By Linda Brenner

Recruiting is a totally different function than it was just 10 years ago. The traditional role of the recruiter has expanded and evolved so drastically it can feel nearly impossible to keep up. With the latest tools, best practices, and an ever-growing list of new job requirements for talent acquisition specialists it requires a constant need to evaluate, assess, and optimize the recruiting process. Let’s do a quick audit of the common signs of a broken recruiting function.

Your Time-to-Hire is Dismal

Time-to-hire is considered one of the most important metrics in recruiting performance by many experts. As the hiring time lengthens, the cost increases and the responsibilities of unfilled positions burden current employees, and, to boot, company leaders get frustrated. For context, time to hire is currently at a 13-year high, at an average of 25 working days. In other words, even the current average shouldn’t be considered acceptable.

What Company Culture?

A very common sign that recruiting needs improvement is when you look around and can’t see, feel, or hear the company culture. Recruiting should always be concentrating on finding candidates who exemplify the organizational values, goals, and culture. When fostering the company culture through new hires fades away (or wasn’t there to begin with) you will start to see negative bottom line impacts.

Not the Good Kind of Turnover

The average cost of replacing an employee is just under $60,000. Combine that with the fact that 75% of the demand for new talent is to replace workers who have left the organization, and you’ve got a costly recruiting issue. While not all turnover is bad, seeing an increase in costly, voluntary turnover is a sign that recruiting is in trouble. Although the employee turnover metric is not solely the responsibility of recruiting, it is considered an important metric in recruiting success.

You’re Still Working with Spreadsheets and File Folders

The level of sophistication that HR technology has reached in a very short amount of time cannot be ignored. Companies who have invested in keeping up with the HR tech boom are able to expedite and optimize every step of the recruiting and hiring process. As metrics and analytics become increasingly important to stay relevant and competitive, their accompanying technology has become the standard for all types and sizes of organizations.

Recruiting Doesn’t Know the Organizational Values and Goals

HR thought leader Dr. John Sullivan explains this common recruiting team issue perfectly: “Unfortunately, in my interactions with corporate recruiting leaders, I am frequently surprised to find that they don’t have a formal set of strategic goals for their talent acquisition function. That’s a major problem because you certainly can’t be strategic unless you have a formal written strategy (most don’t) and a corresponding set of goals to make it clear to everyone what you’re trying to accomplish.”

As the highest and most impactful spend in business, shouldn’t the goals, vision, and objectives of company leaders be part of the hiring process? It all starts with recruiting.

You’re Still Posting and Praying

Successful recruiters are no longer working with best guesses or hunches. The right analytics tools can make sure recruiters are placing their spend optimally. Instead of posting and praying, recruiters can now gather the when, where, and why behind a poor performing job listing. This information gives them the ability to tinker with every aspect of candidate attraction to find the perfect mediums and messaging.

“The big data movement has proven effective and will, therefore, last,” explains Dominic Barton, chief operating officer at Broadbean Technology. “A recent Deloitte study revealed 57% of human resources departments increased their spend on analytics. This is the direct result of tools that render previously useless data now actionable and objective information. Recruiters today have solid data to replace assumptions and best guesses.”

Leaders Are Cutting You Out On Hires

Perhaps the most embarrassing sign of all is leaders bypassing recruiting to source and hire their own people. While we all know they are going to make the classic mistakes that recruiters have the experience and training to avoid, the fact remains that you are now in a position where these leaders feel they could do a better job than you…and that stings.

A successful recruiting team is not one still operating with the same processes, practices, and tools we were working with a decade ago. While metrics are always a solid way to assess your recruiting state, there’s a little more to it. How about your professional relationships within the organization, your rapport with candidates, or the ability to proactively address talent needs?

Although this list isn’t exhaustive, it’s a good starting point to determine if it’s time to audit the recruiting function in your company.

Linda Brenner started Designs on Talent with the vision of helping HR leaders drive faster and better results in talent acquisition and talent management. Visit Designs on Talent online at www.designsontalent.com or e-mail Linda at Linda@designsontalent.com.