aising the profile
of In-House Recruitment

Page 2 Introduction
Page 3 Is resourcing the poor relation to HR?
Page 4 Talent attraction – is it a key priority at board level?
Page 5 Should recruitment leaders be more political?
Page 6 The metrics of resourcing – how do we define effectiveness?
Page 7 Conclusions
Page 8 About Reconverse
Contents

Raising the profile of In-House Recruitment 2
Introduction
Meeting together twice a
month are the Heads of
Resourcing for some of
the UK’s biggest brands
and organisations. Bringing
together these recruitment
leaders are Reconverse, a
specialist event organiser
for the in-house recruitment
and resourcing market, who
facilitate tailored supplier
meetings for the in-house
recruitment industry and also
host round table discussions
in which recruiters can learn
and share knowledge.
The latest Reconverse round table
discussion broached the topic
‘Raising the profile of in-house
recruitment’. With companies of
varying sizes represented; from
global multinationals to household
UK brands; there was a myriad of
opinions and corporate cultures
present but all were in agreement
that the perception of in-house
recruitment – even if rated highly in
your own company – can always
be raised both internally and
externally.
There were several key topics
which came up as part of the round
table discussion which this paper
has documented the opinions and
comments of those present.
Is resourcing the poor relation
to HR?
In the vast majority of companies,
in-house recruitment will report
to and sit under, the HR function
– should it report to here or
elsewhere? Does the fact that it is
often associated with HR hinder its
profile within an organisation?
Talent attraction – is it a key
priority at board level?
Many organisations will eschew
that finding the right people is one
of their key priorities but is it key to
the board? Is the CEO integral in
driving talent attraction and if not,
how do we change this?
Should recruitment leader be
more political?
In order to raise the profile of in-
house recruitment at board level,
do our recruitment leaders need to
have more influence or the ear of
someone in influence?
The metrics of resourcing – how
do we define effectiveness?
A key topic for any department
is their own value within an
organisation but how do we define
value within resourcing? How can
this be practically done?
“It’s not the case
of resourcing not
being valued but
it could be valued
more.”
A special thank you to Colin
Minto and the Direct Employers
Association for chairing this latest
round table discussion
www.directemployers.eu

Raising the profile of In-House Recruitment 3
Is resourcing the
poor relation to HR?
In the vast majority of
organisation, in-house
recruitment will be part
of; and report to; the HR
department. This would
seem the logical department
for recruitment to sit as it
is a personnel and staffing
function.
However, the discussion from
the delegates present was not
convinced that the HR department
of today is the best reporting
stream for in-house recruitment.
“HR can
sometimes be a
blocking process
when it comes
to recruitment
– they are
often a reactive
solution to
resourcing rather
than having
a proactive
approach”
Many of the delegates felt that
HR had a reactive approach to
the recruitment process and that
recruitment was seen as more of
a process – have a vacancy, fill it
response.
It was discussed that resourcing
would fit better within a department
such as Marketing as talent
attraction should surely be about
building the company’s brand
and forming a strategy for talent
attraction? Also, the front-end
branding attraction in resourcing
and possibly the metrics and
analysis would ‘sit’ better within
a marketing platform but the
candidate engagement aspect was
more suited to an HR division.
So where should resourcing sit
within a company?
As a generalisation, most in-house
recruitment teams will report to HR
and the discussion centred around
is this right for resourcing? Certainly
the HR Department has reinvented
itself over the last few decades. By
becoming more professional within
its practices and processes, HR
has transformed from Personnel to
Human Resources.
But is a department which deal
with everything from employment
issues, disciplinary matters and
a host of staff inductions and
appraisals the best place to sit in-
house resourcing whose function is
to attract tomorrow’s talent?
Would the Marketing department
help create a more proactive
approach to your talent strategy
enabling you to build a company
brand which will help recruit all of
the best candidates in the market?
Should Resourcing & Recruitment
report to any function? Should it
be a stand-alone department not
reporting into HR, Procurement,
Finance etc.?
“If you go back
a few decades,
IT used to report
to Finance – can
you imagine
not having a
dedicated IT
Department
today? It’s so
important to any
company that it
is a stand-alone
department –
why is talent
attraction and
recruitment not
seen in the same
way?”

