Why HR & Staffing Will Always Be ONE - Never Separate the Two

Take it from a HR Professional, HR and Staffing are one. How? Why? Because in order for your HR department to add its maximum value, you must realize that Staffing and HR are joined at the hip. HR Managers, and Directors need to be connected to their recruiters, and Hiring Managers need to partner as one in order to reduce time to fill, and increase the performance metrics that are needed to find great talent. It is so key to know each other, to keep that department chugging along at its maximum potential.

Networking, networking, networking, it is still as valid as ever. But the dynamics have shifted and now we find that HR needs staffing and staffing needs HR. Recruiters in the staffing industry balk at HR folks. But you are a part of the greater HR world. Realize that HR is so important to your success and as a recruiter you shouldn't avoid them.

Now, how do you get that brand that attracts even the most elusive candidate? I can think of just one way, customer service. Return those calls from those folks that aren't even in your pipeline. Give them a return call to help them out. Give them some resume advice. Sound like a waste of time? I can't emphasize enough how I have seen those candidates that I didn't think I would ever have an opportunity for, that I found that opportunity come out of the woodwork the next day. In this economy a little Karma goes a long way. We are in the day where HR must be open to Staffing, and Staffing to HR, and add a little value to the community by being a sure hope of honest and incredible feedback to everyone in the staffing life cycle, managers must give prompt feedback, and candidates may be needing some advice on how to advance their career. Each week perhaps we could be a great option for others by providing a seminar on resumes at the local library, and offer coaching to job seekers in any variety of fields.

Working for Venturi Staffing I came to realize that all candidates and my service to them made a great difference. In fact I can remember helping these candidates write resumes which in turn led to them getting the job and me getting a nice fee. Realize that the resume doesn't always tell the whole story, dig deep with your questions and you will have a tremendous surprise.

Do you ever feel like a career counselor, advising that great candidate with potential with the exceptional references what it takes to succeed. Do you reach out to your network to find that known candidate? Do you remember calling a friend of a friend. Well I do, and I have found some incredible folks that way. Wow, when I find that missing candidate the one that will make my client's day, that is an amazing feeling.

So what do I think of the pending labor shortage? I think it will be an amazing time for the next generation to find their niche, I welcome the clients with their specific wants and needs, I relate well to finding value, for establishing trust on both sides of the candidate pool and my client hiring managers. I still find myself doing a lot of educating from time to time as you try and win the hearts and minds of those who help me put food on the table.

HR and Staffing are trully connected, virtually every piece of good business comes from a solid people strategy, are you able to think strategically as a manager would think, and apply a long term open minded approach to HR networking? Is your staffing hat abysmal to the HR think? I think today more than ever recruiters, HR, and Hiring Managers must be joined at the hip - why? To list a great job description full of the RIGHT competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities that capture all facets of the job environment, and then to use those methods to craft a job description that is both a true barometer for the candidate of expectations - to then classify the employee correctly, provide on-boarding, and then all the elements that keep an employee engaged, that is where staffing and HR must be connected. As well, ponder this? Can a recruiter who just places the candidate and forgets about them, not tapping into the knowledge of that candidate for future searches, and does not strategically think - "this is my HR strategy" but then moves onto the next assignment without even pondering the ongoing significance of the pool of talent that they now have. Great people flock to one another. That is so key. And HR has the power to foster those key relationships that lead to greatness, and then staffing has the power to turn the pool from a prior found candidate's network into future gold and revenue for the company. HR is no longer a "cost center" but a valid player.

I remember starting out in HR, I am now mid-career and wanting to make a difference in my company. This means providing great customer service everyday. I relate well to those folks who have career dimension, I look for those candidates seeking to propel themselves forward. A great attitude is really important in today's world especially when you need that extra momentum to move forward. So when I see that candidate with this kind of inward momentum who wants everything to come together but just doesn't know how to get there, it is time to step in as a friend, as a mentor, even a younger professional such as me can teach some great candidates with years of experience how to just brush up on their presentation. I think sometimes we need to do that for them. Heck, if they make the grade and found a great job even though they weren't a fit for my role, if they remember that that recruiter fellow reached out to help them, wow, I tell you that I have gotten some golden referrels for business and for hard to find candidates from those folks I took the time to reach out to. Remember that when you are making those calls and you are looking at that resume that isn't quite a fit but has something on it that catches your inner instinct. Remember that asking for referrels is a powerful tool. When that labor shortage hits, even the less experienced candidates at that time will start coming into their own. You will want to be that recruiter that made the difference in their lives.

