You’ve heard of this concept of the inverted-u curve, right? It’s fairly straightforward. In the beginning, you have nothing or very little. As you increase the resources you begin to become more effective. Eventually, as you add more resources you’ll actually reach maximum potential.
In the attempt to go even higher, you keep adding more resources, but you don’t see an increase in effectiveness or output; you actually see a decrease. This is the basic concept of the chart.
This happens in recruiting to many organizations.
We start out with a bunch of recruiters and some phones. That’s not enough; we need to add some other stuff, these recruiters need tools! So we give them email and an ATS. Then come the job boards, postings, InMails, etc. Might as well automate background checks and references. We really need to fill the pipeline. Here comes sourcing tech!
Wish we had a way to get our messages out to candidates more effectively! CRM, branding technology, data analytics, SMS messaging, etc. Just keep adding more tools! That’ll fix it!
Except it doesn’t!
What happens to your recruiting team as you add more tools?
- The complexity of the process increases.
- Core recruiting skills diminish, or at the very least don’t increase. (Laziness factor)
- Increased points of failure in communication with each piece of new tech.
What we know is technology doesn’t make you better at recruiting. Technology makes you faster at recruiting, but if you suck at recruiting, technology will only make you suck faster!
Great recruiting starts with your people. Your recruiters. They are your foundation; not your technology. Technology can help cover up some hickeys of bad recruiters temporary, but eventually we will all see the real hickeys!
So, before you sign that next contract for some new technology, first take a look at your team. Do you have the right people on your recruiting bus? Do they have the core skills they need? How will I get them the skills they need?
The continued increase in technology will only take you so far. You can either solve this problem on the front side, or eventually, you’ll face it on the back side, but either way, it’s coming. In my experience, it’s easier to solve up front then wait for it to come up when your 12 technologies deep into your TA stack!