What's the difference: recruiter and sourcer, HR manager and people manager, HRBP and Employer brand manager

Let's me tell you clearer than Google what is the difference between Recruiters and Sourcers, HR Managers and People Managers, HR Business Partners and Employer Brand Managers, and why they all are important.

Let’s clear up one important point straight away. Namely, what is the HR department, and why does a big company need it.

The name of this department is usually abbreviated?HR, and its full name is the Human Resources Department. As the name suggests, this department deals with personnel and oversees HR processes.

Some years ago, the HR department consisted of only a few specialists: personnel managers,?recruiters, and business coaches.

But everything changes, as they say, both times and ways of doing business. Therefore, today this department has expanded to a dozen specialists, and all of them perform various tasks, the purpose of which is to increase the company's prosperity.

Let me list them right away, ahead of your question. In addition to those in the HR team initially, such specialists appeared in the human resources department as researchers,?HR managers, people managers, people partners, career advisers, training managers, HR business partners, HR directors, HR generalists, employer brand managers, event managers, and headhunters. A lot.

But in this article, I will take a closer look at six specialists from this impressive list.

Recruiters and sourcers: what’s the difference?

I still don’t know what was the first to appear: the egg or the chicken, and nobody knows. However, I know for sure which position recruitment began with. It’s not a secret. It started with the position of the recruiter.

Looking back a decade or traveling back a decade with the help of a time machine, you’ll find it quite hard to see a sourcer in the staff of an average recruiting agency.?

Moreover,?recruiting?companies themselves still needed to be looked for. Such a field of business was at the beginning of its growth, and recruiters usually did sourcing.?

I am far from a newbie in recruiting, and I observe and know that more and more companies are hiring sourcers as part of their recruitment teams, and they do it right.

On the other hand, there is quite a lot of confusion around the recruiter's responsibilities and the sourcer’s ones in the recruitment process.?

That is why I am here to give you a hand with understanding the difference.

Recruiters and Sourcers in the recruitment process

Before we continue talking about the difference between recruiters and sourcers, let me tell you about the recruitment process in a few words.

The recruiting process begins with meeting the head of the?recruiting team?with the client’s representative to truly understand their demands for the position. Afterward, the head recruiter presents the new recruitment project to the recruiting team. The team members create the job application.

The sourcer rules the next stage of the process. It is sourcing itself. At this stage, the sourcer uses various techniques to source candidates. There are often passive candidates who don't see the vacancy posting themselves. Unlike them, active candidates react to the vacancy posts on their initiative. In this case, they may deal directly with the recruiter.?

Now it is the turn of screening which is undoubtedly the sourcer’s duty. The sourcer qualifies the candidate through a brief interview. It is usually a Google meet or Skype call or, in other words, a call screen. The candidate’s direct engagement in the recruiting process starts. The sourcer confirms salary expectations, qualifications, work conditions, etc.?

From this moment, right after the screening, the recruiter copes with the candidate. The remaining two stages are connected with the candidate’s?interviewing?and the vacancy's closing. Having all the detailed information about the candidate received due to the sourcer’s call screening, the recruiter presents the candidate to the customer.?

Then, depending on the rules of the client’s company, the client’s manager interviews the candidate on their own or with the recruiter.?

That’s all, the recruitment project is over, as you can see. If the candidate is hired, they go on to the onboarding stage, but it is already the beginning of another project.

The stages of the recruitment process

Summarizing all the above, let me highlight the main stages of the recruitment process:

1. Introductory meeting. The participants: the head of the recruiting team, the sourcer, and the recruiter.
2. Sourcing. The participants: the sourcer.
3. Screening. The participants: the sourcer.
4. Interviewing. The participants: the recruiter.
5. Presenting the candidate to the client. The participants: the recruiter.
6. Closing the vacancy. The participants: the recruiter.

The sourcer’s functions

Now I am ready to list the main sourcer’s operations as well:

• searching for the candidates;
• adding the candidate’s data to the ATS;
• screening;
• summarizing the detailed information about the candidate based on screening.