Raising the profile of In-House Recruitment 4
Talent attraction – is it a key
priority at board level?
How many CEO’s will include
HR or ‘people’ in their top
5 priority agendas for the
board? The delegates
discussed how if ‘people’ are
a key priority at board level,
how do we ensure that this is
focussed on talent attraction
strategy and if it’s not a board
priority, how do we make it
so?
Within the delegates present, only
a third felt that talent was a priority
with their board. Those who felt
that the CEO recognised that
talent attraction was a key priority
saw that a clear strategy was
required though to make sure that
the message that resourcing is a
fundamental part of the company
was filtered down from the board
through the organisation.
Is Recruitment an integral part
of your company’s strategy?
“Recruitment is
at the heart of
every business
– IT, Finance,
Sales etc. A good
hire can make
a remarkable
difference to a
company and
equally, a bad
hire can have
a detrimental
effect.”
In the Financial Services industry,
the in-house recruitment team
are actually sitting on the board
and working together to create
the company strategy as they
recognise that recruiting the best
people makes a huge impact on
their company performance and
that a good team are their best
asset.
With the current skills shortages
in the UK and Europe across
many market sectors, recruitment
is going to become ever more
apparent within organisations in the
drive to attract the best candidates.
Therefore, for all companies, having
a clear and defined recruitment
and resourcing strategy as part
of your HR mandate is essential
in attracting the right staff for your
business.
“You need to understand and articulate where the company wants to go and
therefore what skills and competencies are needed to get there, what you need
to resource and what you need to develop. By identifying any skills or gaps
that you need; you either build or buy talent strategy. By doing this you gain
credibility by articulating a more strategic approach to resourcing.”

Raising the profile of In-House Recruitment 5
Should recruitment leaders be
more political?
Following on from the discussion
surrounding getting recruitment
as a priority at board level,
the delegates discussed how
Recruitment Leaders should
be influencing and creating the
recruitment agenda.
Surely for recruitment to become an
integral priority of an organisation
then a recruitment leader must be
represented on the board? Not so
was the thoughts of the delegates,
whilst this would be an ideal
premise for all in-house recruitment
teams, having a recruitment leader
on the board is not a necessity
– but having a leader who can
influence and force the resourcing
agenda of your business is.
What is the calibre of a
recruitment leader?
In comparison to other heads of
departments and divisions, does
the Head of Recruitment need to
be any different in their approach?
Certainly for those organisations
who don’t have a defined talent
attraction strategy, it was felt that
the recruitment leader needed to
be able to court influence and be
able to present and demonstrate
the value in which a cohesive
recruitment strategy would bring to
the company.
Many of the delegates had differing
opinions on how difficult or easy
it was to present to the CEO or
Board Members, depending on
the organisation and the people
within it, some leaders are more
accessible than others. It was
felt that individually, recruitment
leaders should identify those
board members which are more
open and able to influence the
resourcing agenda but this must
be followed up with achievable and
demonstrable targets and strategy.
“You have to
have outcomes
rather than ouput
– influence the
strategy rather
than simplistic
results.”

