My dear son, what the heck is TA Enablement?

I was on the phone with my mum a few days ago and struggled to explain my current job when she asked me what I’m up to at work. Now I reckon most adults don’t find it easy to explain their job to the family. Though it got me to reflect on mine as I felt like there really wasn’t a quick way to describe to her what I do all day.

But thinking about it, it may not be too hard to explain after all.

I’m kinda like the backstage guy in a theatre. The stagehand you don’t see but the person who works behind the scenes to make sure that everything runs smoothly, so the audience sees a seamless performance by the fabulous people on stage.

Well, this but in recruitment.

So, what is Talent Acquisition Enablement?

I’ve only heard of the term a few years ago — some people may also refer to it as Recruiter/Recruitment Enablement or Talent Operations. It has become a trending topic in the talent acquisition space. So, I loved seeing that Adam Gordon has started sharing some great interviews and resources on this topic.

I could come up with my very own definition, but Adam’s definition is pretty much spot on.

“#RecruiterEnablement refers to providing recruiters with the necessary processes, tools, and training to effectively perform their jobs.

It focuses on empowering #talentacquisition teams to recruit efficiently and at a higher velocity, enabling recruiters to spend more time with qualified leads and less time on administrative tasks.”

If you think about it, you could also refer to Recruiter Enablement as the engine oil. Your recruitment team is the race car that is ready to take you places. The oil ensures that all engine components move smoothly, while minimising friction and component wear all at the same time.

At Xplor, we also believe that the success and quality of our TA function depend a lot on the involvement of our hiring managers. After all, they are our main internal partners who shape the hiring process and outcomes as much as TA does. So, TA enablement also puts a spotlight on our Hiring Managers and interviewers to empower them.

The Four Elements of Talent Enablement in my role

• Technology and Systems
• Processes and Improvement
• Capability Building and Knowledge Sharing
• Data and Talent Insights

Technology and Systems

Let’s start with a question: Would you ever ask a chef to fillet a fish with a spoon? Of course, you wouldn’t.

Now, imagine a TA team that shares the following feedback with you:

“The system is a steaming pile of burnt garbage. I’ve never come across software so obtusely non-intuitive for both candidates and recruiters alike. Completely bug ridden, date and hierarchically driven dependencies that are monolithic and inflexible” (comment from www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell)

Not great, eh? So, what can you do?

Technology is an enabler when it’s fit for purpose.

Companies often put in place recruitment tools with grand expectations. Yet fail to achieve desired results for the same, simple reasons:

• They fail to analyse the team’s real needs and forget to involve end-users (recruiters and hiring managers)
• They introduce new tools without warning and often lack preparation and training
• They don’t measure success

I joined Xplor as a TA Specialist in 2020 when we only had 60 people in the office. Shortly after, we merged with another company and experienced rapid growth through multiple acquisitions across the globe. This saw us grow from being a small startup to a company of 2100 employees.

That was exciting but came with many challenges. Our hiring practices were inconsistent and inefficient, as we used different applicant tracking systems in different regions. We had no way to standardise our hiring processes, manage our job posts in one place, or create a unified careers page. As a result, our candidates faced a confusing and frustrating experience, and we couldn’t measure our recruiting performance effectively.

Talk about friction!

We were looking to implement an ATS that would allow us to scale and deliver a seamless candidate and hiring team experience. Rather than using multiple platforms, we needed a tool that allowed all our different users to collaborate effectively without jumping between multiple systems. So, we spent a good amount of time understanding our business goals and what our teams needed back at the time before picking the right TA suite for us. Obviously, that came at an investment cost but saved us big bucks and a lot of nerves over the past three years.

We also ensured we’d provide enough bespoke user training to build up confidence and excitement across users.

Our teams have access to a large library of well-documented help articles, step-by-step guides, and resources. Recently, we’ve also introduced a chat boy for easier access. We’re also about to launch an animated video training series for Hiring Managers and Interviewers.

You can have the best tools and systems in place but if people don’t know how to use them, you’re not making their lives easier.

Reduce friction in your recruitment technology ecosystem.

Do you remember the game show “The Weakest Link?” Contestants competed for money by completing a chain of correct answers that would be broken with an incorrect answer which meant they lost all the money accumulated up to that point, just to start again.

It’s the same with productivity gains in recruitment. Imagine getting some great talent quickly into your top recruitment funnel, just to start scrambling when you get to interview scheduling.

All that initial momentum is gone.

And it hurts your recruitment efforts and creates frustration. It frustrates recruiters who work hard to fill jobs. It frustrates candidates who may not hear from you for days. And it frustrates hiring managers that need that extra headcount.

So, speak with your teams to understand how they get their work done, how information moves, and where technology can help them do their job better. It will help you find bottlenecks and where processes are imperfect.

Aim for integrated solutions that allow data and information to flow between systems, so manual bottlenecks disappear. Finally, consider replacing your technology vendors when they don’t help you achieve results. It’s a long-term gain over short-term pain.

