Return to work after the holiday season traditionally coincides with an increase in pagination of the jobs/careers section of newspapers and magazines. Even in a recession this trend is likely to continue. However, many organisations are now seeking to reduce their spend per hire, and the more forward thinking employers are placing an ever increasing amount of emphasis on recruiting in-house rather than using external providers who can prove costly. We advocate the following approach:
- ANALYSE WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. Different employers require different solutions. Think about whether your needs are niche or generic, low or high volume. Generally an in-house model will suit larger organisations. If you have a team of internal recruiters, but only recruit small numbers, you will struggle to break even. Partnership arrangements can leave the in-house team to focus perhaps mainly on graduates, while leaving the experienced hires to agencies.
- GET THE RIGHT BUMS ON SEATS. Appointing the right people is vital to success. In-house recruiters need all the competencies of agency recruiters: speed to market, agility, solution provision, creativity and commercialism. They also need a suite of sophisticated relationship skills to manage the hiring manager's expectations and to build relationships with other HR colleagues and internal functions such as marketing, procurement and finance.
STRIKE A BALANCE. Many in-house functions try to avoid using agencies completely. While this may be attractive from a pure cost-saving perspective, you will be better off building strategic partnerships with a reduced list of preferred suppliers. They can be there in times of need, assist with difficult roles, be your agents in the market and help project your employment brand into areas you can't reach. If you get the balance right you will make significant savings but also ensure the supply of quality candidates where skills shortages exist- keeping both the finance department and hiring managers happy. Save where you can so you can spend where you need to.- ADD VALUE. Few other support functions have the same ability as an in-house recruitment team to show an immediate impact on the bottom line. Get commercial right from the start and run your bespoke model like a business. Promote your team's achievements at every opportunity through formal and informal communications to ensure senior management support.
- BE INNOVATIVE AND CREATIVE. Good quality people in sales, design and engineering still tend to be in short supply. Ensure your employment brand appeals to a wide audience. Your health & wellbeing policy or sustainability policy may be the difference between two offers in a market where salaries do not differ greatly.
- REPORT DATA EFFECTIVELY. Effective reporting and analysis will ensure credibility and cement your role as trusted advisors. Time per hire, cost per hire and turnover metrics are the bare basics. Detailed measures around source effectiveness, internal mobility, placement ratios, quality of hire and spend will allow you to make smarter recruiting decisions, making more use of both your time and your budgets.
- STAY FLEXIBLE. Your team should be capable of all facets of recruitment - from psychometric assessment to graduate attraction, assessment centres and executive appointments. Get the team out in the business but seat them centrally so they can benefit from an agency style environment where they can share candidates, pool ideas and provide mutual support.
INVEST IN A SPECIALIST RECRUITMENT SYSTEM. Recently, we acted as advisor to a client undertaking a ‘beauty parade’ of different providers who sought to demonstrate their particular systems. It was enlightening to see a couple of CRM systems with recruitment add-ons that caused so much additional work to manage the process there were few if any discernible benefits. Specialist software is crucial to reporting and work flow, for it will streamline all your processes and provide click-button reporting. Avoid an onerous business case and excessive IT involvement by opting for an online solution hosted outside your firewall. The benefits are numerous and from a business continuity perspective, if your system crashes your team can keep working remotely via dongles!- CLEARLY DEFINE ROLES. Ensure the role of your in-house team is clearly defined. Areas such as job descriptions, pay reviews and induction can become murky leading to friction with HR colleagues and confusion with hiring managers. Avoid headaches by ensuring boundaries are set out clearly from the start.
- WIN HEARTS, AND MINDS WILL FOLLOW. Going in aggressively may work in some organisations depending on their size and culture. In most companies the average hiring manager will react by going around your bespoke model - leading to even more work for your recruiters. Deliver and the hiring manager will soon buy in, maximising your chances of success when the time comes to introduce new strategies and policies.
