Recruitment Operations in a Nutshell

What are Recruitment Operations?

Recruitment Operations or Talent Operations are terms used to refer to the collective efforts made by an organization towards streamlining their hiring practices.

These vary from company to company as organizations need to mold them to fit their industry and business model.This can include simplifying various work processes for efficiency, budget supervising, planning and managing the entire hiring process, improving communication and coordination, etc. 

It also attempts to enhance relations with candidates as they are also critical in the recruiting process. This is achieved by making onboarding easier, scheduling interviews in an orderly fashion, ensuring a good applicant experience, rapid application screening,etc. The benefits of this extend to the company as well. Companies who invest in recruitment operations observe a significant degree of growth in several aspects of hiring and are able to secure a greater number of talented candidates. 

Recruitment Operations help direct hiring endeavors towards a definite goal as opposed to meeting benchmarks set for a typical company in the same industry. Thus the company can be more zealous in setting its objectives and benefit from a hiring process that is focussed on achieving the set objectives. On top of that, proper undertaking of hiring operations helps the company fully and optimally utilize the resources it sets aside for hiring purposes.

How do they accomplish this?

Assign specialists for oversight: Recruitment Operations are often reliant on an individual or a team of specialists who can oversee the targeted aspects of the hiring process. They monitor the employees working and make improvements as necessary. They collect, organize and analyze the data regarding the hiring process as a whole. They are the individuals who provide us with the list of changes we need to make and coordinate the decentralized efforts of multiple departments towards a unified goal. They possess a good understanding of the company’s objectives and its company culture which they leverage to streamline the company’s hiring practices. 

Conduct an audit of the process:To start talent operations we need to conduct an audit of the company’s hiring practices to collect data and feedback. This is done by conducting surveys, analyzing the account books and coordinating between all branches of the organization. We track the metrics pertinent to the field such as cost-per-hire, time to hire, quality of hire, return on investment,etc. Data collected is organized, analyzed and relayed to leadership. This is done so as to identify obstacles to effective hiring, attain a concise list of grievances and delays from employees and prepare a plan of action for remedying the same. Collecting responses from employees and applicants is also needed as it gives us an internal and external point of view of the company’s hiring process.  

Assistance throughout the entire hiring cycle: Talent Operation professionals are responsible for assisting recruiters throughout the entire recruiting process. This is done by providing seminars, conferences and training sessions on the aspects of hiring that they are lacking in. They also bear the duty of documenting and mapping the hiring practices in use and updating them as per innovations in the field of HR. They also work towards building a centralized database from where recruiters can access the necessary tools and data available to them and request assistance as per their needs.

Why are they needed?

Cost cutting: Every company strives to keep costs as low as possible. Recruitment operations takes a look into the use of resources assigned for hiring, helps the company cut costs where possible and directs funds towards efforts that can make the best use of it. It also helps coordinate and plan the budget assigned for recruiting and therefore have a direct hand in deciding the return on investment towards hiring. 

Lag reduction: The primary objective of recruitment operations is to make the hiring process more efficient overall. After the company’s practices are analyzed, professionals can identify areas where the company is suffering and directly resolve them. They also try to mitigate doubling up or duplicate work caused by employees doing the same tasks due to a lack of coordination. In a tight labor market it is vital that we remove hindrances to the hiring process so as to secure top talent. By making the hiring process more efficient, we can ensure that our pool of applicants does not get reduced and all hiring stages are carried out in an orderly coordinated manner. 

Lawful hiring: An important need that recruitment operations address is that of compliance with hiring laws and regulations. Different states have different mandates and laws for different stages of the hiring process. Talent operations ensures that efforts across the organization are following the legal precedents and standards for the state that they are operating from and from where the candidate is applying. This includes ensuring that the company's recruitment practices are in compliance with equal opportunity laws, interview questions are modified as per state regulations and that all candidates are treated fairly and without discrimination amongst others. Avoiding lawsuits and potential negative press are essential to building a strong employer brand and talent operations attempt to do this by monitoring every part of hiring for potential legal concerns.

Points to remember

1. The importance of Feedback and Data

Collecting data regarding the entire hiring process is vital for recruitment operations. This data is what is to be analyzed or utilized to make improvements to the organization. The data collected on the several metrics involved help us track the company’s growth and identify portions of the hiring processes that require immediate assistance.

Therefore the data must be collected in an organized manner and details must be tracked consistently. At the same time, it should be noted that with a whole load of metrics available for measurement, one should not get bogged down with unnecessary analytics that have no bearing on the objectives that have been set. Wasting time when carrying out recruitment operations is in effect, creating more of the issue that it is trying to eliminate. 

It is helpful to visualize data in the form of charts, diagrams and graphs so that it can be understood and relayed more conveniently. It can be difficult for employees to understand the scope of recruitment operations and visualizing data and objectives gives an easy to understand guide that can help direct team efforts for optimizing. 

 In addition to this, feedback collected from those directly involved in the hiring process is key to optimizing the hiring process. By receiving feedback we obtain the perspective and opinion of those who are interacting with hiring on a regular basis. 

Feedback collected also helps improve the company’s employer and employee branding. By actively inquiring into hurdles for recruiters and candidates and addressing them, company’s can demonstrate their dedication towards their customers and recruits. Employee branding ensures that the company retains new hires and attracts talented applicants. Employer branding works towards showing the company’s commitment towards its employees and applicants and methods to improve them. In this sense feedback is paramount for improving the hiring experience for both the recruiter and the candidate. Through the use of feedback, even applicants who aren't hired can assist in refining the company’s hiring endeavors.

2.Recruitment Tools and Future Proofing

Recruitment Operations also includes upgrading the system of hiring for future proofing. This means looking at trends in hiring practices in multiple industries and businesses, predicting the direction in which practices are heading and making preparations accordingly. By eliminating the root cause of hindrances before they become an issue we remove the need for the company to address it at a later occasion. This cuts down on potential costs in terms of time and resources for the company.

Talent Operations also involve including and optimizing the use of recruitment tools available to the company. Recently, there has been a boom in the use of HR software in recruiting endeavors. Advancements in the same, along with the need for remote hiring due to the pandemic, has led to recruitment technology being a crucial tool for recruiters to use.

However with new technology, comes the issue of learning it and adapting it to fit your needs. Recruitment operations in this regard are directed towards educating and assisting the involved parties in utilizing the software available to them. Candidate Relationship Managers, remote hiring software and Applicant Tracking Systems are some of the tools currently trending in use amongst recruiters. Recruiters at the company require training in how to effectively use them and talent operations can direct efforts to accomplish this and provide for those who require additional help.

3.Management over multiple departments

Recruitment Operations involves having specialists coordinate the labors of many employees and recruiters in various departments of the organization. Therefore professionals engaged in talent operations must be well versed with the terminology and processes of each of the divisions of the company so that they can formalize a system that synergizes their undertakings. 

To put it an example, we can have a specialist who needs to coordinate between the financial, legal and recruiting wings of the company. Thus they need to know how to handle equal opportunity laws while also being able to plan out a budget based on the return on investments, and educate other employees on the best recruiting practices. 

This skill also gains relevance when we contextualize data and objectives for the parties involved. By being a jack of all trades, professionals engaged in talent operations can bridge communication gaps that exist at miscellaneous levels of the company. This helps employees understand the scope of the recruitment operations and works towards unifying their efforts towards a common set of objectives.