Hybrid Recruitment Org Structures – the best of both worlds?

When I started in recruitment about 10 years ago, things were radically different than they are today. Decentralized recruitment functions were common, with recruiters working directly for and reporting to a business group or leader. You didn’t even see the job title “recruiter” as often as you do today, it was likely that you were called an HR Specialist, or an HR Consultant. In the early 2000’s, the trend was towards centralization. The more recent trend is towards more of a hybrid structure, with recruiters working and reporting regionally in a distributed model, but reporting dotted line to a central recruitment COE. Each model comes with its advantages and disadvantages, but the Hybrid in my view provides the best of both worlds. Recruitment keeps the local connection that is so critical for understanding the needs of our clients, but is bound by a common process and platform that allows for organizational wide standards and metrics and reporting.

The job titles found in the recruiting function have trended more towards specialty in the last 5 years. Via a quick scan of Canadian recruiting organizations, you are bound to find job titles like this:

• Sourcing Specialist
• Sales Recruitment Specialist
• Recruitment Vendor Category Manager
• eRecruitment Consultant
• Recruitment Training Manager
• Recruitment Project Manager

As recruitment continues to rise on an organization’s priority list, the function becomes more complex and a higher level of speciality and depth is required. I think we will continue to see a trend towards specialized, business orientated recruitment roles in the years to come.

Next week – Talent Scouts