The document summarizes interviews with HR leaders from Fortune 1000 companies about their recruiting strategies and pain points. Key findings include: - Most companies use a combination of internal and external recruiting, though some rely more heavily on one over the other depending on the industry. - Popular applicant tracking systems vary by industry but include Taleo, Brassring, and proprietary systems. LinkedIn is widely used to find passive candidates. - Top metrics companies want to improve include time to hire, quality of hire, and cost per hire. Quality of hire is difficult to define and measure. - Biggest pain points include developing employer brands, finding candidates with the right skills, and competition over talent. Companies are

1. Conversations with
Fortune 1000 HR leaders:
Recruiting Strategies and
Trends

2. Part Human, Part Technology
LineHire the sponsor of this research is an on-demand recruiting technology that delivers quality
candidates interested in your job openings. Learn more at www.LineHire.com.
HR executives, leaders and more specifically talent acquisition specialists
have been scratching their heads over how to answer questions such as:
· How to reduce hiring costs?
· How to measure quality of hire?
· How reduce time to hire?
We conducted 13 in-depth phone interviews with Human Resource leaders of
Fortune 1000 companies from across different industries. Our goal was to figure out what are
companies doing now, what are the looking to do in the future and how can tech solutions help
facilitate their efforts.
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3. Internal vs External
What are your overall recruiting strategies internal, external or both?
‘Do we build it or do we buy it?’ is a useless debate in
the 21st century because
you have to do both,”
- Boris Groysberg, Harvard Business School
9 out of 13 of our interviewees would agree with this statement
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4. Internal vs External
What are your overall recruiting strategies internal, external or both?
“We have internally sourced recruiters and I don’t believe outsourced recruiters
can find talent better suited for our company than we can” - 99.5% Internal
- The Global Talent Acquisition Leader of a west coast software programming company
“We use a combination internal and external, however we work very closely to do
a lot of RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) with IBM” - 60%-70% External
- Director of Talent Acquisition for an education company
“Combination, trying to get to 80% internal and 20% percent. Internal recruiters
understand the company better and have better understandings.” - 80% Internal 20%
External
-Vice President of Talent at a Beauty company
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5. What is your ATS?
Regardless of whether your team’s recruit process is internally or externally
focused, an applicant tracking system (ATS) is a must have for recruiters.
ATS & Industry
Taleo: Computer Software, Medical
Appliances, professional services, security
systems, aviation, videogames
Proprietary System: Professional
Services
Brassring: Software and Programming
Salesforce: Video games
Silk Road: Lifescience
iCIMS: Education
SABA: Beauty
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6. What is interesting is that most of
our HR leaders LOVE LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a great online resume
tool that allows recruiters to find
passive candidates who have the
skills they desire.
“I tell everyone to add me on
Linkedin, it is a tool you have to
use in today’s world” - Director of
Talent Acquisition for an Aviation
company
Views on Popular Hiring Tools
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7. Hiring Metrics by Industry
What hiring metrics are you looking to
improve the most?
Time to Hire: Video Games, Medical
Appliances, Recreational Goods
Stickiness: Computer Software
Customer Service: Professional Services
Professional Services: Computer Software
Performance: Video Games
Cost Per Hire: Life Science
Quality of Hire: Security Systems, Education,
Professional Services, Software and
Programming.
Growing Employees: Aviation
What Hiring Metrics Are You Looking to Improve The Most?
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8. So How Do You Measure “Quality of
Hire”
“I look at percentage of college students and interns; their value to the
organization and I ask if their is performance and trajectory better than
average.” - VP of Global Talent Acquisition at software & programming company
“We look at if the employee stayed for one year and use performance
reviews” - Director of Talent Acquisition at security company
“That is the question that everyone in talent acquisition is trying to figure out” -
Director of Talent Acquisition at education company
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9. What are your biggest pain points?
Employer brands have been a hot topic lately in the media and ironically a couple of our interviewees
discussed this with us as one of their pain points.
“ It can become difficult when you don’t have a strong employer brand because it is the foundation. We
bought glassdoor page because of authenticy.” - Director of Talent Acquisition at Security Company
“Finding skillsets and trying to convince them to come to the company despite the media.” - Director of
Talent Acquisition at Education Company
Other common pain points include:
● Finding great talent
● Competition
● Getting candidates to move
● Finding the right skill sets
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10. How do you describe your firm’s process for finding and qualifying new
candidates?
“Get more diverse pipeline, I’m a big twitter and linkedin guy. I am currently
looking into snapchat” - Director of Talent Acquisition at Aviation Company
“The organization identifies a need, then benchmarks with other companies, select
vendors and solutions to consider, and then we makes a decision” - Global Talent
Acquisition Leader at Software & Programming company.
“Pilot and metrics before rolling out further” - Vice President of Talent at Beauty Company
Qualifying and improving tools
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