Why is there a widespread perception that the human resources team must find new employees on its own?
Who manages the teams in an organisation: HR people or team leaders? It seems like a puzzling question because the answer is obvious – team leaders and department heads. Why, then, is the prevailing approach that the HR team must find new people on its own?
Surprisingly often, the expectation of team leaders is that after giving the HR team a find-me-the-suitable-person task, the recruiter clicks away on LinkedIn for a few days and presents the suitable employees on a tray in a month or two. It is totally forgotten that it is the team leader’s problem that needs to be solved here - assembling a competent team to meet business goals. The main evaluator of candidates should therefore not be the recruiter. The team leader and recruiter should work in tandem, one complementing the other.
Looking for a Proactive Team Member
Imagine a beautiful house. Although the task is simple, undoubtedly our beautiful houses are cardinally different from each other. But by discussing it together and describing our perception of a beautiful house, we can bring our understanding of aesthetics and architecture closer together. The same applies to recruitment planning.
The recruitment process should start with the hiring manager (team leader) sitting down with the recruiter and discussing who the team is looking for and why. What hard skills are needed in the team? Which of them are we ready to train ourselves, which of them we cannot? What values and soft skills should the suitable candidate have? If you are looking for an initiative-taking person, what does that mean in your team?
It need not be a long discussion. It is just for getting the hiring manager and the recruiter on the same page, and coordinating a common vocabulary. Both parties should be able to recognize the right person. A scorecard, which provides a clear framework and helps focus on the assessment of the most important competencies, has proven useful for this.
The criticism here is not aimed at team leaders only. We often see that even recruiters lack the systematic preparation needed to recruit. They are in a hurry. It is important to remember that only thorough preparation can prevent many problems later and ultimately bring success. The HR director of Google, Laszlo Bock, has also stated that the best way to recruit is actually incredibly structured and boring.
The scorecard also helps to lead your employees better later on. What are a person's strengths and weaknesses or skills? How can we support him/her? What motivates him/her and what does he/she want to achieve in the long term? How does he/she fit into the team? How motivated is the candidate? Is he/she capable of learning? What is his/her potential? A clear and transparent evaluation process will later help to lead the person better, avoid misunderstandings and maintain employee engagement and satisfaction.
For some reason, it is assumed that only the candidate must put in the effort to be recruited but not the company or the team. The scorecard is not just a tool for the HR specialist. In a successful organisation, the recruitment process involves the recruiters, as well as the future candidate's team members and team leader. This tool is for everyone. The effort should be mutual: team leaders must also contribute their thoughts and experience and invest a significant amount of time. If the team leader and the team are not interested in building their team from the beginning, there will be no trust in the team later.
The Labour Market “As It Was” No Longer Exists
The Estonian workforce now has twice as many choices as in decades. The labour market is global, so people are no longer as committed to one employer as they used to be. Similar or better jobs can be found elsewhere, including abroad. Business culture and people's values have changed.
As the so-called technical level of almost all organizations has improved, jobs are increasingly changed not for salary and working conditions, but for people and the working environment. Preference is given to friendly, trusting, open teams. Employees favour flexible work arrangement, freedom of home office or mobile work. The key metric is people, not the company’s financial standing. It requires leaders to consciously develop their soft skills, human interaction and a trusting approach to their employees.
This means that the recruitment sector has also changed. In a rather small labour market and under conditions of low employee commitment, it is necessary to make the candidate a long-term partner of the organisation and increase the emphasis on proper preparation and involvement of the whole team in the recruitment process through deliberate evaluation.
It is easy to prevent many problems related to workforce turnover by thoroughly planning recruitment, skilfully managing it, and clearly articulating your expectations as a team leader. Already during the interview, the leader should have a clear idea of the new employee’s role in his team and a management strategy. Taking responsibility, developing soft skills, and recognising your people will certainly take time and not all recruitments can always be successful, but it is important to take the first steps. The only person who can recognise a suitable candidate is the team leader.
