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The HR Chicken or Egg 

JUNE 1, 2020 BY DEBBY CLEMENT

You’re growing!  It’s fast, fun and frantic, but the daily nightmare of managing the cash is ever-present.  You need to grow and you need specialist skills like, yesterday.  

No longer can you “fudge” writing an employment contract or ‘wing it’ when trying to figure out if your new and very expensive sales hire is going to be your next superstar or sell you up the river – the risk is now too big.

 

So, you need HR, right?  They’ll implement process and with their deep HR knowledge, deliver against the demands of increased regulation and rising complexity in managing diversity, mental health and general demographic differences in the HR camp.

But can they do the hiring?   

Dynamically changing talent markets, digital sourcing and recruitment marketing is enough to keep a full-time recruiter fully occupied.  And with the cost of external recruiters spiralling and the risk of making mistakes growing at speed surely an internal recruiter trumps HR?   

HR or Recruitment?  OMG it’s enough to have you reaching for the Prozac!

So, you only have budget for one person … but you need HR & a Recruitment skillset … what do you do?   Can one person do both?  
  
A good HR person is a great insurance policy but they are not suited to picking up the phone 40 times a day after sifting 60 CV’s while arranging 20 interviews.

A good in-house recruiter can make recruiting easier, save thousands in fees but pay are easily distracted by fluffier HR activities and can become less effective over time falling back on agencies, which will cost you thousands!  

To be on top of your game in either camp requires dedicated application – have one person stretched across both camps and you are in danger of exposing your business to risk. 

Technology I hear you cry!  While actually crying!! 

Both HR and Recruiter camps are being wooed in technology terms with shiny tech platforms offering nirvana with AI and automation to save the hard work BUT when chosen to save time or improve internal efficiencies alone they only serve to dehumanise and alienate the very people they are trying to attract.   

Is there an answer?   Yes!  Forget chickens and eggs!   Think Cake and scoffing the lot! 

At Peopley we’re able to creatively “fractionalize” the needs of an SME to make hiring easier giving you “always on” coverage across the entire hiring spectrum.    

There are HR SME services provided by the likes of Peninsula for starters.

Now with the ease of remote workers and the portfolio careers you can find solutions to meet all your needs for HR and Recruitment on a part time basis.

You’ll never see this solution presented to you by a recruitment agency - they wouldn’t want to halve their fees for creative part time or fractional placement solutions!  

So … it doesn’t have to be a Chicken or egg situation …  think creatively and have both and that way you are covered no matter what cycle you are on.  

About Peopley

Peopley provide flexible Human Resources and Talent Management support for SMEs delivering people-centric services
Peopley has recently been shortlisted for Best Candidate Experience & Best Supplier Partnership against stiff competition from some of the UK’s biggest employers in the 2020 FIRM Awards (Forum for In-House Recruitment Managers).

About The Author

Debby built the recruitment tools for the world’s largest executive search franchise and has trained over 1,000 recruiters worldwide.  She was one of the first recruiters to recognise and adopt candidate sourcing techniques using social media in an 1100 global office network and has subsequently built the hiring operations for several founder-led technology & engineering businesses.  She is a Chartered member of the CIPD and a Solent LEP Skills Advisory Panel Member. 

Her interests lie at the intersection of technology, people and the environment, she is an advocate for Ocean Alliance and a regular Solent sailor.

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