Quite often, I receive calls from companies looking for a head of Talent Acquisition. These are great jobs with high pay, good benefits, and with great companies. But CHROs are making one costly mistake while they’re waiting to fill that top position: They’re pausing their entire recruiting-optimization process.
What You Can Do While You Wait for Your New Head of TA
The first step to a talent acquisition optimization or transformation is to truly understand where you are today. Whether it be with health, homes, cars, or another area of life, we sometimes tend to self-diagnose as opposed to looking at the situation objectively, deeply, and holistically. When it comes to building out a smart, research-based strategy, there is only one right way. You must start at the beginning. Consider:
- Your people: Who are your key stakeholders and what are they saying, thinking, and feeling?
- Your process: Where is it working for you or against you? What is the delta between your current process and the desired future state?
- Your technology: What tools are you taking advantage of and do they allow for innovation? Have you considered other solutions that allow for future growth? If so, which ones? How could they be adopted and when? How will you measure success?
During the headhunting process, the CHRO can play a pivotal role in getting the recruiting-optimization process started by endorsing a diagnostic. Work now to get buy-in from your executive leadership team. Then start analyzing your existing recruiting process to identify your risks, gaps, and opportunities. You can diagnose your recruiting process using Beacon Lane’s Global Recruiting Framework™ as a guide.
Don’t Wait for the New Head of Talent Acquisition; Begin Recruiting Optimization Now
CHROs may think they’re pausing the recruiting optimization process for just a couple of months while the new head of TA is hired, but in actuality, the delay ends up being much longer. It can take 4-6 months to find the right TA leader, and they don’t walk through the door ready to take on recruiting optimization – certainly not a full TA transformation. They need time to get up to speed: get acclimated with the organization, get to know their team, get comfortable in the role. If you wait for the head of TA to be ready to begin the recruiting optimization process, you’ll be 9-12 months behind where you could be. Ideally, your head of TA will walk into the role with a comprehensive, documented optimization strategy ready to go. Their job will be to execute against that strategy. Sure, they will tweak things along the way, but you are shaving off months from the initial process by getting kick-started now.
Start today.
Beacon Lane Consulting designs and implements recruiting processes for some of the most complex organizations. We are sought after as THE independent advisor for ATS implementations and TA transformations. Clients hire us to think 3 steps ahead, see things from all angles, and ultimately, ensure that their highly visible TA investments are a success. We are industry and system agnostic because we understand the fundamental requirements for a successful implementation regardless of the business you are in and the platform(s) that you choose. If you are redesigning your end-to-end process or implementing a new ATS, we invite you to speak with us first. Get in touch.
