In-house recruitment - why most companies fail

Over the last 10 years, corporate South Africa focused their attention on saving costs through in-house recruitment teams. This however hasn't been an easy process for most companies. Some get this right and some unfortunately miss the mark completely. The problem is not the strategy, but the people. Having the right people driving the in-house recruitment is the difference between failure and success. This article will take you through the success factors required for in-house recruitment success.

Success Factors

A few years ago, I joined Standard Bank Group in the CIB space. My role focused on the graduate market, however, I was lucky to interact with all the other talent acquisition managers that managed experienced recruitment. Standard Bank had a simple recipe in their talent space, sing from the same hymn book. Each business area across Standard Bank had its own selling points, however, it did not matter if you were speaking to a recruiter from the personal and business banking, or from their CIB Business, Standard Bank made sure that its recruiters remembered to sell the Standard Bank brand and not the individual businesses. This made them unstoppable in the market.

The second thing that Standard Bank did, was make sure that it hired recruitment professionals to recruit in the market for them. So many companies that have in-house recruitment teams have taken generalists and made them recruiters, which unfortunately never works. This is not because the generalists cannot do the work of recruiters, but because that is not their niche. A few companies have huge recruitment teams, however, these teams rely solely on recruitment agencies to achieve their recruitment goals which could also lead to failures.

The other company that got the in-house recruitment right is Investec. I was lucky to join Investec when they started their in-house recruitment.

• The first thing was, to reduce the number of recruitment agencies who support you for the skills you need. In the first few weeks of this newly formed department, Investec reduced its agencies in order to get focus.
• The second thing was, hire specialists to do the job. Investec made sure that it identifies specialist and those with a passion for recruitment to do the job.
• Third was to identify the reasons for starting an in-house recruitment team. For most companies, it’s about costs, but for Investec, it was about the candidate experience. Quality of recruitment was top priority, not the number of candidates hired.
• The fourth thing was to remember to free-up human capital generalists to focus on performance consulting and allow the recruitment teams to build the relationships with the in-house clients. This allowed each specialization to build its own way of working.
• The second last thing was technology. Investec invested in tools that helped make the recruitment process easier, instead of harder. Most corporates forget that the recruiter and coordinator should focus on sourcing of candidates and not spending months trying to understand a system that take away from their time.
• Lastly, Investec made sure that it had the right captain to lead the ship. Having the wrong people could cost your business a lot of money.

My Lessons

• Hire specialists not generalists. As much as businesses look for the best sales people with sales experience, the HR directors should also be looking for recruitment specialists instead of people that have always been in HR.
• Identify your purpose. When I joined Ashburton Investments, the purpose of my job was to reduce costs, reduce time to hire, increase quality of hire, improve candidate experience. These were the driving forces that helped me succeed.
• Build a One to One team. In order to get the best success in a team, ensure that each recruiter is supported by the strongest coordinator. This way, the recruitment specialist will spend more time in sourcing the right candidates, while the coordinators will ensure that the right process is followed.
• Give the right tools. When I joined Ashburton Investments, I was lucky enough to get access to a LinkedIn recruiter license. It is hard competing with big recruitment teams in other companies, but what made my job easier were the tools I was using to level the playing field.
• Reduce the number of your recruitment partners. In order to be better focused, make sure that the recruitment agencies you work with are partners, and not just a supplier. It is better to give out 5 vacancies to 2 recruitment agencies than 5 vacancies to 15 agencies. The partnership in this instance is real.
• Lastly, the in-house recruitment specialists have to remember that they are part of the business, so their partnership with the business is important to their success and the support from the executives is even more important.

In 7 months of being at Ashburton Investments, I was able to save R9.4 million in recruitment costs because I learned from my two previous companies. To most HR directors, a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) model is the next best thing compared to in-house recruitment teams. This is mainly because there is a belief that it is easier to outsource recruitment to a company that specializes in recruitment in order to reduce costs. A few big companies have toyed with the idea, while some have implemented the process fully. This is the reason why most RPOs and hybrid in-house recruitment teams fail.