13th November 2024
The Recruitment Type Indicator (RTI)
Since the dawn of time, we have found ways to describe and categorise people. From the four temperaments of the Ancient civilizations – sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic – to the latest advances in psychology, there’s a constant quest to explain people in a simple model. Just as people have ‘personality types’ based on preferences, so does your organisation’s approach to the recruitment of people. At Generator Talent we’ve developed the Recruitment Type Indicator or RTI to help build perspective and to get better in finding great people. We find it very useful in helping clients understand and sometimes reset their strategy and approach to recruitment.
How the Recruitment Type Indicator Works
With just two questions we can categorise your organisation’s preferred approach to recruitment. From this, we can you help do what you are doing better and, as importantly, think about how you might flex your approach to improve your strategy, processes, and recruitment performance.
Before we get into the diagnosis, it is important to note that your organisation’s recruitment ‘type’ is just like a personality type; it is an indicator of preferences, not a measure of skill or performance, e.g., I might prefer golf to tennis, but that doesn’t mean I’m any good at golf! And, as the RTI is based on just two questions, it is not overly complex. Nonetheless, the RTI will be a helpful tool in your recruitment strategy including planning, execution, and evaluation. More on that later.
When you answer the diagnosis questions, don’t worry about degrees on a scale, just put yourself at one of the two ends of the scale when you respond. Now, get a blank piece of paper in front of you and let’s go.
Recruitment Type Indicator Question 1
The first question revolves around the orientation of your recruitment activity. Is your organisation more reactive or proactive in its approach to recruitment? Think of this first question as the Y axis. If, more often than not, the reason you recruit for a role is when someone has left or is planning to leave, put yourself on the at the bottom end of the scale. If you are in the market for talent all the time and will hire great people just to get them on board, even if you don’t have an open role, put yourself at the top end of the scale.
Recruitment Type Indicator Question 2
The second question is focussed on how you measure the success of your recruitment process and outcomes. Are you more focused on cost and efficiency or standards and quality? Think of this as the X axis. Put yourself at the left end of the scale if the primary measures of your process and outcomes are cost & efficiency, e.g., cost per hire, time to fill etc. And put yourself at the right end of the scale if the primary measures of your process and outcomes are against standards & quality e.g. success in role, retention of new hires, capability, bench strength, etc.
Understanding Your Recruitment Type
Based on the answers to these two questions you will be one of four Recruitment Types.
The Accountant: Headcount is critical, controls are in place (cost / process PSAs, RPOs) and the measures of performance we look at first and most often are things like cost per hire and time to fill. Recruitment is a transaction, our process is well defined, and we require it to be followed to ensure the outcome is delivered on time, and on budget. The Accountant Type works best where your organisation has a strong employment proposition and there is a good supply of skilled people in the market.
The Trader: We are always in the market for people, and we need to keep an eye on all our costs. We are constantly on the lookout for talent, engaging with our network of contacts and those recruiters we trust, to get a ‘deal’ on a great person at a good price. The Trader Type works best in organisations that are highly reliant on people capability, have some cost constraints but have to move fast to secure the best talent when they are available.
The Surgeon: We need to be regarded as the best organisation in our industry so when we recruit we only want the best. We can’t afford to make hiring mistakes so we’re prepared to spend the time (and money) until we find the right person. The Surgeon Type works well in organisations staffed with specialists who tend to hold long tenure in positions and / or where there is a very limited supply of talent with the right skills.
The Investor: Our business can only grow through people and we are always in the market for great talent. We are willing to tolerate some extra expense in recruiting and the odd hiring fail rather than face the opportunity cost of not securing and developing new business. The Investor Type works well in organisations with a profitable and/or high growth outlook, and where there is high competition for the best talent.
No sure if you’ve got it right? To confirm your type, look at the type diagonally opposite, if that sounds nothing like your organisation’s most common approach to recruitment then you’ve probably got it right.
Next Steps
So, now that we know our organisation’s recruitment type, what do we do?
First things first, just as in ‘people-type’ theory, there is no right or wrong recruitment type. All four types have pros and cons. In the first instance, the HR and Talent Acquisition teams need to get together and talk about type and performance. There are some key questions to discuss: Is this our type? Is this what we need? What strengths about our type do we need to enhance? If it’s a big organisation, then the question also becomes Do we need to have a different recruitment type for certain divisions or functions?
The next step is to ensure the rest of the organisation is aligned with the recruitment type and accepts the consequences of the type as well as the upside. Depending on your organisation this might be easier said than done e.g. The Accountant Organisation with ‘rogue managers’ who want to hire ‘off panel’ or Investor Organisation with ‘rogue managers’ who refuse to commit to the time or money to engage fully to get the best person.
Finally, it is important to align with your external recruitment partners. Quality partners will be able to respond to your type and therefore your strategy, and, if they are quality partners and they can’t work to your type, they will say so.
Should we change or flex our approach to recruitment?
The answer is, “it depends”. Big organisations are essentially lots of little organisations put together and one size will not fit all. Therefore, organisations need to learn how to flex their style when the time comes.
In ‘people-type’ theory, if we want to become better we need to look at our opposite type and explore that domain e.g. someone who prefers facts and details might explore what it means to leverage their intuition or gut feel. Using our model as an example, an Accountant type organisation would have to ask what it would take to bring on great people when there isn’t a vacancy. Whereas an Investor type might recognise when they might need to recruit to a budget and/or deal with the loss of freedom that comes with a Preferred Supplier Agreement (PSA).
In Summary
Hopefully we’ve introduced you to a handy tool that will give you pause for thought on your approach to bringing talent into your organisation. It’s a simple tool because recruitment is a simple activity. However, ‘simple ain’t easy’. Doing recruitment well is hard work so it pays to take the time to consider how you are going about it.
Drop us a line if you want to discuss how the RTI can help you build and maintain an effective recruitment strategy.
Justin Miles
Categories: Uncategorised
