How to build a successful talent acquisition team

Recognizing signs of a struggling team

Recognizing when the team isn't functioning at their best is essential, so you can start rectifying it. Michaela takes us through some of the signs that might indicate an underperforming talent acquisition team.

• Long Time-to-Hire: A long time-to-hire can indicate your recruitment process needs improving. Keep in mind, however, that this is relevant depending on your company size and industry. Make sure you have a goal in mind of what your time-to-hire should look like, so you can set a benchmark for the team.
• Hiring manager frustration: If your hiring managers are consistently disappointed by the quality of the candidates or are frequently sent potential candidates that aren’t a fit, this is a sign of disconnect or miscommunication between your TA team and the hiring managers, which is never a good thing.
• High turnover rates: A high turnover rate is a significant indication that something isn’t right. If your new hires are frequently leaving before their probation period is over, it’s likely that you’re not delivering qualified candidates or there could be something wrong in the communication during the hiring process.

If you can already identify these signs, you can address issues early on and work on a plan to fix them before they lead to wider organizational problems. As with anything, it’s also important to have a good understanding of the company’s wider business goals and vision so you can tailor your plan accordingly.

Building a successful recruitment process

Once you’ve recognized the signs of a struggling TA team and analyzed the areas of improvement, the next step would be to start optimizing those areas. Michaela’s tip is to break down your current workflow into different stages so you can identify where the bottlenecks lie.

For example, are there significant delays between certain stages of the process? Is there a stage where you’re consistently getting a high candidate drop-off rate? Are certain roles taking longer to fill than others?

Once you have a good understanding of where the inefficiencies in your recruitment process are, you can begin to optimize it to be more effective. Michaela emphasizes how crucial it is to always use data to back up the changes that you want to make, as your stakeholders are more likely to respond positively to the changes if they’re based on numbers and evidence.

Encouraging communication and upskilling

One thing that always needs to be top of mind is the collaboration between the TA and hiring managers as this is crucial for the overall success of your recruitment process. Ensure that your hiring managers are on board with the overall recruitment strategy and that they’re part of the process from the beginning so you’re always aligned on what’s going on.

To keep this communication going, ensure you’re holding regular meetings with your hiring manager at different stages of the process, so you can discuss what’s working well, what isn’t and what areas can be improved. We have a dedicated episode on this specific topic which you can listen to here.

Michaela also stresses the importance of constant learning and development as essential for the success of a TA team. She encourages leadership to identify the strengths and opportunities for growth in their team members’.

Encourage team members to take on new responsibilities to develop their skills. Likewise, if a team member's skills don't fit your team's needs, think about perhaps re-skilling them in a new field. A new skill set can improve their job satisfaction as well as overall performance. Career growth is important, so offering internal promotions where you can will help with retaining top talent.

Takeaways

A successful talent acquisition team is crucial to the overall success of the business. Michaela emphasizes recognizing any weaknesses in the team early. This way, you can work on fixing and improving them imminently. A clear communication with stakeholders and data-driven decision-making are important for this improvement.

In this episode, Michaela also touches on how to leverage AI and technology to help streamline your overall recruitment process and how to foster a culture of continuous improvement. If you’d like to see all this and more, listen to Michaela’s episode on your preferred platform below!