Love losing recruiters because of impossible roles?
Enjoy only having ”Steve's replacement” written on a sheet to decide who to hire?
How about when you implement a new ATS, deliver training, then none of your interviewers put in their feedback?
It's really fun right!?? Having your work defecated on from a great height.
Well recruiter buddy, I have some sobering news for you....it might actually be your fault.
Today we are going to learn how to deal with those annoying squishy organic things that mess up your beautiful piece of recruitment. That's right....people.
Let's learn about Governance.
What in the Bejeezuz is Governance?
So before I go through my three step process for good governance that will help your projects more successful, what the hell is Governance?
Governance in Recruitment is the clear definitions of roles and responsibilities that guide and control the recruitment function.
It makes sure that recruitment is done in a structured, ethical, and efficient way.
It makes communication between stakeholders a lot clearer and crucially, can deliver accountability.
Accountable stakeholders you say?!? Sign me up big lad!
Here is a 3 step process to enact good governance over your recruitment process, reduce cost per hire and level of effort across your team
Clear Roles & Responsibilities
Clarify who is responsible for what using a RACI Chart.
RACI stands for :
Responsible - Who is responsible for doing the actual work.
Accountable - Who is accountable for the success of the task and is the decision-maker.
Consulted - Who needs to be consulted for details and additional info on requirements. Typically the person (or team) to be consulted will be the subject matter expert.
Informed - Who needs to be kept informed of major updates. Typically senior leadership.
I don't start a project anymore unless theres a RACI chart completed. It's such a good tool for accountability and is tragically underused by recruitment leaders.
Here's an example RACI chart for Recruitment.
R - Recruiter
A- Hiring Manager
C- HM’s team
I- Domain lead/Director type person.
Create a separate RACI chart for Pre-Recruitment.
Step one makes sense DURING the recruitment process. But what about deciding if/when/how roles are opened in the first place?
You can use the same tool to agree who is responsible for opening the roles to ensure that the role is feasible, and your recruiters get enough information to do their jobs as agreed.
I advocate this :
R - Recruiter
A - Recruitment Leader
C - HM
I- Domain lead/Director type person.
If you can get your stakeholders to agree to this, it is a MASSIVE strategic win for recruitment, as it is the recruitment function who ultimately decides if a role is ready to be opened and completed to the degree of quality or the cost per hire expected by the business.
There are two reasons this is better for the business:
- Unfeasible roles cost the recruitment team resources that could be spent elsewhere in the business. Hiring Managers are basically writing bad cheques your recruitment team has to cash. It's our money being wasted, we should be accountable. We know what is needed to make a role viable based on our knowledge of the market. It makes sense we are the ones to decide the success criteria of a viable role before we open it.
Create Quality Gates
Once you have the accountability, set clear criteria for success of a role before you can open.
Google form and a spreadsheet is fine. Something like this :
- HM needs a new Senior Penguin Wrestler They fill out the form with basic role requirements Recruiter reviews the spreadsheet and arranges a follow up call to get additional details and open the role. If the recruiter feels they have what they need, they open the role and get to work, confident it can be completed as agreed. If the HM wrote “SPW - Steve’s Replacement” on the form and aren't willing to meet the recruiter, well that recruiter can push it back to the HM and get on with work we know will be more valuable.
This gives you a clear mandate to only work on something that will add value and increase overall hires without having to convince and cajole your stakeholders as the governance is built into the process.
Well... that's issue 14. If you have any questions about it, or any feedback on this issue of The Data Driven Recruiter, grab me on LinkedIn for a chat.
I'll see you next week!