If you’re a good leader, chances are good you’re probably asking questions like:

• How is my organization changing?
• Which changes do I want to drive?
• What will take me to the next level?
• What are my competitors doing that I’m not?

One of the keys to answering these questions is to unlock the sometimes underutilized talent of your recruitment team. Yes, I know you may be wondering where the connection is between building a great company and recruiting people, right? A lot of people do. It starts with understanding what good talent acquisition teams do, how they’re built, and what impact we make on companies. I’ll explain.

Structure: Build Strong Recruiting/Sourcing Teams

It all starts with the people. Good recruitment teams should be built with people who love what they do, have passion for communication and getting to know people, and understand and embrace the impact they have on a company. Recruiters who don’t get these basic elements lack the ability to do what your company needs to be done. It’s about more than “taking a job order.”

Recruiters should be supported by strong sourcing teams. Recruiters who can rely upon a sourcing “engine” to identify and screen potential candidates for consideration can successfully focus on prioritizing and relationship building within the organization (business unit leaders and hiring managers), and outside of the organization (candidates, industry contacts and professional affiliations).

Alignment: Know the Business Unit’s Needs

Strong teams are comprised of recruitment leaders who work with business unit hiring managers and executives to truly understand their business. Hiring managers want to know two things: ‘Who do I talk to?’ and ‘How long will it take?’ Recruiters who align themselves with business units and seek to understand the current hiring need (i.e., what “order” am I filling?), why there is a need, and why someone would want to work for that business (Employee Value Proposition). This critical alignment in current and future thinking with business unit managers and other leaders is critical for recruiting teams to develop talent demand forecasts.

Impact: Develop a Sales and Marketing Mentality

Simply put, recruiting is sales. Recruiters are tasked with cold-calling, reaching out to both passive and active job seekers, and presenting and selling the candidate on the opportunity and the hiring managers on the candidate. This “sales” aspect impacts an organization in the same way as an effective marketing department. The type of outreach you consider is important and implementation of that outreach has a large impact on how you build your organization. Messaging to external sources through recruitment makes a significant impact on who joins your company and why they join your company. In other words, recruitment should be “connected” to the long-term strategic vision of your company. New hires that join your company to impact the organization, drive change, create new visions are all influenced by the initial recruitment message.

Industry intelligence: Beyond the candidate experience, recruiters touch hundreds of people daily. These people consist of competitors, future decision-makers and future customers. Recruiters collect valuable market and competitive landscape information every day while talking with these people. Recruitment teams that are aligned with business strategies can filter that information back into the business units.

As you map out the forward direction of your company, consider where you want to be and what talent can take you there. Investment in a strong recruitment model, coupled with talented, passionate people is one of the first steps to building and growing a company. Aligning that team with your vision is a critical success factor in unlocking this hidden building capability within your organization.

Michelle Zeigler, National Field Services Director