Importance of Repeatable Processes and Continuous Improvement

They say that process is king and I couldn’t agree more.

Repeatable processes lead to repeatable benefits and wins. And once your processes are repeatable, they can be measured and improved. Standardised Hiring Practices will also help you reduce bias in the process and keep everyone accountable. When people know what is expected of them, they’re less likely to cut corners.

At Xplor, we’ve created Recruitment Handbooks for both, our TA team, and our Hiring Managers. We capture all our process activities and expectations.

Mapping out and documenting our processes has helped us identify redundancy and waste in the way we do things. It has given us ways to streamline or simplify and fill gaps in responsibilities — all of which improved our bottom line.

We introduced Satisfaction surveys for Hiring Managers, successful and unsuccessful candidates. The data we collect supports our Continuous Improvement efforts and helps us focus on areas where recruitment initiatives are likely to have the biggest business impact (e.g., a focus on Hiring Manager interview training).

Building Capability in Your Team to Promote Excellence

The ever-changing hiring landscape has made it essential for any recruitment team to stay updated by enhancing their skill sets and preparing themselves for the future.

The seniority level of your recruiters doesn’t matter here. I’m a strong believer that should always take steps to further develop their knowledge and skill base — because there is always more to learn. But maybe that’s the teacher in me.

Areas to look into for example:

• Enhancing Data Analytics Skills
• Creating compelling marketing/outreach content
• Alternative Sourcing Techniques

Upskilling your team can be an effective strategy to keep them engaged while preventing your recruiters from feeling overburdened with responsibilities and tasks — especially when times are busy and job volume is high.

Now I know that most TA teams don’t have a set learning and development budget though.

That’s okay, we don’t either and you can still make this work.

At Xplor, we aim to foster a culture of teamwork across our regions where everyone helps everyone. In conjunction with having repeatable processes, this approach has allowed us to reduce the preparation time for team members to take on unfamiliar roles or locations, empowering them to be productive sooner which ultimately improves Xplor’s ability to recruit the best talent faster.

We also encourage everyone to put their hands up and get involved in project work within our wider People Team. It gives them exposure to different areas of the business while allowing them to try something outside of their comfort zone.

Though Capability Building isn’t about upskilling only, but should also be about sharing knowledge.

Not only will it increase productivity, but it will also empower your team to do their best jobs. Getting them easy access to insights, resources, and expertise allows everyone to work faster and smarter.

And if you met me before you may also know I’m a big fan of helping people help themselves and self-service models. It allows you to scale faster and gives people the tools to find their own solutions.

Leading with Data and Talent Insights

You’ve heard this many times before “Data is key”. It’s true because there are plenty of good reasons why you should adopt a data-driven approach in recruiting.

• It helps you improve your hiring process and outcomes
• It equips you and your team to discuss recruitment trends and opportunities
• It helps you move from Order Taker to Business Partner
• It helps you look at ROI from job boards and recruitment initiatives
• It helps you gain leadership support for new technologies and investments
• It helps you mitigate hiring bias and make more objective hiring decisions
• It allows you to be proactive instead of reactive

And you can certainly think of many more reasons.

As my manager Kara likes to say: “When you lead with data, it’s a game changer,”

It has been for us but obviously didn’t happen overnight.

Implementing data-driven recruitment requires more than just gathering some data. You need a mindset change and start working in a new way to reap the benefits of data-driven recruiting.

Once we had established a baseline of standardised recruitment processes around the world, our team sought to strengthen its position as a partner to the business. Providing valuable data and market insights helped us achieve exactly that.

Now it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of data you’ll have access to, so choosing the right metrics and data sources is paramount. Focus on the metrics that align with your business goals and help you measure your recruitment performance.

You can use your ATS, LinkedIn Analytics, candidate surveys, or other tools to collect and analyse data on applicants, hires, campaigns, and budgets.

We then invested in creating a custom recruitment dashboard with Tableau that helps us visualise and monitor our data — because looking at Excel spreadsheets just isn’t that much fun. It’s been helping us spot trends, identify issues, and make decisions faster.

For example, we’ve seen that certain job boards we paid for in the past didn’t perform well enough to warrant further investment. That’s money we could now spend on other initiatives.

On this note — be aware of data limitations because it’s not always “Black and White” and I know the data we collect isn’t perfect nor infallible.

So don’t assume that data is always accurate or complete. It can have errors, biases, or gaps. Data can also change over time or depend on context. Use data as one of the factors, but also consider other aspects such as human judgment, culture add, and diversity. Update your data regularly and compare it with other sources or benchmarks.

Some Final Thoughts.

Recruitment enablement still seems to be a new concept for most organisations, but it is gaining momentum and that’s great news.

I do think Recruitment enablement is essential for the future of talent acquisition, and companies that can implement recruitment enablement strategies will have a competitive edge. Would you agree?

Has your company adopted TA Enablement? How has it impacted recruitment in your organisation?

#RecruiterEnablement #TalentAcquisition #Recruitment

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