3 Simple Questions to Boost Recruiter Productivity

Googles CEO, Sundar Pichai, is rolling out a new strategy he hopes will not only boost productivity among his employees, but foster a stronger sense of community and togetherness. Called “Simple Speed,” Google employees will take surveys about three questions about working at the company beginning in August. Then, executives will read the responses and contact specific employees if they think their answers include anything that the company can take away and incorporate into policies. What are the questions?

• What would help you work with greater clarity and efficiency to serve our users and customers?
• Where should we remove speed bumps to get better results faster?
• How do we eliminate waste and stay entrepreneurial and focused as we grow?

Let’s talk about each one.

What would help you work with greater clarity and efficiency to serve our users and customers?

This is such a great first question for recruiters.

So many times, recruiters are pulled in a thousand directions and never move toward productivity as a result. If the goal for your talent organization is to hire top talent and please your internal or external client, then you must take the time to listen to what would give your

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Clarity is one of the foundations of why I created Sprint Recruiting. Using points and WIP limits in recruiting allow recruiters to have a clear definition of success at the beginning of the sprint. The prioritization allows them to plan their week and increase efficiency by focusing on those roles most important to the client.

Prior to implementing Sprint Recruiting, I found it hard to balance what should be done with what needed to be done.  Part of me was driven by my over-achiever mindset and wanted to prove I could do all things like a superman. The other part of me was driven by the value I placed on the relationships I had developed with my hiring managers.  Both drove me to succeed but I did not have a clear way to chart my ultimate destination.

Where should we remove speed bumps to get better results faster?

I adapted the daily standup meetings from the AGILE methodology when I created Sprint Recruiting. Whether it’s a daily or an every other day meeting, the sole purpose of the standup for recruiters is to provide an update on progress made and any obstacles.

This meeting will focus on Sprint Roles first then a general update. The agenda is always the same:

1. What progress was made since the last meeting?
2. What are your commitments over the next two days?
3. Where do you need help?
4. What are your obstacles?

Updates should be no more than five minutes long. The goal of the meeting is brevity, efficiency and accountability. Larger topic discussions will be held offline or in another meeting.

The key to this increasing productivity is that leaders can hear where recruiters are struggling and work to remove obstacles. In typical recruiting organizations, obstacles are not discussed in a regular pattern and often brought up when it’s too late to fix. The recruiter suffers in productivity and the talent organization suffers with a poor client experience.

The other benefit with the daily standup with the agenda above is that it becomes routine in that recruiters begin thinking daily about what obstacles are preventing success. The feedback loop is shortened and iteration toward success begins. It’s a lot more efficient and fun doing it the Sprint Recruiting way than it was (at least for me) in the more traditional recruiting method.

How do we eliminate waste and stay entrepreneurial and focused as we grow?

Whether you’re a full-time recruiter or working independently, you might be wondering how to improve your recruiting efforts so you can more accurately hire the right talent. One of the most frustrating parts of recruiting is the sometimes laborious recruiting process that loses candidates, prolongs the process and creates havoc in the candidate experience. There are many ways to make your hiring process more efficient, and they will all depend on the unique variables of your recruiting team. Creating the right hiring workflows can help your most qualified candidates and recruiters achieve their hiring goals more effectively.

Most Talent Organizations view technology as a spend versus an investment. The rate of advances in recruiting technology over the last four years is just short of mind-blowing but unfortunately, only the top 10% of talent organizations embrace and spend on such solutions. If you really want to drive efficiency, why wouldn’t you want to have AI or other tech to handle some of the mundane processes so your recruiters can focus more on the human elements of the process?

When exploring possible tech solutions, I always look for and stress the efficiencies gained by such a solution. If I want to implement an AI to help engage candidates and move them through the process, I need to measure the amount of time recruiters would have back to dedicate to engaging hiring managers or further evaluating top talent in the industry. This is a soft costs but if unmeasured, will further the notion that you’re “spending” money versus “investing” in your talent process.

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I like the three questions Google will use to iterate their productivity. It’s a great call to action for all organizations to adopt. With the current talent market challenges, it’s important that Talent Leaders focus on how to make the process more efficient by focusing on how to make their recruiters more engaged, focused and efficient.

What would be your advice to other TA leaders?