Changing the Reputation on Talent Teams

Intro

I have been involved with leading a lot of recruiting efforts recently—not technical or high volume work, but critical roles for the size agency I work for. This has me thinking a lot about my experience in the talent solutions and organizational consulting industry.

For me, recruiting comes down to four main broader areas:

• Relationship: Talking with candidates, building trust and candor

• Process: Building a talent pipeline, interview process, and fundamental systems to drive efficiency and a quality experience

• Sourcing: Working with recruiters, posting on LinkedIn…

• Screening: Leadership interviewers…

So many firms can benefit from great recruiting companies, yet many shy away from embracing this kind of partnership. Too expensive, low quality, time commitment, and so on. 

I’ll share a bit on the industry, a realization that came to me, and about how internal recruitment can crumble, with the combination of talent risk and lack of strategy facing organizations of various sizes.

The Story

Industry

In sales or recruiting, the work that is done by these groups can be some of the most critical in a firm, but almost never do companies or the market give that credit to sales and recruiting teams. You may see praise about great recruiters, exceptional sales professionals, and even sales teams, but few would be seen as the driver for company growth or success, nor get credit for the amazing organization built. 

The value of this work is often commoditized, but why? Here are a few thoughts:

• The bottom is so saturated—so many mediocre in this space

• Both professions are mocked in business because of the bottom 50% performers fueling stereotypes

• Value is often tied to the work product itself, not the value it brings over time

• Activity, not the outcomes are looked at in average firms

• Competition is in the differentiation

• Focus on copying versus leveling up

• Results are most of what matters and the activity and work are so people driven, outsiders don’t understand the effort and challenge with shaping human behavior 

• Great is all in exceptional results—the work itself isn’t glamorous, getting disregarded

• Used car salesman, door-to-door sales, telesales, ruthless corporate recruiter, and retail temp admin (acting as recruiter) stereotypes diminish the greats in this space

The mindset and common pitfalls above are pretty much a playbook for a low profit, recruiting company or what destroys value across an industry. I had a significant realization that is quite simple, but so important to think about—> Recruiting companies aren’t only selling against direct competitors, they’re selling against an entire industry.

Bad Habit Hiring

The. Worst. Recruiting. Habits you’ll find with almost every company with any significant level of recruiting volume. The talent game is matching like in the game, Memory. Although, most treat it more like Battleship, Sorry, or actually Where’s Waldo is also a great analogy. 

What is the fundamental difference between a commodity and premium service—the value, pricing, and mindset translated to your client or prospect. Do you and they have a high confidence level in your service delivery with quality talent?

Job Search or Fulfillment Angle

Frustrated with your job search or your companies ability to fill openings? 

Hear this—I would venture to guess around 90% of companies of any mid-cap size or larger, for every role they open, start over the entire process for any external, and even some internal openings. Every single time they need to fill a role.

They fill 5,000+ positions/year one by one, transactionally (some companies hire 25,000+ per year). Yes, process and technology can make that better, but most of is get a req, fill a req, and now it’s either supplemented by technology, or not, and that can makes teams lazier, not better, if leaders aren’t intentional with how they empower talent teams.

Fulfillment of each role costs 2-4x the cost it should to fill the actual planned need. First time quality is abominable with “low” attrition for key roles being a joke. Entire models are built off this continuous loop of poor performance and a never ending cycle, supposedly for their own profitability. No, I’m not naming names! 

Want to fix your hiring? Consider this:

• Simplify—stop over-complicating it all

• Simplify—don’t over engineer the recruiting process 

• Observe other simple models—learn from the talent industry and others(MBA, Tech, Fashion, Sports Agent, Hollywood and Nashville)

• Tech changes. Fundamentals don’t change

• Tech enhances the process, doesn’t replace it in most cases, yet (AI Agents  may be different, but still, don’t forget the human component threaded in your process)

• People are the product. How you treat them drives your bottom line.

• Crush politics—politics make hiring so much harder with added attention, pressures, and scrutiny that makes the process less efficient, with added steps, reports, or conversations to serve the political machine, not provide value

Your tech should enhance your talent process, not replace all human aspects. I’ve seen and heard the opposite—AI and Tech doing all sourcing and screening for lazy recruitment. Using tech is great; if you’re still human with your process and it adds value. The stories I hear about candidates in process and then seeing who is hired, can be really puzzling. It’s amazing at the state of recruitment for many.

Do we want to build a resume matching game to play the AI game? Or do we want to actually see if someone is a great fit. Over-thinking and over-process kill efficiency and quality. Want to lower cost per hire, attrition, and overall talent costs? Stop avoiding your best strategies and embrace them, and make them work for you.

It’s so clear across recruiting, that you can tell in a five minute conversation with a Talent Acquisition (TA) or Recruitment Leader—you see quickly if the leader actually has a recruiting team, or a candidate processing team. 

• Are they building relationships, sourcing, screening, and truly operating a recruitment department?

• Are they actually seeking and acquiring the best talent available in the market?

• Are they an order taker or a strategic partner?

• Do they access top talent, or process incoming candidate applications and select from those? Is the brand doing the work or the team?

Closing

Exceptional recruiting leaders are leading a talent acquisition group working with a talent attraction and operations mindset. Driving a talent engine that feeds the organization—skills, experience, leadership, and culture. Increasing Capability and capacity. Strategic business partners driving organizational value. 

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About the Author, Graham Peelle