Is your talent acquisition team a strategic function?
This week on the show it delighted us to speak with Heidi Wassini. A positive advocate and sponsor for the value delivered by recruitment and talent acquisition functions.
As an established HR professional, it was interesting to hear how Heidi started her career. As an English-Spanish translator before taking her first role in recruitment in 2007. After deciding to “stop and figure out what I want to do rather than following the career path I was on”. How she “didn’t feel my career was going fast enough”.
We fast-forward to present day and learn how Heidi’s experiences have led her to believe
“There are very few people that see recruiting as a professional path. Which is a missed opportunity because I consider it to be the centre of HR and it is a business unit that helps you earn or save money.”
She tells us “when I work with Talent Acquisition, I utilise everything we have in the company.” From employee engagement, exit interviews, talent assessment and development, leadership programmes. Then you can “take all that information and put it into your people strategy and then combine that with your overall business strategy.”
Time, Quality and Cost
Challenging businesses and hiring managers’ perception of recruitment and talent acquisition is an ongoing task. Heidi advises to
“Start talking business and they will listen to you.”
Through setting expectations such as, “if I can hire you a top performer at a faster rate… you will make a lot more money.” In a last message to all, she tells us “in-house recruitment can do it way faster, cheaper and with higher quality”.
If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Heidi talk about:
- The value of a pre-boarding process
- Positively challenging hiring managers
- Using the time, quality, and cost matrix
- The benefits of personality testing for recruitment
- Making talent acquisition a profit centre
