Emma Mirrington discusses the Top 10 Mistakes at that recruiters make

1. The Top Ten Mistakes that In-house
Recruiters Make
Emma Mirrington

2. Introduction
About Me
• 15 years in talent acquisition
• Unilever
• Sky
• Mars
• Currently consulting/ interim in-
house
About The FIRM
• UK’s leading membership organisation for
in-house recruiters
• Formed 2009
• Now over 8000 members
• 70 countries
• Develop / Support / Inspire

3. The Top Ten Mistakes that I
In-House Recruiters have made
Make

4. No.1 - Wellbeing
• Direct sourcing has got a lot to answer for!
• Increasing issue of stress and resilience
• We put ourselves last
• Long hours / Lack of exercise /Diet
• Must ensure that we look after ourselves so that we can look after our
businesses

5. No. 2 – Planning and Organising
• SHL OPQ conducted by members of The FIRM
• Top 3 competencies which they felt were most important:
 Working with People
Planning and Organising
Delivering Results and Meeting Customer expectations
The results showed…

6. The FIRM’s OPQ results
COMPETENCIES

7. and moving swiftly on…

8. No. 3 – Stakeholder Management
• Communication, Communication, Communication
• Say what you’re going to do, then do what you said you were going to do
• Perfection is not always necessary
• SILENCE… is the killer of most stakeholder relationships
• Importance of water cooler updates
• Honesty is the best policy
• Use data to influence

9. No.4 – Tools and Equipment
• It’s not always what you’ve got but how you use it
15% of members still don’t have access to an ATS
• Job board agreements
• Employee Referral Schemes
• Linked In – the new gym membership?
• Focus on the basics and maximise them

10. No. 5 – Time Management
• Links back to previous OPQ results
• Every Recruiter’s PDP
• Key issues:
 Ineffective prioritisation
 Inability to say no
 Overplayed strength re responsiveness
 Requisition overload
 Nature of role/ out of hours means we just extend them
 Procrastination

11. “You get to decide where your time goes. You can
either spend it moving forward, or you can spend
it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don't
decide, others will decide for you.”

12. No. 6 – Supplier Management
• Poacher turned gamekeeper
• Be nice!
• Partnership approach
• Invest in the relationships – it pays dividends
• What goes around comes around
• 60% of us started agency side..

13. No. 7 – Inwardly Focussed
• Can’t see the wood for the trees
• My magic formula:
• The importance of external benchmarking
• You are not doing as badly as you think you are!
Inspiration
InnovationInsight

14. No. 8 – Metrics and Data
• Probably should be number two on the list!
• The only way to make informed decisions
• The FIRM’s Annual Membership Survey
 2012 - 55% of respondents didn’t track candidate source
 2014 - 17% didn’t track candidate source
• Let down by our ATS?
• User error?
• We can still do better!

15. No. 9 – Too focussed on what's
not working
• Take some time out to review progress
• Celebrate success
• Manage your internal brand
• Ensure you watch each other’s back
• One HR approach

16. No. 10 – Leaving the team behind
(leaders only)
• Not giving enough context
• Too focussed on the end goal
• Not showing the team they care
• Not listening to feedback
• Why, What, When and How

17. 1. Wellbeing
2. Planning and Organising
3. Stakeholder Management
4. Tools and Equipment
5. Time Management
6. Supplier Management
7. Inwardly Focussed
8. Metrics and Data
9. Too focussed on what’s not working
10. Leaving the team behind (leaders)
The Top Ten Mistakes - recap

18. Any Questions?

19. GET IN TOUCH:
emma@thefirm-network.com
07855 312314
@emmamirrington
www.thefirm-network.com