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If Your Talent Acquisition Department Doesn’t Have One of These, Maybe It Should

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Jul 29, 2015

“… my awesome company/team is looking for a ninja recruiting coordinator … if you all know anyone please send them my way…”

That was posted in an online sourcing group I’m in.

Recruiting coordinator — maybe for those departments which lack it, that’s what we’re missing today in the sourcing field.

Maybe we need sourcing coordinators instead of this ridiculous “sourcer/recruiter” (take your pick) or “recruiter/sourcer” label oxymoron we’re currently struggling with.

A “sourcing coordinator” could partner with and become the bridge between the sourcing and the recruiting teams to build a streamlined recruiting and hiring process.

She or he could:

  • achieve staffing objectives by evaluating potential sourced candidates
  • determine candidate qualifications by contacting and interviewing candidates
  • analyze responses
  • compare qualifications to job requirements
  • advise recruiters
  • manage recruiter-candidate handoffs, and in-system follow-up (if necessary.)

That in-system follow-up can become an important piece in some organizations because, as the first point of contact in an organization, sometimes that sourcing coordinator assumes an important (larger-than-life) image to some candidates and is the person candidates reach for first when things grow hair in the process. For this reason alone this person must be a skilled communicator.

Skilled communications is one thing lacking in many sourcing programs today and is perhaps where some systems are faltering.

Instead of recruiters who know how to source (how many really want to/have the time to do that?), why not have recruiters who know how to recruit.

The important parts of the recruiting process include, among others:

  • the finding of the candidate part (sourcer)
  • the engagement/gathering part (sourcing coordinator) and relationship building/holding together of the candidate (sourcing coordinator/recruiter)
  • the closing part of the candidate (recruiter)
  • the onboarding part of the candidate (recruiter/recruiting coordinator)

And so on; the entire thing takes a village, and it’s far beyond time we stop bickering over who does what and whose piece is bigger and more important and all of us put our shoulder to the wheel and heave ho and get the thing done.

To do that, I suggest we put a system in place that looks like this:

Sourcer –> Sourcing Coordinator–> Recruiter–> Recruiting Coordinator

What do you think?