Posts Tagged ‘HR’
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
I ran across an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review blogs, “Is HR Too Important to Be Left to HR?” It raises an interesting question, and one I’ve bumped into every now and then over the past three decades. Often, the HR department is perceived as weak or ineffective and discussion ensues over where the function should report – to the COO or CFO, for example. This has implications for the corporate recruiting team, of course, which tends to be located in the HR department.
So, how can a corporate recruiting team keep from being bolted onto a business unit that doesn’t understand it?
The key is to make your department as self-sufficient as possible – this will give your team the elbow room it needs and also show how the HR department as a whole can manage itself effectively.
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Tags: BYTE, Corporate Recruiting, HR, HR outsourcing, human resources, market research, outsourced recruiting, outsourcing, STREAM, talent market, talent pool, talent pools, TMR
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
IBM recently released its biennial Chief Human Resource Officer Study, providing great detail into the business challenges that HR departments are likely to face in the near future. The report itself is worth a read, but I want to focus on one area that is particularly important to corporate recruiters: efficiency.
Headcount is coming, and this will doubtless put a strain on recruiting departments that have been tasked to run unusually lean following the financial crisis and ensuing recession. According to the report, 34 percent of Chief HR Officers expect to see headcount increase in North America over the next three years, with a variety of international markets showing even more potential.
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Tags: Corporate Recruiting, employees, financial crisis, hiring in a recession, HR, human resources, outsourced recruiting, outsourcing, recession, recruiting outsourcing, ROI, STREAM
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Yes, you read that correctly. It is possible to turn compliance into a competitive advantage. In fact, the notion that it isn’t possible is what can propel your company ahead of its peers.
To most organizations, regulatory compliance is pure cost. You don’t have a choice but to comply, and you seek to spend as little as possible in the process of doing so. The pressure to keep the price tag low, however, could cost you a significant return on your compliance investment.
Rather than treat HR compliance as unique, approach it as you would any other organizational development project. Of course, implement the measures necessary to satisfy the relevant regulatory bodies … but don’t stop there! Think about how you could use these new processes and controls to streamline your organization and improve service delivery to your hiring managers. Do this, and you could use your compliance investment to cut operating costs instead of increasing them. You might have to commit a bit more up front, but the payoff will be worth it.
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Tags: BYTE, compliance, HR, HR outsourcing, HRO, outsourcing, regulatory, regulatory compliance, ROI
Posted in Process | No Comments »
Monday, July 12th, 2010
It’s always tough to get the green light to hire corporate recruiters. After all, HR tends to be seen as a support function, and companies usually want to keep it lean. The effort to add to staff becomes even harder when you consider the rhythm of the corporate recruiting cycle: in theory, your department should be the first to hire. Instead of waiting and scrambling, there’s a way to get out in front of the hiring process for the rest of your company without having to hire additional corporate recruiters.
When it’s time to hire aggressively, the corporate recruiting department needs to be ready. Demand for your services is set to spike. So, how do you handle this? The natural response is to add to the staff, but this can be difficult: you’d need to ramp up before anyone else. Getting the approval to hire based on forecasts, especially for a segment of the HR department, isn’t easy. The alternative, it seems, is to wait until your team is severely overworked and wind up adding yet another open req to fill.
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Tags: BYTE, Corporate Recruiting, HR, HR outsourcing, HRO, human resources, outsourcing
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »
Monday, July 5th, 2010
Employees are becoming more comfortable with the idea of switching jobs. At the peak of the recession, workforce aversion to personal risk was high, especially as unemployment pierced the double-digit threshold. Now that conditions have calmed, and many believe a recovery is in progress, many employees are likely to seek greener pastures, especially if they can secure more income, flexibility or other perks in the process.
This presents both risk and opportunity. Talent availability is poised to spike, as top players look for ways to recoup missed promotions and raises that were rendered impossible by the after-effects of the financial crisis. At the same time, there’s increased likelihood that your own company’s talent will head for the door.
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Tags: candidates, financial crisis, HR, human resources, recession, STREAM, talent, talent market, talent pools, unemployment
Posted in Intelligence | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
It’s still a bit early to tell, but it looks like the economy is finding its legs. As this trend continues, businesses will become more comfortable making larger strategic investments. The game-changing initiatives that get the green light are likely to have talent implications, and corporate recruiters should be ready for a new kind of action.
The momentum that comes with a turn in the economy can have a slingshot effect for companies that plan well. Making the right decisions now – and executing them effectively – can magnify ROI down the road. Every aspect of strategy execution has this potential, including corporate recruiting. But, before you rush out to assemble talent pools, you’ll want to get a feel for the new talent markets you are about to enter. Whether it’s for a product line or region, you should know the challenges and opportunities that await you.
