When it comes to acquiring your talent, do you approach it from a hiring perspective or a recruitment perspective? There’s an important difference.

In hiring there is a direct link to problem resolution. Every role in an organization exists to solve some business challenge and each of those challenges are, in some way, related to either increasing revenues or decreasing costs. The best recruiters get that and won’t touch a recruit unless they’ve got a firm grasp of the business issues themselves because anything less is a waste of time and resources.

When I started in the recruitment industry I was taught how to “close deals” and get the candidate “across the line” which serves the sales pipeline but doesn’t necessarily solve the clients problem. In those early days I went about my time in a recruitment mindset. It wasn’t until I started leading a team that my mindset started to change. I had a full scale transformation when I started running my own business and learned what it was really like to live with my own hiring decisions. Getting someone “across the line” simply wasn’t enough and is just the start of being able to solve the business problem. So unless you’re in a hiring mindset, and any one helping you recruit, is also in that mindset there’s a lot left to chance. In today’s business climate no one can take that kind of risk. Building great teams takes a lot more than recruiting and hiring, it takes great leadership too.

So how do you know how the recruiters and resumes that end up in front of you are there to help solve your business challenge? Two of the biggest problems in recruitment are resumes and job descriptions because the vast majority don’t effectively capture businesses challenges or people - they’re recruitment tools not hiring tools.

If you find yourself asking how to ensure you’re in a hiring mindset a great start is to get everyone focused in on understanding and geared to solve that challenge. Can you articulate it clearly and succinctly? Have you provided your recruitment resources the time and attention for them to digest what you need to accomplish. “I’ll know it when I see” it is not a viable strategy.

Give your recruiter the time and attention to help make a great hire. If they can’t, or won’t reciprocate drop me a note and I’d be happy to strategize to find a solution.