Recruitment ‘not rocket science’, but needs comprehensive planning

When it comes to recruitment, it’s essential to prioritise a comprehensive strategy. Relying on ad response and other avenues may no longer cut it.

HR Leader recently spoke to Richard Triggs, founder of Arete Executive and author of Winning the War for Talent, about how Aussie businesses should navigate their recruitment strategies in 2024 as the competition for talent between employers becomes tougher and tougher.

“[A] factor to consider is how you are positioning yourself as an employer of choice and your leaders as leaders of choice. This is critically important, and yet, once again, most organisations don’t have a comprehensive strategy for doing this,” Triggs said.

A comprehensive strategy is something that Triggs regularly referred to throughout his interview, constantly stating how crucial it is for employers to have one in place. This is especially true for employers who have in-house recruitment rather than hiring external recruitment strategies.

As the competition for talent continues to rise, employers can’t afford to be one-dimensional. Triggs pointed to an example from his experience where a recruitment team solely fixated on ads and failed to deliver quality candidates for their organisation.

“Having a comprehensive recruitment strategy for each individual role will dramatically increase speed and quality of hire. As an example, we were engaged to recruit a senior HR executive for a global mining company, based in regional Australia,” Triggs said.

“They had been looking without success for approximately eight months. Their in-house recruitment specialist had been relying on ad and LinkedIn inmail responses and literally had not delivered a single quality candidate for months. The line manager was getting increasingly agitated, having to carry this plus their own workload. The opportunity cost was significant.”

“We were engaged, and through running a comprehensive headhunting and referral strategy, we were able to deliver a very strong shortlist within 10 working days, and the role was filled within a month.”

Triggs believed that what his team implemented wasn’t “rocket science”; instead, they had a cohesive plan and were able to capitalise on their plan in a short time frame.

“None of what we did was rocket science; it just required a comprehensive plan, specialist expertise, and the time available to make the calls necessary to attract and engage with the right talent,” Triggs said.

This isn’t something new that has arisen, according to Triggs. He explained that headhunting should be a focal point in recruitment practices rather than becoming fixated on ad responses.

“In my opinion, this is not a shift. Headhunting has always delivered better results than ad response. Retained search professionals always deliver a better result than time-poor, poorly trained in-house recruiters. What has changed is that technology, including LinkedIn Recruiter and other tools, has made headhunting much easier and cheaper than ever before,” Triggs said.

“There are specialist companies that offer much more affordable solutions than were previously available. As an employer, every vacancy should be assessed on the likelihood that an advertising campaign will deliver the desired result.”

“When there is a lack of confidence, or the role has been in the market for a couple of weeks with no quality applicants, then partner with an affordable, reliable search provider to access those passive candidates you desire.”