The terms Human Resource (HR) management and recruitment are often used interchangeably, and often in smaller businesses, the two are lumped together. The reality though is that while recruitment is part of HR, they are not one and the same. HR handles a variety of different functions, and one of these is the recruitment aspect, but recruitment itself needs to incorporate talent acquisition and talent management, which are highly specialised areas. To fully support the business objectives with the right people for the job, recruitment, talent acquisition and talent management need to be given due diligence, time and attention, which requires specialist skills from an experienced partner.
Faces of the same dice
HR is a vital business role, because people are the lifeblood of any organisation and managing them effectively is key, but there are many aspects to this, much like the faces of a dice, and recruitment is only one of these faces. The role of recruitment is to attract talent, while HR develops and retains it. For example, while recruitment tests the qualifications and skill sets of resources in comparison to that in the market, HR allocates the resource to a role.
Finding and attracting the right talent is often a time consuming and labour-intensive task – even sifting through the hundreds of job applications to find potentially suitable candidates to interview takes many hours. When this is added to the burden of the HR team in a business, it cannot be given the time and attention required, because other areas of the HR function will then suffer as a result. Ultimately, recruitment should be seen as an extension of HR, not a function, and this is where recruitment agencies fit in.
The right person for the job
The hiring process is one that can be fraught with challenges, from getting the job spec right to narrowing down CVs to a pool of possible candidates, vetting and verifying candidates, interviews, onboarding and more. Many businesses underestimate the sheer amount of time the beginning stages of this process take, as well as the cost involved. Talent acquisition is also typically not a full-time role for many smaller businesses, which means maintaining these specialist skills in house is not feasible. Time, technology and specialist skills are often stumbling blocks when it comes to sourcing and hiring the right talent. Recruitment agencies, or rather talent acquisition specialists, can be of enormous assistance in streamlining this process, as well as in making it more cost effective in the long-term.
One of the skills of a specialist talent acquisition partner is to match potential candidates with open roles that need to be filled. This is about much more than just reading CVs and checking qualifications. The candidates need to be sourced from the broadest possible pool, narrowed down based on their skills and abilities and vetted. Realistic expectations need to be set for both parties, and perhaps most importantly, people must be a cultural fit for the organisation, because this is critical in developing the relationships that will foster long-term success.
Your partner in success
When recruitment is lumped on top of the duties of HR, it becomes a low priority, which is detrimental to a business. Recruitment should never just be a tick box exercise, because the long-term repercussions of hiring the wrong people can be detrimental. A reputable, regulated and reliable talent acquisition specialist can partner with you to understand your business, bring their expertise of the market and access to specialist tools and find and hire the right people who will be a fit not only on paper, but in terms of skills, experience and culture as well.
