Before You Accept Your Next Recruiter Role, Ask These Key Questions

Right now, the demand for talent acquisition talent is at an all time high. So this got me thinking - if you're on the move, how do you know which Recruiter role is right for you? Based on my experience building recruiting solutions and recruiting recruiters over the past 20 years - including cultivating a recruiter meetup community of over 1,000 members called “The Next Generation Talent Acquisition” - I thought I would share some of my own insights on what to look for to ensure your next role is elevating your talent acquisition career. (The pandemic put a pause on our NextGenTA meetup activity but we’re looking forward to ramping up virtual events again this year - more on that to come soon!)?

Before you accept a new Recruiter role make sure you ask these top questions and don’t settle until you are happy with the answers!?

1. Who does the person you will report to, report to? Depending on the size of the company you are considering you may be reporting to a Senior HR person or a Head of Talent Acquisition. It’s important to know who that person reports to and their view of recruitment. Does this person report directly to the CEO or CFO? Do they see recruitment as a cost centre, as transactional or strategic? Do they really understand and value recruitment in a way that is going to support your growth? You want to make sure that adding more recruiters isn’t just a fad or a short-term reaction to market conditions and that the company sees recruitment like any other critical function of the business.
2. What is the average requisition load? While not all vacancies are created equal, some may be more senior, require more direct, outbound sourcing, or be multiples of the same role, in our experience the average requisition load should be between 12-15 positions. The reality is, however, that many recruiters carry much more than that, sometimes up to 50 openings! At that volume there is little time to do anything really well or learn new things and you’ll be burnt out in no time. It's also a signal on how the company views recruitment.
3. What is the end-to-end hiring process? There’s no silver bullet when it comes to recruitment but too many unnecessary steps in the process can result in recruiter fatigue and frustration. How many stages of interviews in the process is key - especially in this environment where good candidates are off the market in less than 10 days. And where does the recruiter job start and end? Who is responsible for job postings and admin, onboarding paperwork? I’ve seen many occasions where super talented senior talent advisors get bogged down with administrative tasks leading to long hours (to keep up with that high volume requisition load!) and low morale.
4. What is the team size? There are advantages and disadvantages to working in big teams or being an individual contributor and/or the first recruiter hire. If you are considering a stand alone position - who will be your support system? Who can you bounce ideas off of or learn from? Many roles promise opportunities to build strategy and programs - how will the company make space (and budget) for this to truly happen? If there’s no clear answers on budget then be prepared for some uphill battles or walk away.?
5. How will I be measured? How a company measures recruitment, including your performance, can tell you a lot about how progressive the function truly is and how aligned the talent acquisition function is to business outcomes. Time to hire is important to track and measure but measuring and reporting on metrics like ‘opportunity cost on days open over target time to hire’, is far more strategic and meaningful. At TalentMinded we track and measure a number of key performance drivers including, but not limited to, diversity of the top of the funnel, velocity between process stages, hiring manager engagement, quality of source, candidate experience and more.
6. What will the career path be? There can be a short runway for recruiters and few top spots or opportunities for leadership roles as you grow. Understanding what the career trajectory is and how and how long it will take for you to get there is critical for any new position and recruitment should be no different.
7. Does the company value and measure candidate experience? In my experience I have found few companies that actually track and measure their candidate experience. While many companies claim it’s important to them, they often lack best practices and don't survey candidates to better understand how they rate their overall experience. What is the company doing, beyond just lip-service, to measure and continuously improve the candidate experience and how does this align to how you are measured?
8. How much budget is allotted to recruiter training and development per year? HR are usually the ones ensuring the company's workforce is getting the professional training and development they need - but what about training for the talent team? During the interview process be sure to understand how much funding is provided and what kind of training you will have access to. At TalentMinded we provide multiple channels for professional development not just for improving recruiting and sourcing skills. We provide a budget to attend training courses for our Talent Advisors to better understand the types of roles they recruit for, for example taking an introductory course in UI/UX or Machine Learning. Professional development can also take place through Volunteer Days, being part of Employee Resource Groups and/or Special Projects - make sure the company creates space for their talent acquisition teams to take advantage of these types of learning opportunities. (Spoiler Alert - TalentMinded will be launching a Recruiter Bootcamp in early 2022! Stay tuned. Follow TalentMinded for updates. )
9. What is your recruitment technology stack and what new tools are you using and/or considering? Nothing can make a recruiters life more difficult (and miserable) than an old, clunky ATS. Many recruiters are expected to work miracles without any sourcing tools or proper technology and they spend hours updating excel spreadsheets when they could be sourcing more candidates! Would you hire a salesperson, give them big targets and no tools to accomplish them? I doubt it.?The best recruiters want to work with leading technology and have the ability to try new tools or strategies. If you hear things like, “we’re not there yet” or “we don’t have the budget to implement a better system” - this could be a red flag and will surely stunt your professional growth.
10. How would you rate your hiring manager engagement? Studies show that hiring manager engagement is the main driver of quality of hire. Our data also shows that an engaged hiring manager interviews 30% less candidates and hires 30% faster than disengaged stakeholders. How does the company support driving better hiring manager engagement and dealing with managers that don’t follow the process? Do they allow some departments to bend the rules or do they hold teams accountable to best practices? Do they provide training for hiring managers on how to interview, etc?
11. What type of positions will you be recruiting for, what level of seniority and what is the compensation model? This may seem obvious but it's important to know if the company's compensation philosophy and pay bands are in the 25th, 50th or 75th percentile. Money isn't everything but unfillable jobs aren't fun to recruit for either. I spoke with a Talent Acquisition Specialist recently and she said that the lack of fair market compensation for the sales roles she was recruiting for was a major factor in her decision to move on from the role.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of questions but we hope we’ve provided you with some good insights into what to look for in your next recruiter role. It’s difficult to predict how long this boom will last so make sure you are choosing the right position for the long term and keep elevating talent acquisition!

What are your top questions when it comes to exploring new opportunities in talent acquisition? Please share your thoughts and comments!

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