Article one: how to build your TA team

Though many think talent acquisition's sole function is to hire, its strategic functionality goes beyond filling roles. 

Besides recruiting, TA teams contribute to a company's overall success by providing guidance on the right combination of skills and people to solve internal problems today and tomorrow. Additionally, TA teams serve as an intelligence function on competitors and a retention function when employees want to make their next move. 

Like other core business functions, TA evolves with the business and expands in responsibilities. This can often lead to questions about key challenges and focuses at specific sizes. In this series, we’ll cover those challenges TA teams need to address, make suggestions on the team's makeup, the scope of the programs, and more.

Key takeaways you should anticipate from this series:

1. When and why to build TA programs

2. When and why you’ll see key challenges

3. What data points should you look at and why

Before launching into this series

Every company is different. Depending on the industry, a company may look to address certain challenges earlier than it might if it were in another space. Additionally, depending on the company’s EVP, it might immediately focus on certain programs or a team makeup to hit its goals.

The makeup of a TA team

Gone are the halcyon days of TA, when teams were only made up of recruiters, and the only numbers that mattered were how many people you hired. With the advancements of TA Tech and the emphasis on data, TA teams now resemble a diverse and resourceful cast of superheroes with program managers, data analysts, tool wizards, and wordsmithing marketers. So what goal does each role help support? Let’s dive in.

• Recruiters: Traditionally, recruiters are the easiest role to describe on a TA team. They are responsible for interacting internally and externally with candidates and applicants at baseline. In addition to candidates, they also work with hiring managers to ensure they are finding the right candidates for the role. In recent years and within some organizations, the term Talent Partner has replaced Recruiter, placing a stronger emphasis on their strategic advisory capabilities.   

• Recruiting Coordinators: Also known as RCs, TA Coordinators, or Candidate Experience Specialists, the role of the RC is foundational in the success of any TA organization. Beyond their work with candidates regarding scheduling and interview experience, many handle projects, reporting, and other vital administrative tasks for their TA teams. Additionally, this role is usually the entry point for early career professionals looking to build a career in TA, given the broad exposure they will receive to all elements of the TA ecosystem.

• Sourcers - This role is primarily responsible for identifying, engaging, and building a pipeline of qualified candidates, primarily through proactive outreach. While this might sound simple or an activity all recruiters do, sources offer an additional benefit to TA teams as a research function by analyzing talent density in specific markets, uncovering new trends/candidate motivations, and keeping the team updated on new tactics from competitors. 

• Recruiting Operations - Also known as RecOps, TA Ops, or Recruitment Ops, this role has become increasingly important to the modern TA team. As a function, it aims to streamline and optimize the process, tools, and strategies behind hiring. RecOps professionals ensure their TA teams are efficient, data-driven, and enabled by improving workflows, technology, and overall hiring performance. RecOps might have responsibilities over an internal program management team and the RC function, depending on the company's size. 
  

• Employer Branding - This role is the internal marketing function for a TA team. Its focus is on shaping and promoting the company’s reputation as a great workplace to attract and retain top talent. The role may also be deeply involved in the events and messaging that recruiters and Sourcers use and attend. Depending on the company's size, these folks might be a separate function, or they might roll into RecOps.

Metrics to track at all stages

The best TA teams use metrics and analytics as a competitive advantage. Enabled with the correct data, TA teams can help their companies and business groups identify the top talent and the right talent or inefficiencies in the hiring process that need to be corrected. Over the course of the series, we’ll cover newer metrics that start to take more center stage or techniques teams start to use, but there are specific standard metrics that are wildly used for the moment. Those metrics are the following:

Time to Fill

• Definition: The time between when the req was open to when the candidate signed their offer letter.

• Why is this important? This is an often misunderstood metric that, unfortunately, many people outside of TA anchor on. While it appears straightforward, there are levels of complexity within it that don’t tell the whole story (e.g., it is impacted by PTO, sickness, etc). It is why it is important that if you use this metric, you pair it with others or explain how you use it to your stakeholders. 

Time to Hire

• Definition: The time between when the candidate entered the process to when the candidate signed their offer letter.

• Why is this important? Similar to Time to Fill, in that this can be misunderstood, but one of the benefits to tracking this metric is that it can give you insight into your candidate experience. A key item to be aware of is that it is crucial for all candidates, even internal ones, to follow the process, as this can distort data.

Time in Stage

• Definition: The amount of time a candidate remains in a particular stage.

• Why is this important? By examining the amount of time a candidate spends in a specific stage, you can more easily diagnose bottlenecks in your process and then implement course-correcting behaviors.

Candidate Net Promoter Score (NPS):

• Definition: Usually assessed by surveys sent to the candidate throughout the interview process.

• Why is this important? By tracking the candidate’s perspective and perception, you can make changes to your employer brand as well as other programmatic elements in your TA team.

• Here are some sample questions you can candidate ask to measure your NPS:

  • Did you know about our company prior to applying?

  • Following the interview process, what is your opinion of our company?

  • Did your interviewers arrive on time?

  • Do you feel your interviewers were prepared and able to provide you with a better understanding of the role, company, and culture?

Automation & AI

It is impossible to escape how automation and AI play a role in companies of all sizes. At different sizes, though, automation and AI are used differently to create more efficient workflows and improve the candidate, hiring manager, and interviewer experience. Some of the suggestions might be obvious, but we have a few surprising connections for you as well.

What to expect next

Now that we’ve established a solid baseline, here are the upcoming articles in this series to look forward to:

• Article 2 will cover companies with under 1000 employees. It will discuss how these companies can approach building their TA functions, the data they look at, and other interesting nuances.

• Article 3 will cover companies with 1000 to 10,000 employees. These companies often find themselves in new waters as proven commodities and are likely considering becoming public companies.

• Article 4 and our conclusion will focus on companies with a workforce of 10,000+. These companies are built differently and require a different approach.