The HR department is no longer the silent silo that it once was. HR professionals aren’t seen as the paper pushers down the hall; their roles are diversifying and they are taking on responsibilities that weren’t part of traditional HR job requirements just 5 years ago. The fact is they just can’t do it alone. There is obviously efficiency through specialization, but departments are learning there is also optimization when we start to reach over department lines to combine skill sets and, connections and experience.

Analyze

The ability to capture, organize and interpret data to make confident talent planning decisions and observation are slowly but surely be

coming a standard job requirement for impactful recruitment. That being said, most human resources professionals aren’t expert analysts, nor should they be expected to be (not yet, anyhow). So, they need the right tools and support to be able to offer impactful and solid solutions to common talent acquisition issues. 

“Most importantly of all, there is a real discipline to data analytics. It demands skills in data analysis, cleaning, statistics, visualization, and problem solving. Most HR professionals do not yet have these skills, so companies have to find these people and bring them together to work on HR data.” - Josh Bersin, Talent Analytics Expert 

Brand

Building and maintaining a positive employer brand is far easier said than done. It’s tough, and it requires some skills and industry knowledge from across the hallway – the marketing department. HR and marketing are getting very well acquainted as organizations are realizing the power in this strategic partnership. 

“With talent as the top concern amongst CEOs, employer branding is fast becoming a critical strategy to address current and future talent shortages.  With less than 20% of organizations having an employer branding strategy and only 30% of companies with teams of two or more departments responsible for managing the employer brand, we see a huge opportunity for Marketing and HR leaders to collaborate on this critical issue." - Blu Ivy Group, Employer Branding Service Professionals

Interview

Fred Yager, Editor at eFinancialCareers, estimates as much as 80% of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions. The answer isn’t a lengthier hiring process or three additional rounds of interviews. Instead, HR can learn to embrace technology to create a more effective hiring process. 

Professional video interviewing platforms save recorded interviews, allow multiple viewers to document comments and the ability to easily compare candidates. These recorded interviews are the simplest way to get collaboration on every hire with every relevant person who should be involved in the process.

“It’s common sense that the more interviews or screening a recruiter has, the more resources they are going to be expending. That is not so for video interviewing and screening. Recruiters and hiring managers need only to record one set of interview questions in order to interview as many candidates as they want, greatly reducing the resources spent on what makes up a huge part of the recruiting process." - Greg Rokos, Co-Founder of GreenJobInterview

Create Job Listings

This one is a slippery slope, because like so many tasks, it is probably easier and more time effective to just create job requirements and listings on your own. That does not mean the job listings themselves will end up being effective in attracting the right candidates. Get some collaboration going to create your job listings. Get someone currently in the role to weigh in and ensure the listing is accurate, and get someone from marketing to see if you’re actually hitting your target with messaging.

“You need to have major selling points clearly presented (why it’s a good job, what the job’s main aspects are and what the main requirements are) and a strong and easy to understand call to action. Your CTA can be something like ‘Click here to join the team!’ that takes the applicant to the application portal or page.” - JobScience

Again, marketing should be your PIC (partner in crime) when creating dynamic and attention grabbing job listings – it’s what they do best!

As HR evolves, those once so solid department silos are going to need to get broken down a bit. HR’s role has expanded immensely, and so must their network within the organization. HR will need to learn to reach out and collaborate to create the best and most effective talent acquisition strategy possible.

Bio: Kelly Robinson

Kelly Robinson is the founder and CEO of Broadbean Technology, a sourcing and recruitment technology company. Broadbean Technology has created a strong global presence with offices in the US, Europe and Australia The company remains true to the core fundamentals of its inception: “Keep it light and fun while getting the job done!” Kelly writes about leadership and culture, as well as reducing friction in the candidate experience.