How to Refresh Recruiting

It's a great time to be in recruiting—employers are bullish on hiring, and technology is making it easier to source talent while eliminating mundane tasks. But it's also a challenging time, marked by a growing skills gap and an increase in job-hopping. The heated competition for top candidates has led to major investments in employer branding, recruitment marketing and improving the candidate experience.

The Recruiter's Handbook: A Complete Guide for Sourcing, Engaging, and Selecting the Best Talent (SHRM, 2018), written by Sharlyn Lauby, SHRM-SCP, provides a blueprint for managing your recruiting and hiring process. Its grounded insights, tips from respected experts and practitioners, and case studies serve as a road map for recruiters, hiring managers and anyone else involved in developing or executing the organization's talent strategy.

Lauby is an author, writer, speaker and consultant. She is president of ITM Group Inc., a consulting firm that focuses on developing training solutions that engage and retain talent in the workplace. She is well-known for her work on HR Bartender, a friendly place to talk about workplace issues. She is also the author of Manager Onboarding: 5 Steps for Setting New Leaders Up for Success (SHRM, 2016), available in the SHRMStore.

Lauby discussed her book with the HR Magazine Book Blog.

Who is this book written for and why?

To answer that question, I have to tell you a story. Years ago, my boss asked me to lead the recruiting function for the company. The only real exposure I had to recruiting was interviewing, which, I hate to admit, I thought was pretty boring. It wasn't until I actually took the role that I realized how complex recruiting was and the tremendous amount of strategy it takes to have an excellent recruiting process.

So The Recruiter's Handbook is the book that I wished I had those many years ago. Of course, it's been updated to include the new technologies and techniques. But the book takes recruiters at all levels through the entire talent acquisition process. It can even be a good resource for hiring managers to help them work better with the recruiting team.

What is the difference between recruiting and talent acquisition, and do you cover both in the book?

The book covers both talent acquisition and recruiting. Talent acquisition is about finding the best talent, when the organization needs it, within the budget. Talent is a competitive advantage for many organizations, and talent acquisition professionals are tasked with finding the best. But we also need to realize that we don't get a blank checkbook when it comes to sourcing talent,

which is why it's critical to have a recruiting strategy. I view recruiting as a part of talent acquisition. It's about creating a pipeline of interest in the company and the company's jobs.

What are some of the ways in which the recruiter's role is changing?

Technology is bringing a whole new dimension to a recruiter's role. It's all good, but it does mean staying on top of techniques and trends. There are new platforms like applicant tracking systems and, of course, chatbots. Then there are social platforms and mobile recruiting.

Recruiters have a real opportunity to use technology to their advantage so they can spend time where they are most effective—having human interactions like working with hiring managers and interviewing candidates.

What are some of the most useful things you learned while writing this book?

One of the things I love about this book are the tips at the end of each chapter from CEOs, HR pros, and recruiters about how they recruit. Whether the company is big or small, public or private, local or global, these professionals provided many valuable tips and strategies.

Finding the best talent is about building relationships. Sharing these tips from other professionals was like having a small networking session about recruiting.

Roy Maurer is an online writer/editor for SHRM who focuses on talent acquisition.