The recruiter’s functions

And let me not forget to enumerate the leading recruiter’s functions:

• drafting the offer;
• creating job description;
• arranging, coordinating, and conducting interviews;
• negotiating with the customer;
• conducting the candidate’s background checks;
• preparing job analytics;
• conducting additional searching for the candidates.

Both are of the same importance

Yes, the recruiter manages the whole recruitment process, leading the candidate from the moment after the sourcer’s screening to the moment of hiring.?

Furthermore, besides the primary responsibility to interview and evaluate the candidate, the recruiter performs other tasks. For instance, they frequently create the job description, make sure the job is posted in the right places, arrange and coordinate interviews, conduct the candidate’s background checks, and draft the offer.

Nevertheless, it is the sourcer who shortens the recruiting process in many cases by searching for and attracting the so-called hard-to-find candidates that may appear to be a real treasure for the company, but they go past the vacancy posts.

The essential thing in the sourcing process and the recruiting one

I would say the essential thing in recruiting is the communication and well-built collaboration between the sourcer and the recruiter at all stages of the recruiting project.?

I’d also say that the recruiter’s functions are monitoring and controlling these stages, and the sorcerer's functions are to make each step shorter and smoother.

Having reached the final point of the recruiting process with me, you can see that all the project is based on the close cooperation between the recruiter and the sourcer. Moreover, the result is only then successful when they both work fruitfully.?

Therefore, I am convinced that every state-of-the-art company should have a sourcer and a recruiter in the staff if they want to succeed in what they do.

HR Manager and People Manager: what’s the difference?

Nothing lasts forever but football and pyramids. However, a team of players in a modern business company constantly changes its game composition and functions in the group. Why? No mystery. Nowadays, if you want to succeed in business, you have to be able to choose the right people to cooperate with. Moreover, you have to know how to keep them in your team.

So, you are a company’s top manager, and you are aimed for profits through an engaged and highly motivated team with a steadily growing income directly related to the high productivity of your employees.

What do you need to make this dream come true?

Not that much. Good HR and people management.

What is the importance of the human resources manager?

The HR manager is the one in charge of the staff. This specialist also?hires employees?to the company and helps the newcomers adapt to the work conditions and team cooperation. In short, they bring new members to the team. But not only that.

I would list their responsibilities in this way:

• monitoring the situation in the labor market. Based on its analysis, forming the optimal level of salary;
• timely and quick hiring of new specialists to the company;
• forming a personnel reserve;
• making personnel changes;
• preparing proposals for the distribution of the company’s budget for HR issues;
• planning and resolving labor issues, drawing up and signing employment contracts, and maintaining personal files of the staff;
• organizing positions and staff functions.

Why is it essential to have the people manager in the staff?

The people manager copes with optimization and training of the staff. They generally deal with current employees. Their main goal is to help the company’s members develop and increase their working efficiency.

Therefore, let me outline the terms of reference of this specialist like this:

• organizing internships and professional development of employees;
• thinking over a system of motivation for the team, monitoring and eliminating the emotional and professional burnout of the staff;
• coordinating the work on training specialists, analyzing the effectiveness of training;
• determining and controlling the level of knowledge of employees;
• drawing up individual plans for the professional career of workers;
• studying and analyzing the market of educational services.

What is the difference between the HR manager and the people manager?

I see no reason to dispute that the fields of activity of both?HR specialists?are very close and often intersect and overlap with each other. Anyway, there is a difference. It lies in performing the tasks each manager has to take on.

HR management?works with the recruitment process and newcomers’ adaptation. Its main objective is to find ideal team players for the company and think of ways to adapt them and keep them in the company.

People management operates with the specialists in the company. They don’t need to hunt for these specialists. They must assist the staff in becoming even better in the field and make closer relations with the team. However, they also provide?HR managers?with the detailed characteristics and necessary skills they have to look for in the candidates to join the company.

