The process of building out a very strong recruiting team is often one of the biggest challenges managers face.
How can your recruiting team be more effective? Here are a few things to consider.
An intro to effective team-building
Here’s a useful article detailing five strategies for a high impact team.
There’s some good stuff in there including the power of simplicity in business. They also talk about vulnerability and humility, which are very good traits, especially for the team leader.
One interesting thing in the article is an idea that “team-building is not a cocktail party.”
What does that mean?
It means do not invite everyone. This is a great piece of advice. Job roles are often so unclear and overlapping as it is, and this happens within the recruiting function as well. Know who does what and know what you need to move forward.
Quick tips for effective team-building
- Define priorities on the project: Why is this happening, and why now? What is the end goal?
- Figure out who absolutely needs to be involved
- Figure out people who might be value-add to the project
- Determine the cadence of this team: How big is it a priority for members as opposed to other work?
- Set deadlines and benchmarks
- Off-load the rote tasks: Create a doc or spreadsheet where logistical updates are placed. Allow people to review it before meetings. Now meetings can be centered around value-add discussions.
- Do some socializing: Encourage these team members to get to know each other beyond deliverables. Organize a happy hour or a team lunch, especially as a team is coming together.
- Have gratitude time periods: Let team members call out someone else who did a good job.
- Utilize tech properly: How can tech help save time, thus allowing more time for these other concepts and connections to be built out?
- Adjust deadlines and projects as priorities shift
- Have clear targets for measurement: Is the goal 80% offer-to-acceptance for engineers? Is it 10 days or less time-to-hire? Targets need to be clear, or else no recruiter on your team will know what they’re beholden to and their work will be less purposeful and the team overall will come together less effectively.
- Incentivize: How is the team rewarded if they do what they are supposed to do?
Asking better questions
88 percent of the most rewarded projects at work begin with a simple question: “What difference could I make that other people would love?”
If a manager asked you that, you’re moving towards respect. Instead of saying, “Where do we stand with X?” your manager is now engaging with you.
Fast Company has also addressed asking questions at work, and they recommend asking three more:
- What inspired you to do that?
- How is this different than what you were doing before?
- What would you need from me in order to keep doing this?
The role of the angelic troublemaker
You do need someone on your recruiting team who will push back on ideas and cause people to look at issues that arise in a new way.
As this Fast Company article notes:
Angelic troublemaking—or going against the grain in a benevolent fashion—is a powerful philosophy for business as well as social movements. It’s not just about being difficult; it’s about forcing people to see situations differently. The concept is about making a mess, with good intentions, so things can change.
In other words, sometimes ideas need to be pushed back on and people need to look at a recruiting puzzle differently. So cultivate angelic troublemakers and let them speak up.