All your competitors are upgrading their internal talent acquisition teams. Should you do it, too?
It depends. Do you really want to?
Outsourcing talent acquisition is easy. Let’s be honest, sometimes, we all want the easiest option. And do you know what? That’s OK. If getting the experts to handle executive search and recruitment is what works for you, go for it. We handle executive recruitment ourselves. We know it works. But we also know it’s pointless upgrading your talent acquisition team if you’re never going to utilise it properly.
We can’t make the decision for you. We can tell you that our clients who upgrade their own talent acquisition teams spend around one-tenth of the amount compared to clients who outsource everything through an RPO – IF they structure it properly. And that doesn’t always happen. Often, they’ll promote one of their recruiters to be their Head of Talent Acquisition without benchmarking externally or assessing that individual properly. This person will have no experience in running an effective talent acquisition function, let alone know how to restructure it so that it thrives. Our first phase of discovery is crucial at the start, to identify whether your current Head of Talent Acquisition is fit for purpose, and on board with the idea of transforming into a high performing function – and everything that follows, from a structure, process and internal SLA perspective.
And anyway, it’s not just about money. No, we’re not you, and we can’t engage with potential candidates as an insider. But we are experts in delivering executive and leadership searches in a thorough and efficient manner, in ways that your teams are arguably unlikely to be able to match. Therefore, we can help to upskill and train the internal team to shift to a high performing mindset.
The upgrade process
Think upgrading your talent acquisition team is something you’re interested in? OK, let’s move on. You’ve really got two options for how you can go about it. You can do it yourself, or you can work with an external Executive Search and Talent Acquisition advisory business like us, for a complete team restructure that will help you improve your hiring process.
We can’t speak for any other advisory business, but at Innovex we do three things:
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We figure out what you need.
We’ve worked with businesses who think their talent acquisition teams are not fit for purpose, when either they just lack a good leader, or the correct infrastructure isn’t built for them to succeed. They’ve just needed clear guidance on how to create a more thorough, rigorous and effective sourcing model, as well as how to motivate their team.
We’ve also worked with businesses who think their team is running at optimum level, and that a team which achieves an average of 50-60 requisitions per head per year is a great performance. It isn’t. Gartner advises that an average recruiter hits 75 requisitions a year, and a superstar does 100+. This means that these businesses’ processes are flawed and lengthy, and their SLAs with the hiring managers are not up to scratch. They’re not reaching their full potential – because they haven’t benchmarked externally, or used actual data to know how well they could be performing.
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We get specific.
We’ve been working with a multinational software company who have high ambitions to grow exponentially. They had a talent acquisition function that could only achieve a maximum of 300 hires a year – around 20-50 per head. This was because each recruiter was performing a full cycle role. And if you’re going to focus on volume over a certain period of time, that’s not a good plan. It’ll mean recruiters are wasting their time on activities other than finding great candidates for the company.
We help to create a specialist recruiting structure. Specialists who can focus their time on the things that matter: building effective relationships with the business, executing on searches to the best of their ability in a timely manner, and providing invaluable information to the HR Business Partners and People Director. This will equip the business with the best up-to-date knowledge to enable it to grow competitively. They’re able to be proactive, rather than reactive.
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We change mindsets.
From the outset, we build trust and focus on a mindset shift to suit business needs. We’ll understand whether the people in the team are actually the right ones for the job. Once everyone is on board, we can move in the right direction to support business growth.
Are you ready?
If you think it’s time to bring us on board, that’s great. We’re ready when you are. It’s important to get your key stakeholders in place first, however. The Head of Talent Acquisition may not be ready to change – but at the end of the day, one of our most important activities is to assess whether they’re on board, and if they’re even capable of taking the next step. We need to establish whether they’re actually the right person to help lead this change. It all starts with positive internal project management; people who are ready and willing to accept help. At Innovex, we can provide that help. So when it’s time to upgrade, get your top team of influencers involved from the start. And then let’s talk.
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