Now I am not saying to waste exorbitant amounts of time, but to reach out and remember that you can't live in a bubble called the US any longer. We must branch out, learn about other cultures, diversify and expand our influence and knowledge of the world about us. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he gave his famous speech was also speaking to recruiters as well. What a long way we have come since that time, but there is still a lot of work to do to make this world a better place.

I am an Eagle Scout, I take great pride in this. I am a family man with a daughter and son as well an ambitious and beautiful wife. I have two great parents who take care of my daughter and help us to enjoy life. I have learned that life is all about what I give. So, as a staffing professional and HR professional the best I can do is help people find work who are looking for it, build great relationships with my clients and make their lives easier. Oh what fun that is. I think life is what we put into it. Yeah so HR and Staffing are one. There is a great deal of value add we have to give and remember HR and Staffing fully compliment one another. I think that is why I love it so much.

Comment by Caseygina Terry on March 22, 2011 at 12:10pm: I think this is a great piece, I like your energy and enthusiasm and feel that this may apply now more than ever!

Comment by Gerry Crispin on March 22, 2011 at 12:51pm: I don't know anyone who can say it better than that.

Comment by Mike Rasmussen on March 22, 2011 at 1:03pm: Hi Gerry, Thanks for the call. It was a nice surprise. My best to you!!

Comment by Sean O'Donoghue on March 22, 2011 at 6:11pm: OK Mike... I disagree with your opinion on HR and Staffing being one - because it clearly isn't, and here's why -

HR want to CONTROL the recruiters they work with, it's certainly not a partnership. When they throw all of their newly invented policies and procedures at us, making us jump through all sorts of hoops, and keeping us as far away from the business as possible - how can that possibly be seen as a partnership? The real partnership in the past has always been between the recruiters and the business (line managers, directors and so forth). HR have their role to play from a competency perspective when assessing candidates, and most certainly should sit in sometimes during the interview process - but when they are dictating how we have to work with their companies, and how we should be doing our jobs - they are simply just making our jobs unnecessarily difficult, and adding a lot of time delays in the process.

Don't even get me started on PSL's... which are proven to fail in the majority of cases. The amount of unnecessary rubbish that goes into a PSL agreement really makes me mad - the other day one of my recruiters told me that one of our key clients was moving recruitment in-house, and issued us with a new PSL agreement, replacing our own terms of business. Our terms, which are fully approved by many governing bodies, are only 3 pages long. The PSL agreement we received was 64 pages long - are you having a laugh or what?! The amount of time it took me to complete the PSL agreement alone was just ridiculous, and even then we had to justify ourselves again in person to HR - even though we had a great relationship already with the directors, and have delivered excellent results to them many times in the past.

When HR start allowing us recruiters to get closer to the business again, and let us sit down with line managers / Directors as their equals (we are after all equally as important in the recruitment process, if not more so!)... then, and only then will I view HR as having a true partnership with a recruiter. Until that happens... let's lay off this topic for now, as we all know that the majority of recruiters do not respect HR departments, and vice versa.

If you're in HR and want to change this opinion that recruiters have of you, then listen to what we are saying and start truly working with us - don't dictate to us how we should be working with you and your companies. Thank you.

