Beyond Good Recruiters: How Hiring Capabilities Define Success

Let’s start with a very simple question this week:

What makes a great hiring team?

Most people would say: “Great recruiters.”

And sure, that is definitely part of it. But the truth is, recruiting excellence isn’t just about individual skill – it’s about the collective capabilities of your entire hiring operation.

Think about it this way:

A world-class football team isn’t just made up of elite strikers. You need defenders, goalkeepers, coaches, and strategists – all working together, specialized in their own areas, building skills, but aligned under a single game plan.

Hiring is no different.

At the basic level of capability acumen, a hiring team is like a group of amateurs playing a casual Sunday league match. No structure, no strategy – just a team of people trying their best.

But, when capabilities are optimized, hiring becomes a true competitive advantage. Talent professionals are no longer just “recruiters.” They are business strategists, workforce planners, and talent advisors, embedded deeply in the company’s long-term success.

So let’s continue our Hiring Excellence Maturity Model series and map capabilities across the entire spectrum, examining how capabilities evolve across the five levels of hiring maturity, and, more importantly, what’s holding your team back from leveling up?

Let’s break it down.

Level 1: Basic Hiring Skills – The Survival Stage

At this stage, the only hiring capabilities that exist are all centered around handling applicants.

Core Capabilities at Level 1

• Posting jobs and managing inbound applications
• Basic resume screening (manual, subjective)
• Unstructured interviewing (hiring managers making ad-hoc decisions)
• Basic offer and onboarding process
• Compliance with legal hiring requirements

Hiring capabilities present at Level 1 are completely reactive in nature. Hiring essentially only functions as long as there’s a steady flow of applicants. But the second that pipeline dries up, there’s no muscle for proactive sourcing, talent attraction, or competitive hiring.

Why this holds companies back:

• No ability to find talent: If good candidates don’t apply, hiring stalls.
• Poor candidate experience: Hiring managers make decisions on the fly, often leading to inconsistent and slow hiring.
• No competitive advantage: The company is just another name on a job board, with no real strategy for attracting top talent.

At Level 1, hiring isn’t a discipline. It’s a function that exists because it has to.

Level 2: Expanding Capabilities – Moving Beyond “Post & Pray”

At this stage, companies realize that hiring is getting harder – competition for talent is increasing, and job postings alone aren’t cutting it. So they begin building specialized skills within the HR team or they set up a recruiting team.

Core Capabilities at Level 2

• Sourcing & Outreach: Basic proactive sourcing (LinkedIn, job boards, networking)
• Candidate Engagement: Crafting compelling outreach messages and employer branding
• Structured Hiring Process: Implementing a standardized interview process
• Recruiter Training: Foundational training in candidate screening and hiring best practices
• Offer & Negotiation: More structured approach to salary offers and closing candidates

Sourcing capabilities emerge as recruiters start learning how to proactively find and engage talent. Recruiters also become better at selling opportunities – crafting compelling outreach messages and candidate pitches. And a structured hiring process is introduced, ensuring consistency in interviewing, assessment, and offer stages.

Why this is a big step forward:

• Hiring teams can now compete for talent. They’re no longer just screening whoever applies; they’re actively attracting and engaging candidates.

• Standardization means fewer hiring mistakes. At this level, companies introduce recruiter training, ensuring that there is a consistent standard and no-one is just “winging it.”

But here’s the issue at Level 2: the focus is still all on recruiters. There’s no real involvement from the broader business in talent acquisition. And that’s a problem because as we well know, hiring isn’t an individual sport – it’s a team sport.

Level 3: Hiring as a Team Sport – Scaling Beyond the Recruiter

At Level 3, the penny drops:

You don’t just need better recruiters – you need better hiring managers, better interviewers, and a hiring process that actually works across the business.

Core Capabilities at Level 3

• Hiring Manager Enablement: Training for hiring managers on interviewing & candidate experience
• Talent Advisory: Recruiters influence hiring managers rather than just taking job orders
• TA Operations: Introduction of hiring tools, structured workflows, and process optimization. Renowned talent leader, Allyn Bailey, advocates that 1 in every 10 people in your team should be TA Ops.
• Hiring Process Ownership: Clear accountability across the hiring team (not just recruiters)
• Internal Collaboration: Cross-functional hiring strategies involving key stakeholders

This is the big turning point where capability development itself becomes an actual job!

And instead of treating recruiters like a “service desk” that hiring managers use when they need a role filled, recruiters become trusted business partners, influencing workforce planning and hiring decisions.

At this level, recruiters aren’t just good at hiring – they’re good at influencing others to hire better.

Level 4: Data-Driven Hiring – When Insight Becomes Your Competitive Edge

At Level 4, hiring shifts from an operational process to a strategic function – and the best recruiters are no longer just good at executing hiring processes; they’re business consultants armed with data.

Core Capabilities at Level 4

• Data-Driven Hiring: Using hiring analytics, market insights, and predictive forecasting
• Strategic Workforce Planning: Aligning hiring strategies with business goals
• Role-Based Hiring Strategies: Customizing hiring processes based on function, level, or market conditions
• Recruiting as a Business Function: TA leaders are embedded in workforce planning discussions
• Performance Measurement: Tracking time-to-fill, quality of hire, and sourcing effectiveness

At this level, recruiters are thinking strategically, asking questions like:

Should we be assessing first, or selling first? Should we hire this role externally, or promote internally? What’s the best interview process based on historical hiring data?

Hiring capabilities are no longer just aimed at filling jobs – it’s about making smarter workforce decisions.

Level 5: The Talent Partner Model – Beyond Hiring, Into Workforce Strategy

At Level 5, recruiter capabilities don’t just make them hiring experts. They make them talent strategists. And they become experts in people.

Core capabilities at Level 5

• Talent & Workforce Planning: TA teams own long-term workforce strategy, internal mobility, and upskilling
• Strategic Talent Consulting: Recruiters challenge whether hiring is the right solution or if reskilling, automation, or restructuring is better
• Full Business Integration: Talent decisions are deeply linked to business strategy, org structure, and L&D
• Hiring as a Competitive Advantage: The company’s ability to attract and develop talent is a key driver of business success

This is where recruiting transcends the traditional model.

A recruiter at Level 5 isn’t just saying: “What role do you need filled?” They’re saying:

“Do we even need to hire? Could we upskill someone? Could we automate this? Could we reorganize the team structure?”

Talent acquisition stops being a hiring function and starts being a true strategic lever for the business. They push back and their capabilities enable them to understand the nuances of the business to make the right decisions.

So, Where Does Your Hiring Team Sit Today?

Ask yourself:

• Do our recruiters and hiring managers have the right skills in sourcing, interviewing, and data analysis for our current needs?
• Are we investing in ongoing training or certifications to keep pace with emerging TA trends?
• Are we leveraging specialists or over-relying on generalists?
• Are our recruiters just filling jobs, or are they influencing business decisions?
• Does our organizational culture encourage learning, innovation, and thought leadership in talent acquisition?

The best companies don’t just have good recruiters – they build great hiring capabilities across the entire business. Because at its very best, hiring isn’t about just getting people in seats. It’s about building a workforce that gives your company a competitive advantage.

Next Up: Hiring KPIs – Are You Measuring What Actually Matters?

Having the right hiring capabilities is one thing – but how do you measure if they’re actually working? Next, we’ll break down the key hiring metrics that separate good from great.

See you next time!

Interested to learn more about Hiring Maturity Models? SocialTalent is running an online event on this very topic on March 13th – click HERE to sign-up!