Recruiting is Revenue
I had the pleasure of attending a recent conference in San Francisco. You know, one of those ATS conferences that are trying to disguise themselves as something beyond a very lengthy sales pitch. In any instance, I always try to make the most of these types of things, and focus mainly on creating my network that I can lean on for best practices when I encounter those large problems at work that need more than one brain to solve. However, this time - I was very targeted with my breakout sessions and was interested to hear how companies are tackling this very real new skill set that we are tasked with delivering - revenue!
It was a key theme at the sessions I attended, "Recruiting is Marketing and our job opportunities are the product". I've heard it before, it's something that I realized many years ago while helping a previous company redesign our careers page, as I walked through the process it was clear that had I bothered to educate myself on graphic design at some point in my life, this would have gone a lot smoother. What was also brought to the table is the idea that we should be managing our recruiting teams differently because this is a Sales function, and some of the more progressive companies might even incentivize their teams accordingly. Interesting. How we manage, motivate, pay, and develop our recruiting teams should be different than the organization we typically sit within - HR, or even more broadly (G&A).
What flashed through my mind are those annual conversations we have as a leadership team in any company around G&A employees, and the talk about overhead, we typically get lumped into one giant ball of "can't live with em, can't live without em". I had a moment that made me realize that we are the true revenue generating function to the company. Those hiring leaders who ring our phones and blow up our email desperately need to bring that talent in, which is going to help them hit their goals. If we partner effectively, and use our sales/marketing skill sets to attract top tier talent to the company, it hits the bottom line. Period.
The questions that still sit with me as I get ready to go back into the pool, how can I make sure that I'm doing everything I can to motivate, educate, manage and incentivize my team in a way that moves us closer to the sales and marketing organizations? How can I talk about the team in a way that demonstrates to our executive teams the significant contribution we are working to deliver each and every day? How do you make sure that is recognized within your own HR and G&A functions?
I'm looking forward to diving deeper into this, for the sake of moving us forward and to make sure I'm being the best leader I can be for a team that works so hard within a traditional 'overhead' function.