All recruiting leaders have a good idea of what the ideal state of the talent acquisition function is supposed to look like, typically described along the lines of it’s not about filling seats, but building (winning) organizations, if my hire doesn’t perform according to expectations, I failed*, we must start with corporate and/or business strategy and organize the TA function accordingly, and similar.
Now, those willing to face reality know that some of these statements are made to show responsibility and thereby securing one’s own position as a TA manager – especially when people are in a phase of their career where proving themselves “against all odds” enjoys a higher priority than thinking critically about challenges and where management fosters a “crunching it” culture that prefers breaking things and increasing (an ever more expensive) organizational debt to doing things right to avoid such costly organization debts in the first place. This situation is almost a given in the startup scene, but it’s more common then people think even in conservative mid-sized organizations or big corporate settings as well. Every five years, as a new generation enters the workforce, the same mistakes are repeated.
If any of the following is in place, systems level changes are required to fix the TA function, even if “the leadership team is 100% behind recruiting, including the CEO” (mostly only rhetorically):
- The TA manager reports to HR
- The TA manager is not involved in, let alone run workforce planning
- The TA manager’s entire career is in recruiting and/or HR
- The CEO and/or the line managers are disconnected from everyday recruiting beyond their limited role in the recruitment process, however decisive it may be
* It’s worthwhile making a note here: there’s a wide-spread delusion among internal recruiters that they actually hire people, as opposed to simply finding them and prescreening them. For recruiters to take full responsibility for a hire even when the final word is not with them is simply not rational; for them to take responsibility for how the new employee works out when they have zero control or influence over the new team member’s integration into the team and their ultimate management, is similarly nonsense. Let’s add that the same applies for agency recruiters and search firms.
PRAKHSIS 