Recruitment; but not as we know it.

I have long been an advocate that the recruitment function does not belong in the HR division. This is not to say anything negative about HR or recruitment, merely an opinion about how best to meet the strategic recruitment needs of large scale workforce planning. I have read opinion & articles previously about this concept. The people who share a similar view, suggest that recruitment is better suited to marketing, procurement or decentralised in the operations. Some even suggest finance or shared services (I don't think so!). Let's not even start a debate around a direct or an outsourced model. That is an entirely new discussion.

This obviously can be a tense and divisive issue, however most people at the very least agree that front-line business leader involvement in the selection process of your people increases the strike rate of getting the decision right. Based on this and experience, I used to think that recruitment belonged as a decentralised function out in the business. This may be a form of recruitment utopia but is a very difficult thing to get right at a large business, without impacting on the sales and customer functions of your business leaders. 

As I research and think more about it, I have become increasingly certain that the real issue is being missed. Whether you have direct, outsourced or RPO model; a stand-alone recruitment division or a recruitment function as part of your HR or shared service area, or in fact recruitment is already part of your operational systems and processes, the point is largely moot. 

It's not what division ultimately runs recruitment that is the big issue, it is how you do it that will make the real difference. 

If you think about it the entire recruitment agency industry is founded on the belief that they have something employers could never possibly find (easily). Talent. Or if you tried to find it, the costs would weigh you down with a burden you could never unshackle. The point is how do you leverage your brand before you recruit to eliminate much of the need to pay anyone else to find talent for you? There will obviously always be a need for outsourcing of talent acquisition & direct recruitment, you can not possibly manage it all with one method alone. But for generalist, entry-level roles it makes more economic & operational sense to establish a pre-employment program.

This is about employer branding but not in the traditional way of thinking. Equally, it is not about recruitment marketing - this is generally of little value. Your business spends the largest chunk of the budget to attract and retain customers & clients. The value to recruitment is leveraging that brand investment not necessarily coming up with recruitment marketing campaigns or hundreds of job board posts every year. The additional carrot that you will be enticed with is the magical agency database. This may sway you in endeavours to recruit specialists, technical roles or professionals, but I argue there is a much more effective method for large volume entry level roles.

The best database of potential new employees you can acquire is right in your backyard. Instead of focusing solely on training people after they are recruited, start training before you recruit. Don't wait for Universities or training organisations to train your future employees. Get with your industry associations and your peer employers and start managing the direction of training in your industry.

An effective way to do this is to start an Academy. The employer becomes involved in the entire student educational pathway from high school, whether or not they end up employing the student. This may seem like overkill, as the employer may ultimately only employ a small percentage of the trainees. However, this more proactive approach allows the employer to influence not only the direction of the training in their industry, but equally puts their industry and business in the front of the students mind in a very competitive graduate recruitment market. Additionally, educating students from high school, through Year 13 and even on a path to University, is a pretty good marketing investment as these students are also a lifetime worth of potential customers.

This would be an example of the new world graduate recruitment. A graduate recruitment program that starts before graduation. A job may be an outcome before the student 'graduates' or they may train in a variety of fields before deciding on an employer or even the right industry.  A life cycle of learning and job outcomes interwoven and cyclical, led by employers who can make a real impact in the vocational training sector and not waiting to pick the gems from the thousands of University graduates.

This is also the most effective way to get the business leaders involved in recruitment. The Academy classes are used as regular assessment centres. Towards the end of the training period the business leaders come in and select recruits straight out of the training. In the same way, potential candidates often self-select out of the recruitment process, as during the training they realise the job is not for them. In the traditional model a recruiter may have hired these candidates and they will likely turnover in a few months.

A few keys to a successful academy are;

• Make the Academy industry training based. That is, use it to train all students interested in the industry, not just the ones you may employ. Use your Brand to attract students into the training, but get the relevant industry associations & schools involved as well.  
• To a certain extent, training can focus on employer specific systems & processes, however try to make the programs broad enough so the student gets industry training that helps them get a job at a variety of employers not just yours.
• Accredit the program within the vocational training environment. This is important so students get qualified while training whether or not they get a job in your business or somewhere else.
• Whether you are the RTO or you partner with an RTO, make sure you have someone who knows what they are doing running it at your end. Contact me if you want to talk more about how to do it. (....shameless sales pitch!!)

michael.murphy@industrygraduates.com