Comment by Mike Rasmussen on March 23, 2011 at 12:49am: Why are HR and Staffing One? Well, I am actually agency side at this time, but have spent my career on both the HR side and the recruiting side - so therefore I can speak heartily to this - here is the point - a great HR department runs a strategy that allows for the job description to be correct, complete and full of all pieces of the puzzle that make for not JUST a staffing strategy, but a WHOLE people strategy - what do I mean by that? Well, HR when it does it's job right facilitates a balance between the staffing and HR components. If you have had a bad experience with HR well I'm sorry to hear that - but until staffing/HR work together the company as far as I'm concerned is getting the short end of the stick. HR creates the job description and job analysis process - two KEY components of staffing/recruiting - a good job description strategically prepared is like MANNA - it bears well for the entire process - a bad description wastes a lot of time. A good HR department builds trust with line managers and DOES allow recruiters that opportunity to work in sync and push that bar high for service - REAL CUSTOMER SERVICE and NOT cookie cutter management fads. I'll tell you the best companies I have seen make real HR and Staffing partnerships and blaze the way for success. If you win HR over on the agency side - you have won the agency staffing game as a PREMIER provider - automatically throw up a wall against HR and good bye. So I would say that the best folks are cognizant of HR as a WHOLE people strategy - working with the hiring managers and creating synergy across boundaries - is it easy - absolutely not - good business is never easy. So if you want to crack open and win business then have HR with you, and on the HR side don't be so full of red tape that you can't break down borders and make it hard for recruiters to get to sit side by side with hiring managers - when both sides are served well then staffing is trully going to go right, and all the major players at companies that are Fortune Best Companies to Work For have as thier strategy a WHOLE people strategy, and not a red tape organization which limits the ability of staffing professionals to find great talent - in fact the Job Analysis, Compensation, Benefits, Training, Onboarding pieces come together when staffing is brought to bear side by side - studies by SHRM prove this - so yes Staffing/Recruiting and HR should be ONE especially when studies prove that such synergy has the most competitive talent management scenario that results in the best talent coming in - so I disagree respectfully, if you have any kind of bias that HR is against staffing well you will have a long way to go to build trust on that front. Again, the BEST companies don't hinder either and look at them as ONE.

Comment by Mike Rasmussen on March 24, 2011 at 2:31am: Your points make for interesting discussion. I appreciate your thoughts Jeff. I would continue to put forth that the best companies - Fortune 100 best companies to work for, really do give HR a strategic voice and vest equal authority to them, in this vein staffing vendors and internal staffing teams work strategically with HR, and HR acts as a connection point to the hiring authority in these cases. In other words the better and more viable a company, there is usually a solid working relationship with HR, Top Management, outside staffing vendors, and others. HR/Staffing have a direct connection and are one in that HR provides the job analysis process and facilitates a good working relationship that vets maximum value add for a hiring manager to get their needs met. If the job analysis process works well, then you have a starting point for a good staffing process, and what hinges on a good job description? You mention the EEOC, well did you know that a job description that is well written serves as a starting point for all HR transactions that follow - including staffing, staffing is one starting point, next is onboarding, then training, and then employee relations, and performance management, training, and so on, compensation and benefits use job descriptions to in turn build viable budgets that allow for the proper pay of individuals that attract strong talent - separating HR out of that process is like expecting a cow not to give milk. It just doesn't work. So, I will say it again, you can't separate HR out of the picture as it will delay the proper steps that create strategic value add, when all parts of the HR puzzle are working, staffing is affected grandly by the outcome of key initiatives that enable staffing vendors to have greater partnerships. You see understanding the TOTAL picture is a key element to showing that staffing and HR are one. Staffing folks whether agency or in-house are key barometers of what the market will bear in terms of pay, and can be a vital group that can provide insights to benefits, and compensation professionals who in turn can create the packages that attract top talent, what's more, those who write great JD's have a vested interest in the opinions of staffing vendors, and vice versa, if your staffing firm specializes in IT for instance, then you have valuable insight into what the talent pool needs to get in order to make a value proposition for a long term business relationship. It goes back to my earlier post, if hiring managers look at people as "capital" and forget their fundamental business purpose, then staffing is at a disadvantage. Managers need constant reminders that the people strategy isn't a capital procurement arena, it is a talent management pipeline strategic component that needs facilitation in order to flourish from both sides of the equation - manager/candidate. One way to win HR over is to bring to the table metrics that can help the talent onboarding - ie data about compensation, insight into job description writing, and so on. Job descriptions allow for all transactions in HR to be facilitated in a manner that grows the business, including providing for FLSA status - which determines overtime and labor rules on many levels. Each moving peice contributes an important ingredient to success.

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