I Want You!…To Hire and Manage Your Talent Team!

November 20, 2012

This is the last post in my series about building a talent team…for now. In my previous post we decided whether or not you should implement a Talent Factory within your company (before that I explained what a talent factory is and discussed the incredible value it can add). I briefly touched on making the decision about who should hire and manage the talent team, but I think that subject needs more attention.

After all, choosing someone to be responsible for this task is extremely important. Not only do you need to make sure you get the right talent team in place, you also need to ensure they’re being managed effectively. Otherwise, it will not work out as well as you hope it will.

The responsibilities involved in hiring a talent team include:

  • Creating and posting a job description(s)
  • Fielding inbound resumes and outbound sourcing, if necessary
  • Interviewing and coordinating interviews with other stake holders
  • Extending offers and ensuring offer letters are signed and returned

The responsibilities involved in managing the team include:

  • Onboarding and training the new talent team
  • Assessing capacity and taking on new searches
  • Measuring and reporting performance and metrics
  • Performance reviews
  • Additional hiring and firing, if needed

First, and most obvious, do you have a VP or Director of HR? If so, then he or she should be tasked with building the talent team. But what if your company — like some of our portfolio companies — doesn’t have anyone in a human resource function? Who should then be in charge of the talent team? There are a few factors you should consider when making that decision:

  • Capacity: How many people or teams does this person already manage? Would they be able to effectively manage another team?
  • Function: Does it make sense to have the talent team report to the CTO or VP of Engineering? Probably not. Someone in a more operational role might make more sense. In a smaller company this may even be the CEO.
  • Location: Make sure the person managing the talent team is in the same location as the team you are hiring. It is important to have collaboration when setting up the team, especially at the beginning.
  • Past experience: Look at the experience of your executive team. Has anyone ever been in a HR or recruiting function? If so, it might make sense to have that person manage the team.
  • Current dynamic: Look at the way the teams are currently split up and let the talent team fall within an area where they would fit in well. In general, the administration and finance departments are a good place to start, whereas sales and engineering would be the last places to go to.

There are many options to look into when deciding who will hire and manage your talent team. The most important thing is always to make sure the person you choose is knowledgeable enough in the area and up to the challenge!

Senior Talent Manager, Engineering

<strong>Meghan Maher</strong> is Senior Talent Manager, Engineering, actively recruiting top talent for OpenView and its Portfolio Companies. Her tech background has helped OpenView hire for nearly 20 IT and engineering positions. Meghan began her career at AVID Technical Resources, where she was a Technical Recruiter for two years.