KGTiger’s TMR service provides one thing: answers. As you’re preparing to recruit into the unknown, the risks begin to become apparent quickly, and the most daunting is the belief that there are “unknown unknowns” waiting to trip up your imminent strategic hiring program. Detailed talent market research reports from TMR can take much of the guesswork out of your riskiest, highest-potential and most important business initiatives. With TMR you can drive business decisions based on what you know – instead of what you think!
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Tags: Corporate Recruiting, economy, HR, HR outsourcing, HRO, human resources, market entry, market research, new market entry, outsourced recruiting, outsourcing, product launch, recruiting outsourcing, research, risk management, ROI, talent, talent acquisition, talent market, talent pools, TMR
Posted in News, Strategy | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Corporate recruiters haven’t had to worry too much about the availability of talent for a while. Even with the unemployment rate in the United States down to 9.7 percent, there is still plenty of talent on the market. In addition to those who have been laid off, there are “survivors” struggling with increased pressure and heavier workloads who are on the lookout for new opportunities.
Investing in talent pools can be a difficult sell. If you aren’t a corporate recruiter, it’s easy to be seduced by the notion that “more is better” and that only the availability of talent is important. Few understand that an abundance of resumes can obscure the few that you want to see. Beyond securing the horsepower to sift through the administrative tasks associated with this market condition, you need a way to improve where you hunt for talent and how you narrow the results into a short list of candidates that makes the best use of the limited time that you and your hiring manager have.
When you engage the CFO, the case again calls for both cost and ROI benefits.
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Tags: CFO, hiring managers, HR, HRO, human resoruces, outsourced recruiting, outsourcing, recruiting outsourcing, ROI, STREAM, talent market, talent pools, Talking Talent
Posted in Strategy | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Process improvement projects are pitched to CFOs all the time, often with inflated (even absurd) ROI projections. So, it’s no surprise that these executives tend to be wary. Too often, these investments are nothing more than veiled attempts to increase headcount or decrease workload without regard to any meaningful industry benchmark. It’s no wonder that CFOs are uneasy about these projects.
For corporate recruiting, issues of process improvement and workload are real, and the advantages to be gained are substantial. Yet, it’s difficult to overcome the CFO’s objections, particularly given the view of the HR department as overhead. To appeal to the CFO successfully, you need to make a powerful case involving both cost cutting and ROI. The win for your company has to be easy to attain with overwhelming results.
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Tags: CFO, Corporate Recruiting, excutives, HR, HR department, HRO, human resources, operations, outsourced recruiting, outsourcing, recruiting, ROI, Talking Talent, time to hire
Posted in Strategy | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 15th, 2010
If you can convince the CFO of the value of an investment, life becomes a lot easier. Unfortunately, this level of comfort isn’t always easy to attain. CFOs are professional skeptics, tasked with weeding out the prudent from the frivolous. Even a great idea, if not expressed correctly, will fall victim to this executive’s budgetary scythe. Human resources investments are particularly susceptible to this fate, as the department tends to be perceived as pure overhead. You can change the image of the HR function – corporate recruiting, especially – as long as you learn to speak the CFO’s language.
Over the next few days, we’ll take a look at how to fame your investment cases for process improvement, talent management and talent market intelligence in terms and concepts that will resonate with the most diligent of finance executives. When you explain to the CFO that you have a way to cut costs or increase ROI through corporate recruiting initiatives, you’ll be more likely to find yourself with a new ally.
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Tags: BYTE, CFO, Corporate Recruiting, executives, HR, HR outsourcing, HRO, human resources, market research, outsourced recruiting, outsourcing, recruiting, ROI, STREAM, talent market, Talking Talent, TMR
Posted in Strategy | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
There’s a lot of sensitivity in corporate recruiting departments about being a cost center. Like most HR functions, recruiting doesn’t bring in revenue, and the role it does play in attracting the talent that does is often overlooked. Absent a revenue angle or risk avoidance any corporate recruiting analysis by the finance department or C-suite comes down to cost. The way corporate recruiting tends to be conducted – a model that really hasn’t changed in more than 30 years – offers plenty of room for improvement, especially since there are so many “mistakes” currently being made.
What worked three decades ago probably isn’t optimal nay more, right? So, it’s time to take the errors out of the situation and focus on the efficiencies that can reduce recruiting expenses and drive better results.
Here are five costly mistakes that are actually quite easy to fix.
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Tags: budget, BYTE, Corporate Recruiting, HR, HR outsourcing, HRO, human resources, outsourced recruiting, outsourcing, recruiting outsourcing, ROI, STREAM
Posted in Process | 1 Comment »
