Top 10 List: How to Create A Recruiting Research Function

by Glenn Gutmacher

Q:  I have read your blog before and come across your name on recruiting industry-related communications. I would be very interested to hear about your experience in recruiting research and your thoughts on how to set up such a function in a corporate recruiting department. Is this a conversation you would be willing to have? Do you have the time available for it? I would very much appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. Thanks!

A:  The short answer is (not in any particular order):

1.       Make sure everyone’s properly trained (FYI, it’s an ongoing process, but some things can – and should -- be taught by internal subject matter experts) and give them the tools/resources to succeed.  (FYI, there are very comprehensive and far less expensive ways to learn advanced online recruiting techniques than AIRS.)

2.       Make sure the systems are flexible but rock solid.  For example, an ATS that can’t act like a CRM doesn’t help sourcers much.  And sourcers shouldn’t have to spend hours trying to track what happened to their submitted leads in order to compile reports.  Ideally, status can be gauged quickly in real-time, because you can’t improve what you can’t capture.

3.       Since you’re starting a new team, make sure you hire to fill the gaps (e.g., they have industry/function knowledge that map to where you expect the priority hiring needs / sourcing pipeline challenges will be).

4.       This also applies to skillsets:  Some companies even separate Internet sourcers from phone sourcers.  Play to the strengths of the sourcers.

5.       It’s best if your sourcers are part of the initial recruiter meetings with hiring managers; if not, make sure they have the opportunity to get their questions answered by the end-customer.

6.       Don’t be afraid to say no:  some customers/internal partners’ needs may not make sense for your team to take on, or at least need to be thought out a bit more.

7.       On that note, have a service level agreement (SLA) that specifies what you do by when, and what you require from the customer, which both sides review and sign before each project.  If they fail to deliver on their end at any point along the way, your work stops until rectified.

8.       Make sure everyone with the same role has consistent, clear metrics (e.g., though sourcers can’t directly impact hires, many companies still measure # of hires; but if you want to offer extra incentives for filling higher comp and/or limited talent supply roles, make sure the formulas are clear).

9.       If you have ongoing volume hiring needs that relate to fairly available skillsets, compartmentalize that to more junior people (a lot of that can be automated, and the rest handled with well-documented processes) or even consider a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) vendor for the initial pipelining

10.   You’re obviously doing this, but many others don’t:  Don’t hesitate to ask around (internally and externally), among employers, recruiting vendors, posts to the recruiting industry boards, etc., for suggestions of who’s doing it well.  You’ll start hearing the same names repeated; begin with them, even if it’s not the same industry or size as your company.  Many sourcing best practices are not money-dependent and, even when they are, can be adapted to different budgets (e.g., scale it by trying phase 1 or a pilot, then you have ammo to justify expanding the program later).

I’d love to answer this in more depth, but I don’t have time and it might extend into territory that my employer would prefer I not discuss.  But it’s really something an experienced recruiting consultant should work with you on.  Talk to the experts whose teachings you respect.  If you need to find some, read articles about sourcing on industry portals like ERE and see which authors’/consultants’ viewpoints make sense to you (e.g., Shally’s article dealt with this question directly).  Seek out the practitioners invited to speak at industry conferences who regularly deal with this kind of question (e.g., click the Speaker Bios link at SourceCon).  You can also try benchmarking with peer organizations.  You’d be surprised how many companies are willing to discuss at least some aspects of this – also check out the relevant best practice studies conducted by RecruitingRoundtable, APQC, etc., if you can get access.