The Changing Role of the Corporate Recruiter

May 12, 2011

OpenView Labs currently has two full-time recruiters on board (including myself), who recruit for our firm and for the companies OpenView Venture Partners has invested in. We consider ourselves corporate recruiters who are an extension of our expansion stage portfolio companies.

This week we launched a search for a third recruiter for OpenView Labs (if you happen to know a rockstar corporate recruiter, please pass along our job posting!), and several of our portfolio companies have recently added or are looking to add corporate recruiters to their growing teams.

So it was timely that I came across an article this week discussing the changing role of the corporate recruiter on ERE. According to this article, three recurring corporate recruitment trends, based on the CEO perspective and their needs of their corporate recruiters, are:

Corporate recruiters are salespeople. We are not going to strong-arm someone into joining the companies we work for, but when we are trying to recruit A-players, we must remember that they are likely looking at several options. We need to be more strategic, have a keen business orientation, and the ability to sell prospective employees on the company. To do this, recruiters need to understand the corporate culture, business goals, and talent needs of the company in order for it to attract the right employees.

The corporate recruiter’s role is being elevated to talent management.  The business need to both recruit and retain employees is growing exponentially, and therefore the skills and experience of a talent manager are critical when scaling a business. Recruiters will be judged on who they invite to the corporate front door and how employees they recruit contribute to the company.

Developing new data analytics is required. Cost-based data (how recruiters show their value and progress) is quickly being replaced with quality-based cost analytics. The percentage of new hires who are performing at or above average (based on peer review) and how many are still with the company after one year are now better indications of a recruiter’s success than the cost to hire X number of employees. The new data should reflect how the performance of new hires and their longevity with the company supports business growth strategies.

VP, Human Capital

<strong>Diana Martz</strong> is Vice President, Human Capital at<a href="http://www.ta.com/">TA Associates</a>. She was previously the Director of Talent at OpenView.