banner picture of Recruiting the broken wheel

Recruiting: The Broken Wheel

I have not written an article or blog in such a long time but felt impelled to write on this subject matter, Recruiting: The Broken Wheel, as it has gained an enormous popularity over the last few years within companies hiring recruiter or Headhunters and especially within HR Departments via Talent Acquisition Teams. Furthermore, the last few months I have been interviewing for new opportunities to expand my own knowledge and experience but (with a huge BUT…lol), I am honestly very disappointed with the ‘Recruiting Industry’ within an organization or external from a company.

Now, I have not job searched for nearly over a decade and my expertise is within entrepreneurship and business ownership via business start-ups, mergers & acquisitions, and restructuring with a huge focus in marketing/digital media. This leads to my main question:

  • Nowadays, is Recruiting efficient?
  • Is it efficient for the organization/company?
  • Is it cost-effective?
picture of Recruiting the broken wheel
Recruiting: The Broken Wheel. Is Recruiting Efficient?

Is Recruiting efficient?

And, this leads to a whole list of questions about Recruiting: The Broken Wheel.

  1. Why on earth do potential employees have to go through ‘4 or 5 interviews’ and sometimes more.
  2. Most interviews nowadays, an employee does not even interview with the DECISION MAKER! Where is the Decision Maker in the Interview Process?”
  3. Not to even mention, most interviews are done via Phone Screens (lol). Does it really save time?
  4. Then, every potential employee are taught to match their resume to the company’s job description, lack of a better word, justcopy and paste the job description within the resume. Seriously?
  5. Company’s use software and Apps to sift through resumes electronically. SERIOUSLY!
  6. And, this leads to the problem with Number (4) above, potential employees are employee minded–they have an employee mentality! What’s the issue with an employee mentality? Well, people just play the system! People just tell you what you want to hear because that’s how they have learned to get ahead in school, home, with friends, and now at work.

This list can go on-and-on but I think you get my point. When we start to look at the BIG picture, it does not make any sense. How can this recruiting process be more efficient? Is it be cost-effective for the company? This is what led me to write this article: Recruiting: The Broken Wheel.

I am just going to cut to the chase! The quote above says it all. Listen! Really Listen to this!

Is Recruiting Efficient for the Organization?

Listen to this, the more complex the behavior. The more complex a problem. Equals, the more complex a company or department. And, ultimately the more complex RECRUITING. It leads to one thing: An Employee Mentality. Most of the time the more complex something is, the more confusing it gets, the less efficient it becomes and ultimately it increases the costs for the company. Bottomline, I’m calling BS!

The magic word here is, “SIMPLICITY!”

I will say it again, to let it sink in…lol (joking by the way).

We have to keep it simple.

Simple is the answer.

Is Recruiting Cost-Effective?

Most of the time (not all the time by the way), when I access the operations of a company’s recruiting team or Talent Acquisition Team within the HR Department, I can totally omit these teams because they are not efficient and bottomline, raises the company’s costs. You might ask, “Well, Chad, How can you do that? We need them?” Really???

This is what happens: I shift the responsibility for recruiting to the DECISION MAKER! Bottomline, the decision maker needs to be proactive from the beginning. They need to do the first interview, period! Not, an associate, recruiter or HR team that has no experience or expertise in the area the company is recruiting and has no experience building teams. Makes no sense, Right?

Furthermore, the Decision Maker is involved from the beginning AND no Phone Screens! Yes, no phone screens. All in person interviews. Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Phone Screens saves time!” Really! Seriously! From experience, I have interviewed with a company and went through (3-4) phone screens before FINALLY getting an in-person interview with the decision maker only to find out, I look like an ex brother-in-law, they don’t like my shoes, they don’t like how a sit or I am too executive type. And let me tell you this happens way more then you think! But ironically, this would have been solved in the ‘first interview’ not the fourth, only if the decision maker was involved in the first interview and the potential employee met them in-person! (What a waste of time and company resources!)

Recruiting: the Broken Wheel Wrap-up!

Before I move on, if the company has multiple departments, then, the department heads/directors of that department hires/recruits for their own department. Simple, huh? Now, maybe, the department heads do not want to hear that because they would rather dump the responsibility on the human resource department. 

Lets dig a little deeper but keep it simple at the same time.

  1. The Decision Maker needs to do their homework. They need to know the needs of their department and what is lacking within the department and on the team in order to access the resumes.
  2. When it comes to resumes, well, the Decision Maker again, needs to read them. Yes, I said read them! How many times have you or I been on an interview (phone screen or in person) and the person conducting the interview has not even read our resume or done their homework. OR, they ask the popular question, “Tell me a little about your experience.” The excuse is “Well, I am too busy! I don’t have time! I am too important!” Seriously, I smell an employee mentality again (lol). This happens way too often than I like to admit, but this is just a bad reflection of the company.
  3. HOW CAN A DECISION MAKER MAKE AN INFORMED AND AFFECTIVE DECISION WHEN THEY THEMSELVES DO NOT DO THEIR HOMEWORK! THEY CANNOT, PERIOD! 
  4. Further, how can they build an affective team???

We have to think about it this way. Most hires and recruiting can be done in (1) or (2) interviews, no matter the position. Any more than that, well, it starts to get less efficient, a waste of company resources and bottomline, increases company expenditures.

picture of chad napier doing recruiting assessments
Chad Napier