Building and retaining a recruiting team while fostering healthy competition is no easy task – talent acquisition in the cleared recruiting world is faced with another tough year. Whether you are a TA manager with a background of recruiting or are bringing a different set of skills to manage a recruiting team, leaders should lean in on the following themes to ensure your recruitment teams thrive.
HOnE IN ON YOUR RECRUITER’S BEST SKILLS
Leading a team means challenging your recruiters, but also respecting what skills they bring to the table and leaning in on what they are good at. If you have a full lifecycle recruiter with a knack for identifying candidates or resumes quickly, perhaps move them into a dedicated sourcing role. If one of your team members has shown more of an interest in HR, divide their time so they are able to meet some of their own professional development goals. If someone kills it on offer negotiations, tap on them if another recruiter is having trouble securing a candidate.
Build A Space for recruiting Innovation
Many recruiters do not take time aside from hiring to research new ideas or best practices that can save time. Dedicate time for your team to evaluate your processes, see if there are better recruiting tools out there to make their lives easier, or take time to attend a conference – not only will they appreciate it, but taking time off from some of the monotonous recruiting tasks can give their brain a space to maybe come up with creative solutions as they are doing some research outside of Boolean searches for candidates.
DO MONTHLY CHECK-INS WITH EACH OF YOUR RECRUITERS
Weekly recruiting tag-ups are common in any industry to identify pain points for positions, roadblocks recruiters are having, or to update the team on how a contract is being staffed. Sometimes, employees in general are more comfortable having an honest conversation one on one. Having monthly check-ins with recruiters allows them to voice concerns they may have and allow you as their manager to help them feel supported, therefore keeping your hiring managers happy.
ACCEPT WHEN A POSITION IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FILL
Some requisitions just don’t allow for successful hiring – whether that be it is priced too low for the salary, the location is not ideal, it requires a candidate with a polygraph, among many other issues. Ask your recruiters why candidates aren’t interested in the role, or what the specific roadblocks are for identifying a qualified candidate. Then, advocate for your team by having an honest conversation with the hiring manager (i.e., “if we are staffing at this salary, we need to ask a waiver for lower years of experience,” or “we have qualified candidates who don’t currently possess a polygraph, so would we be willing to wait for one?”).
CREATE A CULTURE WHERE FAILURE IS OK
Failure means a learning experience. And instead of a negative attitude when one of your recruiters fails, create a culture where failure is ok. Identify what could be done differently next time and maintain a positive attitude through these learning conversations. This way, your recruiter will be likely to thrive in the next similar scenario, and stay with your company where they know failure ≠toxic work environment.
THEÂ CLEARED RECRUITINGÂ CHRONICLES: YOUR WEEKLY DoD RECRUITING TIPS TO OUT COMPETE THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFER.
