And it’s essential in sports. (It’s pretty easy to work out which team the commentators are rooting for…)

Successful recruiting is a team effort

Recruiting is changing fast, and the Recruiting team you have in place right now might not the one that you’ll have in a couple of years time.

Right now many recruiting teams are “full cycle” meaning that each recruiter is responsible for the entire process from first touch to offer acceptance.

With branding and marketing becoming more and more important to success, recruiting teams are going to have to adapt. We expect increasing specialization, and the growth of a few new roles within the Talent department.

Here’s what we think the recruiting team of the future will look like:
 

What will a recruitment team look like in the future?

These are the 5 core areas in which are crucial to recruiting success. Many 
organizations are already hiring specialists to “own” each area.

i) Sourcing

Sourcing is becoming an essential part of the makeup of most recruiting teams, in fact the majority of recruiters believe sourcing will be the most effective source of hire in 2017.

While most candidates (70%) are not actively looking for employment, around 55% of passive candidates would be open to hearing more about your opportunities. This means that your team has to be proactive, finding and engaging the right talent, not just waiting for them to apply.

Key responsibilities:

Finding and engaging candidates that are a great fit for the organization. “Finding” talent is becoming easier thanks to the plethora of sourcing tools and extensions, so we see a sourcer’s prime challenge being around engaging candidates and getting them interested.

Part of the team will focus on immediate needs and open roles, while others will focus more on future roles, adding passive candidates to talent pools where they can be nurtured for the future.

ii) Recruitment Marketing

“Recruitment has shifted from a “sales” focus to a “marketing focus” today. Companies that create a compelling, authentic employment brand, communicate their values and mission, and clearly articulate the nature of their workplace are winning out in their recruitment efforts. – Josh Bersin, Analyst

Increasingly, the candidate journey starts long before someone is ready to “click” apply.

Companies need to engage with people before the application to convince them that their organisation is the right fit. They can’t be relied on to figure it out all by themselves.

This is where Recruitment Marketing comes in. It’s a comprehensive approach that companies can use to attract, engage and ultimately convert people who have never heard of your company into enthusiastic applicants.

Recruitment marketers works closely with the employer branding and sourcing teams to build a pipeline of candidates for open and future roles, and keep them warm with targeted content.

Key responsibilities:

Managing any advertising spend, nurturing leads that aren’t ready to apply with email campaigns and ensuring that a company has a pipeline of candidates available for future roles.

iii) Employer Branding

“In recruiting today, it’s not only recruiters who are doing the research. With 85% of job searches starting with a search engine, top talent is searching for a company the same way they would any other purchasing decision – which is why employer branding is so critical.” – Matt Charney, Editor at Recruiting Daily

Job applications are starting to receive the same scrutiny as any other purchasing decision.

In this case, instead of reading reviews on Amazon, applicants are turning to social media and to websites like Glassdoor to get the real scoop on companies. It’s up to the employer branding team to make sure candidates like what they see.

The key point is this: people expect the same experience with talent brands that they’re used to with consumer brands. Consumer branding is very sophisticated, so it’s no surprise then that employer branding ranks as the top investment priority for talent teams in 2017. Talent brands need to catch up.

Many companies already have a Head of Employer Branding role – we expect the role to become more important in the coming years.

Key responsibilities:

Responsibilities will include – developing a company’s employer value proposition (EVP), ensuring that careers site content is optimized and resonates with candidates, running events to attract target personas and managing a company’s talent network.

Currently everyone from VMware to the Mormon Church has a talent network – we expect them to become universal as companies look for ways to engage with candidates that aren’t ready to apply.

iv) Assessment

Interviewing and assessing candidates will always be a critical part of the recruiting workflow. With the growing responsibilities of the talent team though, we just expect this role to become more specialized.

Key responsibilities:

This role will manage the recruiting cycle from qualification to offer. Their Key Responsibilities will be around ensuring that the interview process runs smoothly, and that candidates are assessed fairly.

v) Operations

With talent teams prioritizing sourcing, branding and marketing more than ever before it’s likely that the talent tech stack will look very different by 2020. For example, research shows that 40% of companies are looking to purchase a Talent CRM in 2017 and have already allocated budget.

Operations has become a critical role in sales and marketing teams as a governor or owner of systems and processes – we expect it to be similarly important within recruiting.

Key responsibilities:

Working with all stakeholders to make sure that all recruiting solutions are meeting business expectations, and making sure that everything is integrated and firing effectively.