Raising the profile of In-House Recruitment 6
The metrics of resourcing – how
do we define effectiveness?
How do we show the value
of in-house resourcing? Can
we demonstrate how valuable
people resourcing is to an
organisation?
Investment in resourcing is
often squeezed and many of
the delegates present were
experiencing less budget but being
asked to do the same as before,
if not more, with it. It was felt that
by being able to demonstrate the
value of in-house resourcing to the
business, there was a better case
for not reducing budgets or even
increasing them if recruitment could
prove its worth to the company.
In a recent survey, only 30% of
recruiters used analytics to record
the effectiveness of their resourcing.
When looking at other company
departments such as Sales,
Marketing or Finance, analytical
reports into their performance and
effectiveness are an integral part of
their reporting structure and assist
in budget negotiations.
What metrics could we use to
show value?
In recruitment, the age old metric
used is cost-per-hire but does this
give a full picture of the value which
in-house resourcing provides?
The delegates discussed how
their resourcing strategy is moving
towards showing the quality of hire
but this is much harder to produce
a metric in which to record against.
With online advertising, it is very
easy to track a simple cost-per-
hire metric but this doesn’t include
any downtime of staff used in this
process. The issue with measuring
metrics within resourcing come
from the margins of error and
variables associated with the
recruitment process which can
block any tangible measurements.
“If you can
present return
on investment on
your resourcing
initiatives you can
help negotiate
maintaining
budget spend
as you can
demonstrate
value to the
business.”
It was felt that whilst emphasis
should be shown on good quality
hires, an important metric to in-
house recruitment teams would
be the ability to demonstrate how
a bad hire can be of a cost to a
business. This brings credibility to
the in-house resourcing team and
provides a commercial awareness
when recruiting talent.
“Sales Managers
don’t care
about cost per
hire or time per
hire statistics,
they are more
concerned
about the quality
which a good
recruitment team
bring in which
will convert into
sales.”
It was felt that as each organisation
is uniquely different in its approach
and recruitment demands,
starting with some analysis of the
recruitment process will organically
bring further metrics and measures
which can only be trackable over a
period of months.

Raising the profile of In-House Recruitment 7
Conclusions
After an honest and insightful
discussion from all the
delegates about how they
see the profile of in-house
recruitment not just in
their own organisation but
externally, several conclusions
were reached which are
relevant to any size business
within the UK.
One size does
not fit all
The discussion about where
resourcing ‘sits’ or reports
to within an organisation is a
healthy one but not conclusive.
Each organisation is unique
and has its own individuality in
operations. Wherever your in-
house recruitment team ‘sit’ – in
HR, Marketing or on its own – it
has to be the right fit for YOUR
organisation.
Know your
customer –
both the hiring
manager and
the candidate
In order to raise the profile of
in-house recruitment, you need a
clear understanding of what your
business is trying to achieve.
By understanding this, you
can articulate your resourcing
strategy to senior management
teams and also present the
company’s vision to potential
candidates.
Find a friend
Trying to influence the CEO is
a valid strategy in raising the
profile of talent attraction and
resourcing within your company
but sometimes you can’t
befriend yourself with the CEO
– especially if the organisation is
exceptionally large. Therefore,
be clever and align yourself
with someone who does have
influence.
Analysis
won’t appear
overnight
To help raise the profile and
value of in-house recruitment
being able to demonstrate the
value of good talent attraction
and candidate hire is a sure-
fire way of getting recognised.
However, metrics within
resourcing are tricky so start
small such as online response
and begin tracking over several
months other metrics such as
quality of hire, time to present
and even how much a bad hire
can cost the business.

Raising the profile of In-House Recruitment 8
About econverse
Thank You
Reconverse is a specialist event organiser specifically for
the in-house recruitment and resourcing market. Offering
unique meeting events for in-house recruitment teams
with dedicated suppliers together with focussed round
table discussions tabling a series of relevant topics,
Reconverse offer in-house recruiters to learn, share and
network with other like-minded professionals.
If you would like to take part in future Reconverse round
table discussions, please visit their events page
at www.reconverse.com/upcoming-events
Contact us:
events@reconverse.com
01227 282 728
www.reconverse.com
A big thank you to The Direct Employers Association
and Alan Whitford, for supporting this event, and to
Colin Minto for chairing the round table discussion. The
DEA is the only UK Trade Body specifically created for
employers who are seeking to champion the end to
end resourcing agenda and educate and influence all
stakeholders in the resourcing process.
For more information, visit the website below or you can
ring Alan direct on the number below:
www.directemployers.eu
07971 864 620
8