Creating an Organizational Recruitment Strategy

Hey guys, terrific article - I like how it is defined.

Here's a few thoughts I'd like to add:

- Recruitment Strategy needs to have relevance to the organization. This means that it should align and be validated through the cascaded effect of the Corporate Business (and HR) strategy. Otherwise, a well-meaning strategy will have no value (eg. If one of my strategies was to, say, spend millions for a technology upgrade, and the business strategy is to tighten the financial pursestrings, we would again lose our credibility at the executive table).

- That being said, it should be fluid and flexible to adjust to the changing needs and strategy of the organization.

- It should be realistic with the current realities of the environment around them. eg. is it to hire a specific quantity of talent where the talent supply is just not adequate?

- Good strategy should be defensible through facts and measures. The many different "enabler" facets you have for example should be backed up with data, as is your final end goal. For example, if one of your strategy enablers are to increase efficiencies through automoation, what is the market data telling you about how much % efficiency you can achieve? What is a realistic target/stretch goal? What benchmarks can you use to quantify your argument? Also, what tangible evidence do you have to show proof that your strategy was effective? When will you measure this? What Key Performance Indicators do you have to show proof that you thought your strategy through?

I once had a client that articulated their recruitment strategy like this...
"My strategy is simple: hire the right talent at the right time".

When I probed further what this meant, and tried to get this client to provide more details in terms of how this was going to be accomplished and measured, it became painfully clear that not much thought went into this open-ended statement. Sigh. No wonder our CEO's don't take us seriously.

It's time, as HR and Recruitment professionals to start thinking like a business owner and start putting more thought into what "strategy" really is. When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

Thanks for putting together such a relevant article folks. I hope it gets a lot of good reads.