The organization of a recruiting team can greatly affect focus, communication, and the rapport with clients. Let’s dissect the two alternatives you are evaluating and explore the effects, problems, and outcomes that are linked to each.

Project-based recruiting vs. specialisation: Which model suits your team?

Choice 1: Project-Based Recruiting Team   

In this model, every recruiter takes care of the full recruiting process, from the beginning to the end, for a particular project or client. This indicates that a recruiter would undertake tasks such as:

• Conversing with the client to secure the brief
• Proactively seeking candidates
• Screening and interviewing
• Settling terms and contract conditions
• Coordinating the client relationship throughout the entire process

Impacts

1. Complete Understanding

Recruiters get a full view of the client’s needs and the recruitment process, leading to more informed hiring choices. By being involved from the brief stage to the final contract, they keep themselves fully engaged and in charge.   

Continuing to be engaged throughout helps recruiters foster a close relationship with clients, making communication more fluid and keeping expectations consistent.   

2. Simplified Management

When a single recruiter is in charge of everything, it’s easier to oversee progress and responsibilities. They can alter their tactics based on what proves effective, which simplifies the adjustment of methods.

3. Personalized Approach

As recruiters collaborate closely with a client throughout the process, they can adjust their methods to align more closely with the client’s specific needs and culture, resulting in better-fitting hires.

Difficulties

1. Surplus of Skills

The extensive range of activities might overwhelm recruiters. They might be great at finding candidates but struggle with contract talks, or the other way around. There are moments when zeroing in on one area increases quality and speed, but this structure does not support that.   

When there are a significant number of hires and tough positions, this method may result in delays. When a recruiter is tasked with so many duties, they can become a bottleneck, especially while balancing several projects.   

2. Challenging to Scale

This strategy can also make it harder to expand within larger companies or during swift growth, since individual recruiters juggling multiple clients and tasks can cause inconsistency and exhaustion. 

Choice 2: Recruiting Team Grounded in the Value Chain

In this setup, distinct team members emphasize specific steps of the recruiting process. Such as: 

• Sourcing Team: Aims at discovering and engaging with candidates. 
• The process of interviewing and assessment is under the management of the Recruiting Team. 
• Contract/Client Management Team: Facilitates offer negotiations and handles the management of contracts. 

Impacts

Every team member turns into an expert in their field of focus, thus enhancing the overall quality of work. A sourcing guru can spend all their time on finding the best candidates, while a negotiation guru can direct their attention to completing deals. 

This division permits a more swift processing of candidates. While one team focuses on sourcing, another can take on interviewing or contract management, meaning that several stages of the process can unfold at the same time, thereby reducing the time-to-hire. 

This technique scales appropriately, particularly in sizable organizations or when there is a necessity to hire swiftly. Onboarding new team members into a specific role (such as sourcing or interviewing) is simpler than training them throughout the entire recruitment cycle. 

Clear Accountability in Each Stage: Since each team handles a specific part of the process, performance metrics can be clearly attributed to each segment. When there is a bottleneck in sourcing, it is easier to spot and remedy. 

Challenges 

1. Disconnected Process and Communication

Because several teams oversee distinct elements, there can be voids or miscommunications throughout the stages. Without careful management, this might cause a disconnection between the client's requirements and the deliverables from the recruiters. 

Since the process is divided, team members may not engage thoroughly with clients. This might cause a lack of clarity regarding client needs or culture, which results in less accurate matches. 

2. Lower Ownership of the Process

Within a segmented value chain, recruiters can feel a decreased sense of ownership regarding the hiring result, as they only oversee one aspect of the process. This could reduce overall motivation or job satisfaction for some team members who prefer seeing the full recruitment lifecycle. 

3. Additional Coordination Needed

This system requires extensive coordination among the various teams. It is essential for handovers between sourcing, recruiting, and contract management to be effortless, which complicates the workflow. 

What Selection to Go With? 

The most suitable alternative significantly relies on the distinct needs of your organization, your customer base, and the scope of your hiring operations. Here are several aspects to take into account: 

Option 1: A Project-Based Team is most appropriate if: 

• Your recruiting team handles highly specialized roles that require a deep understanding of the client’s business and needs. 
• You have fewer or more controllable projects, which lets recruiters fully take charge of the process without being overwhelmed. 
• Building strong relationships with clients is critical to the success of your business. 
• Flexibility and customization are more important than high-volume efficiency. 

Option 2: A Team Centered on the Value Chain is most appropriate if: 

• You are required to swiftly scale up recruitment efforts, either due to fast expansion or considerable client needs. 
• The recruitment process has to be highly effective, with distinctly defined duties and knowledge in each sector. 
• You possess a significant volume of hires and must expedite the process by functioning in parallel rather than in sequence. 
• Your team's output will be enhanced through specialization, which lets experts focus on their best skills. 

Hybrid Approach

Some organizations may benefit from a hybrid approach. For example, recruiters could be assigned to specific clients or projects but work with specialized teams for certain tasks. A recruiter might handle the client relationship and interviews but rely on a separate team for sourcing or contract negotiation. This can integrate the strengths of both worlds—solid client relationships and specialization.

Conclusion

Identifying the right arrangement for your recruiting team is based on balancing client needs, recruiter proficiency, the volume of hiring, and the desired pace of the process. Whereas Option 2 introduces efficiency and scalability, Option 1 enables personalization and ownership. Each alternative offers its benefits, and the correct selection will hinge on the specific objectives and situation of your recruiting operations. 

Do you lean more toward one approach or are you considering implementing a hybrid model?