I know I promised to cover recruitment function organization structures and job descriptions this week, but I changed my mind. I had an interesting conversation with one of my colleagues this week that really got me thinking.....should Recruitment be a part of or report up to the HR function?

It’s probably one of the favourite debates of the Recruitment professional – why do we typically report up to HR? Why not sales/marketing, another functional division, or directly to the business with a dotted line to HR perhaps? No doubt that all of these models come into play in some orgainzations, but Recruitment as a part of the HR function is the most common organizational alignment out there by a long shot. Some food for thought:

- CEO’s frequently list the acquisition of top talent as being a key organization priority.....yet rarely do I hear of Recruitment as being on the top of HR’s priority list
- I have worked with many organizations that have several HR VP’s, yet for some reason rarely do I see a Recruitment or Talent Acquisition VP as a part of a larger HR team
- Almost every organization has an HR budget, but many of the companies I work with don’t have a recruitment budget for some reason

It’s no big secret that many HR professionals simply don’t want to touch Recruitment, and that many Recruitment professionals simply don’t want to touch HR. Does it make sense to amicably part ways? I think it just may under the right set of organizational circumstances. Next week – As promised, I will discuss recruitment function organization structures and job descriptions.