What does a director of recruiting do?

Recruitment is undoubtedly one of the most challenging areas of the HR department’s daily work. Given the changed expectations of employees as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the extremely dynamic competition in the market (outdoing each other in providing better and better benefits and perks for the employed) as well as the rapidly changing business reality (technological and technical advances), acquiring people with the greatest potential has become a real challenge. The director of recruiting is responsible for facing it daily with the expectations and needs of the organization in mind. What are the other responsibilities of a person?

Director of recruiting – table of contents:

1. What does a director of recruiting do?
2. Additional responsibilities of a director of recruiting
3. What should a director of recruiting be like?
4. Director of recruiting-summary

What does a director of recruiting do?

The main task of the directors of recruiting is to diagnose the organization’s needs in terms of attracting new employees. Such evaluation is based on their observation as well as requests made by managers of individual departments/teams to hire new people or to find an employee for a vacated position. They are responsible for conducting recruitment processes in such a way that it translates into the growth of the company, but at the same time does not cause negative changes in the organizational culture or the way the company operates (pursuing the main goal).

The directors work closely with the HR department and the talent acquisition specialists or HR specialists responsible for screening resumes received, contacting potential candidates or arranging recruitment interviews. In some companies, they may even have a team dedicated only to recruitment and managing their daily work. They may also stay in contact with the employment agency contracted to find a person for a specific position.

Additional responsibilities of a director of recruiting

However, let’s note that the recruitment directors do not only oversee the processes conducted by the HR department or an external agency for acquiring new employees. They are also in charge of developing a recruitment policy, in which they determine the most effective methods and channels for reaching the best talent on the market. The creation of such a document requires them to have an excellent understanding of the most important trends in the labor market, the potential expectations of candidates (regarding salaries, development benefits, etc.) as well as the daily working conditions offered by the competition.

Only great knowledge of these issues together with the apparent ability to anticipate the needs of employees (even when they come from different generations), will allow you to design recruitment processes in a way that ensures the desired effect – attracting people with the greatest potential to the company.

As part of the development and implementation of the recruitment policy, the director in charge of this area must also ensure that the way of executing recruitment stays within the company’s vision, mission and values, and demonstrates the organizational culture that characterizes it.

However, the preparation of standards, methods as well as channels for attracting candidates does not end there – the director’s duties will also include the constant evaluation of the results achieved in this regard, along with looking for areas to improve. A person in this position may also become involved in employer branding activities (e.g. take part in the development of a recruitment campaign, taking care to ensure a consistent image of the company as an employer in the eyes of potential candidates).

What should a director of recruiting be like?

A person seeking to become a director of recruiting should undoubtedly be distinguished by previous experience in actively searching for candidates (sourcing) and conducting recruitment processes within the full employee lifecycle (from resume screening to onboarding to termination). This is because knowledge of the issues and challenges involved is necessary to develop the right strategy for the operation.

A recruitment director should also have highly developed interpersonal skills, demonstrate the ability to empathize as well as ease of working in a rapidly changing environment. Also, a recruitment director should think analytically, draw inferences, perform evaluations of existing processes and decide on the introduction of possible corrective measures.

Also, what comes in handy in this role is the ability to operate ATS systems which greatly automate the work of HR departments, including the recruitment director. This is because information about current recruitments, data of candidates, colleagues and business partners, as well as all documentation (resumes, cover letters, etc.) reside in one place. The ATS Frimbee system also has kanban boards to manage HR projects. It enables you to: divide tasks, assign them to individual team members, set statuses and priorities, and monitor the recruitment budget.

Director of recruiting – summary

There is no denying that the recruitment director now plays one of the most crucial roles in a company by ensuring that the search and acquisition processes carried out for new employees bring the expected results. Awareness of the importance of this role in the organization is the result of thinking of employees (their experience, skills, personality traits, etc.) as a driving force leading to the success of the company, as well as a belief in the need for continuous improvement of recruitment processes. After all, only properly conducted sourcing, selection or interviewing of a candidate will make attracting people with above-average skills possible.

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