Talent Management for Talent Acquisition
Posted by Linda Brenner on Mon, Feb 04, 2013 @ 09:45 AM
We all know the story about the cobbler's children having no shoes - and that simile applies often and appropriately to HR teams. HR professionals often go without timely and candid performance reviews, they don't have successors identified, development plans or measurable goals. It would be amusing if it wasn't so ironic and pitiful.
But what about recruiting teams? How effectively do they manage their own talent? Traditionally, from a talent management perspective, Talent Acquisition teams are worse off than the rest of HR. I have several reasons for this opinion; recruiting teams almost never:
- Have recruiting-specific competencies describing great performance in TA roles
- Have measurable, performance goals established at the beginning of each year
- Clearly understand their role, expectations and standards for performance
- Have identified, ready-now successors to VP, Director, even Recruiting Manager roles
- Have recruiting-specific training and development resources available to them
- Have career paths identified
In addition, many recruiting teams:
- Hire the most inexperienced, lowest paid professionals in their organization
- Rely heavily on contractors who may rotate out of the role regularly for compliance reasons
- Move failed HR (or other) employees into the recruiting function
- Rarely get involved in business discussions, strategy sessions, talent reviews or financial report-outs
What impact does this have on the business? A very negative one. When recruiting teams are not tied to the business in a meaningful and credible way, they simply cannot identify and woo the talent the business requires to achieve its strategic goals. The more infrequently we train, develop, assess and measure their performance, and the more signals we send about how dispensable the team is - the less effective they can be as "talent gatekeepers" into the organization. And sooner or later, the business is going to suffer.
Other Articles You May Find Interesting:
Why Recruiter Training Doesn't Work
Five Tips for Assessing Your Recruitment Function