Set Yourself up for Success: How to Structure Your Hiring Team

You need a cohesive team of motivated, passionate professionals in order to ensure the most consistent hiring success. You can’t afford not to. This group is charged with building the future of your organization.

Traits of a High-Performing Talent Team

The best talent leaders bring a diverse mix of skills and expertise to their roles. These include:

• Industry expertise: They have a deep understanding of your business, products, services and competition. This is due to an innate knowledge of where to find top talent with various and specialized skill sets. They serve as trusted advisors to your organization.
• Sales savvy: Successful recruiters are natural salespeople who refuse to take “no” for an answer. They effectively nurture leads. Their sharp interpersonal and negotiating abilities empower them to get the best deal for both sides.
• Strategic thinking: A long-term approach to sourcing talent and building a brand is essential. It is your robust talent brand that gives you your competitive edge. You need talent specialists who work collaboratively to develop plans that encompass the best candidates, both active and passive.
• Marketing and media proficiency: Great recruiters think about jobs the way marketers think about products. They know how to tell a compelling story and use that ability to boost their brand. They are adept at targeting prospects using a multichannel approach.
• Networking as second nature: Your talent leaders must know how to pinpoint candidates and then make the right match. The best ones have an instinct for mutual connection.
• Data nerdiness: Superstar recruiters live and die by the numbers. They understand that data will not only help them make better decisions but also earn the trust of others, including boards and senior leadership.
• Research prowess: To succeed in recruiting, a team cannot fly blind. They must do exhaustive research including exploration of candidate pools and employment and skill trends. It goes without saying that they also must stay up to speed on the competition.
• Technical strengths: Savvy recruiters are adept at using digital tools to their advantage. They have the technical know-how to get optimal results from ATS, CRM and other systems and platforms.

Who Should Be on Your Team

Set yourself up for recruitment success by forming the best team for your company. Each hiring team is unique, but there are some general guidelines regarding who your top players should be:

• Your recruiter: This is the player/coach who is involved every step of the way. It starts with the first interaction a prospect has with your company. Your recruiter plays a key role in optimizing the candidate experience including prescreening, scheduling, offers and negotiation. They also are instrumental in handling candidate rejections so as not to lose A-level talent from your future pipeline.
• Your hiring manager: This is your quarterback and ultimate decision maker. Your hiring manager should follow your recruiter’s prescreening with final assessment to see if the team wants to move forward with a candidate. It is their job to dig deeper and determine if the right fit has been made. Many responsibilities can be delegated – but not the final hire selection.
• Top performers: These are employees who are already in a leadership role or who demonstrate high leadership potential. Involve team members whom you trust and who best reflect your company culture. Task them with contributing to the overall positive experience.
• A senior executive: Involve a senior company leader as a final safety check in your hiring process. It may be just a brief conversation or phone call with a candidate. This will help ensure that no red flags or glaring weaknesses have been missed.

The recruitment experts at BrainWorks are second to none when it comes to perfecting your hiring process from A to Z. This includes building the team that will continuously achieve top sourcing and talent management results. Read our related posts or contact us today to learn more about our executive search services.