HR Business Partner and Employer Brand Manager: what's the difference?

How much do you know about the HR Business Partner (HRBP) and Employer Brand Manager?

They may bring many benefits to any company.

The HR Business Partner's main focus is optimizing staff movement processes and workflow automation within the company. At the same time, the Employer Brand Manager’s primary focus is the company's internal and external brand.

What are the HR Business Partner’s responsibilities?

The HR Business Partner is an HR specialist who works closely with senior management. Their main task is to ensure that the company's personnel management is consistent with corporate needs, goals, and missions. And the main focus of their work is on strategic planning and scaling of HR processes.

Approximately 30% of this specialist’s work overlaps with what the HR manager or generalist usually does. But unlike these experts, the HRBP devotes less time to administration and more – to strategy and consulting.

For me, the ideal HR Business Partner understands the specifics of the company they work for and knows about the problems of teams and individuals.

Do you wear a watch? Imagine business as a clockwork where there are loads of complicated details. And the HRBP has to maintain the contact necessary for its efficient functioning between all its parts.

I would outline the main competencies of the HR Business Partner or Strategic Partner as follows:

• Personnel management. Optimization of hiring and dismissal processes, workflow automation, and other routine procedures.
• Strategic management. Preparation of strategic change management initiatives for implementation.
• Monitoring. Monitoring existing practices and procedures in the sphere.
• Emergency response. Taking immediate measures in case of force majeure.
• Employee mediation. Settlement of disputes between employees and managers.
• Training. Organizing and controlling development programs and preparation of training briefs.
• Motivation and evaluation. Assistance in conducting appraisal campaigns and performance reviews, development of the grading system, and well-being programs.
• Internal communications. Communication with candidates, employees, managers, and partners. Organizing team building events, controlling the “climate” in teams.
• Surveys. Organizing and conducting employee engagement surveys.

What is the Employer Brand Manager in charge of?

This specialist interacts with the current and potential employees. The main task of the Employer Brand Manager is to make the company an even more attractive place for employees and improve its external image.

Generally, this professional's primary focus is the company's internal and external brand. Their main field of activity is ensuring that the company's external image matches what is happening inside the company.

As I see it, the ideal Employer Brand Manager designs and excellently executes a comprehensive and integrated company’s brand strategy, creating and implementing approaches to build the perfect brand of the enterprise in the business field, the employee market, and within the company.

I would list the duties of the Employer Brand Manager in such an order:

• Brand maintenance and development. Maintaining and developing the company’s brand strategy.
• Brand evaluation. Evaluating the HR brand effectiveness.
• Brand support. Supporting and developing the company’s brand channels.
• Events. Organizing events for candidates, employees, managers, and partners.
• New workforce attraction. Organizing events and campaigns for students, graduates, and potential employees.
• Promotion. Managing and promoting talent programs.
• Cooperation. Cooperating with other specialists to ensure strong organization and brand representation in all HR-related processes.

What makes the difference?

Even though both specialists function as part of the HR department, and their work activities are closely intertwined, at some points even coincide, the difference between their responsibilities is quite clearly visible.

The HR Business Partner copes mostly with strategic planning and scaling of HR processes. Their primary focus is optimizing staff movement processes and automation of workflow and other routine procedures within the company.

At the same time, the Employer Brand Manager’s main goal is the company’s attractive external image and correspondence to the internal content. Their primary focus is designing and executing a perfect employer brand strategy for their company.

A few words to summarize

Having read all the above, I think you will agree with my opinion that these HR specialists may bring many benefits to any company.

I conclude that these specialists are essential for any successful company that plans to succeed even more. It is vital to see the difference in their duties. When you know precisely the role of each of these professionals, it is easier to determine how each of them can contribute to the company. And it is their close cooperation that pushes the enterprise forward to higher income. They may significantly improve its image in the field of business and attractiveness for potential talents, plus greatly increase the organization’s income.