recruiting team: The CEO of a company shouldn’t be this enigmatic, intangible figure. If they are honest and apparent to potential hires, this showcases expertise, company values, and a caring toward the company, in general. Remember, you’re not just judging the candidates. They’re judging your company, as well! Team hiring wouldn’t be complete without at least a company vision from the owner, themselves.
Building your best recruitment team
These seven categories of recruiting team members aren’t all-inclusive. If you want to add someone from a different department because they have great insight into what it means to be a team player in your company, do it!
It pays to have diversity in your talent acquisition team, ranging from tech-savvy coworkers to industry experts. This will allow for a melting pot of ideas and task-delineation that results in the essence of what your company is all about! Your hiring process will be up-to-speed, and the quality of your new hires will increase drastically. So stop, collaborate, and listen! Create a hiring crash course, and get everyone on board.
Relevant: 7 productivity hacks for recruiters in times of crisis
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the different roles in recruitment?
There are 7 roles in the recruitment team: the recruiter, Head of Human Resources, resourcer, hiring manager, team members, direct supervisor, and CEO.
- What are the benefits of collaborative hiring?
Collaborative hiring decreases the risk of recruiter burnout. Working with multiple people will also lead to better culture fits, efficiency and the company culture will become more inclusive.
- How do you build a recruitment team?
Firstly, you will need to determine which roles your department needs based on long-term organizational goals. You can start hiring new team members to reach these goals and scale your company based on this information.
