The TA MBA
The Freedom Framework
SYSTEMS ARE THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
When you start looking at your recruiting function as a collection of integrated systems, everything changes.
The biggest mistake you can make though is to believe that by optimizing the parts of your function individually with “point solutions”, it will improve the function overall.
It’s simply not true.
Let’s unpack this idea next.
Thanks again for continuing with me on this journey. I promise I’m going to share some game-changing solutions that will help you turn your reactive function into a high-performing mega best. the overwhelm you might be feeling as a recruiting leader.
But before we do that, it’s important that I drive home one last point. We have to identify our enemies.
These enemies are what hold us back. They waste our time. They trip us up. They lie to us. In the end, they cause the overwhelm. They prevent us from being proactive. They stop us from being our best selves.
Perhaps the term enemy is a little dramatic. Heck, what I call an enemy, someone else might call a “partner”.
You see, it’s not the busyness that causes our overwhelm. It’s not the chaos that makes us tired. It’s not
It’s the things that create the busyness and the chaos. Those are the enemies.
And those are the things that we must design for.
Think of your job, not as a firefighter. But rather as a fire preventor.
Read that again. Like five times.
You’re a fire preventer. Not a firefighter.
So get into the mindset of designing preventative measures in your recruiting functino.
Let me give you just two examples and this should be a crystal clear concept.
The Software Sales Machine
One of my least favorite enemies is what I like to call “The Software Sales Machine”.
The software sales machine is the combination of all 5,000 HR technology companies who disrupt your inbox, put exagerated claims in your head and chronically over promise and underdeliver.
So it’s not that 21 year old Sales Development Rep who is sending you (and everyone else in their CRM) an automated 6 email sequence. He is not your enemy.
Nor is it the marketers that sit behind them crafting ridiculous claims about some customer who went from an 850 day time-to-fill down to 30 seconds using their software.
And it’s not the conference companies who beg you to come to their events in San Diego in the dead of winter so you can listen to the same speakers who also host podcasts and write blogs but don’t actually practice Talent Acquisition.
It’s not those individuals who are your enemy.
It’s the insanity of phone calls, emails, and marketing messages that inundate your inbox, your voicemail and your field of view making it difficult for you to focus.
This is a big contributor to your overwhelm.
But what are you doing about it?
For this enemy — the software sales machine — we need a system to keep it at bay. To make it more manageable. To create an environment where WE are on offense and THEY are on defense. It’s a system where WE control what we see and when. Where we control the structure of the demo. And where we hold them accountable for driving the ROI they promised.
These systems are the hallmark of a forward leaning function.
I’ll give you one more, then I’m going to tell you more about the overall system.
You’re also not just creating one system for solving this problem. With each system you create, you’re creating a system of systems. Or said another way — you’re creating a capability to proactively manage the operations of your function. So no matter what the problem is…there’s likely a system that can fix it.
So let’s look at some of them. Again, it’s important to know who or what they are because “they” are what prevent us from running a (system centric) forward-leaning recruiting function.
The enemy isn’t the person, it’s the problem that person has. The enemy isn’t the software vendor, it’s the problem they create when they don’t understand our environment. The enemy isn’t our business culture. It’s the problem
Our bosses who ask for custom data points to prove something to some executive.
Against their best intentions, our bosses think they’re doing a good deed by
So we must design a system to keep our bosses informed.
Okay, that’s enough enemies for now. You might have more. If you do, I’d recommend you use the same framework to identify them, call out what the enemy is and identify the system you need to build to get the enemy under control.
Enemies are things that are out of our control. Things that cause us to be reactive.
Our goal is to play offense. Not defense. To be proactive. Not reactive. We can’t do these things if we don’t have systems in place.
So we need to define our uncontrollables and fully control all the other things in our function that we can control.
It’s about building controllable systems that interconnect and lead you from playing defense to playing offense.
But the one thing we can control is OURSELVES and our PLAN.
This needs to be about using systems to control the uncontrollable.
For example, you having a hard time finding software developers so you contract with a couple recruitment firms to find you the talent. That’s a point solution because it only solves one problem at one moment in time.
But maybe what you should be doing is creating a capability in your function to attract, source and close high-performing developers. That’s more of a systemic approach.
We leaders build these point solutions all over our recruiting function:
When we think chat bots are going to talk to our candidates.
When we think a new career site is going to solve our applicant flow problems.
When we think a Linkedin recruiter seat is going to make an average recruiter a talent hunter.
You see in a busy recruiting function, problems are typically not singular. They’re systemic. So solving problem A, doesn’t also solve Problems B and C.
You can’t tweak your problems one at a time. You have to think about them all at once. All together. Think of your recruiting function as one living, breathing system.
Look, we all want to be thought of as a great leader, a great boss, and a great business partner. We want to feel like we have control over our function. But, over the course of a year, sh*t happens! The days go by so fast! Most of us don’t even look at the goals we set at the beginning of the year.
You DO have goals, don’t you?
Well, let’s assume you do.
At some point during the year, you look at those goals and realize that you didn’t start half of them. So now you have the list of things you planned to do and a new list of things that somehow emerged while your head was down putting out fires.
And while the project work is piling up, you get so busy that you start having a hard time meeting with your direct reports regularly to have meaningful coaching conversations.
I call these “one-on-ones”. You might call them something different. Today — I don’t like to miss them. They’re part of my “Meeting System”. I do them every week with all my direct reports. But before I got my act together, I let my work get in the way and they were sporadically done, if at all.
I understand though. Most of us are “working managers.”
We have a full plate of requisitions, meetings and projects. So we struggle to find time to get our own stuff done, let alone cultivate the careers of others. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way. You just need a “People System”.
Now, if you don’t have a Meeting System or a People System, I’m going to make one more assumption.
This is important.
If you’re struggling to find time to get projects done and spend meaningful coaching time with your direct reports…I would also guess that you’re lacking a clear, written, and communicated strategy that will help you guide your team (and your boss) in the right direction, right?
Okay, so I’ve mentioned a couple “systems” now. But I haven’t mentioned what they are. Regardless, you’re probably starting to get the hint that systems are important to running your talent acquisition function.
I believe this to be true.
If you don’t have systems, don’t worry. I’ve been there. In fact, that’s why I’m sharing this information with you. It’s because my coach shared it with me when he gave me that very direct and painful feedback.
And he was right. I didn’t have systems. As a result…
But you need to play offense, not defense. And…you need to put systems in place that make your world more stable and predictable…so you can easily handle the times when unpredictability rears its ugly head.
Make sense? You need systems.