A new report examines 16 factors that drive the performance of a talent acquisition department. The big winner is four times as influential as the second-place factor.
In a study of 297 talent-acquisition professionals, Bersin by Deloitte Consulting LLP looked at what moves talent acquisition departments from being transactional and reactive to being stronger, with branding, pipeline building, strong assessment practices, and a nice integration with the business.
The biggest driver was “developing strong relationships with hiring managers.” In next place was “developing candidate pools,” which was two times more influential than many other factors. After that came “effective social media campaigns” followed by the governance of the recruiting department and its decision making.
Back to managers: Robin Erickson, the vice president of talent acquisition research at Bersin by Deloitte Consulting LLP, said that a number of things can contribute to these strong relationships. One is having a good service level agreement, so both recruiters and hiring managers know what to expect. Managers may get frustrated if they’re waiting on a recruiter; meanwhile, a recruiter may not even know someone’s waiting to hear from them.
Another contributor, she says, is a general mindset that the hiring manager is a client. This tends to improve communication. Recruiters, she says, also can have better relationships with managers if they’re assigned to a separate business unit they get to know.
One of the things that hiring managers can do to help their recruiters, she says, is to open up their social networks.