How to find the right career!
Internal recruiters need redeployment skills
The recession is likely to speed up the evolution of the internal recruiter’s role to one of career counselor, says Martin Warren.
Warren, a principal consultant at Inside Job, says there are good opportunities now for internal recruiters to gain new skills and find different ways to add value to their organisations.
One specific area they should look into is internal redeployment, he says.
In the current downturn employers are being more creative than in previous recessions about reducing their costs, he notes. “Rather than downsizing, redeploying is certainly a good way to do that. It creates a workforce that is flexible and capable of managing future needs. Internal recruiters have a really critical role to play in being part of that redeployment process.”
Internal recruiters, he says, should consider what skills they need to gain or improve to become involved with redeployment, as organisations are “generally not that good at it”.
Often they don’t have a clear strategy – “it tends to be really ad hoc, with no premeditated plan as to how to go about it and what the desired outcome is”, he says – and communication of the process is poorly handled.
“So that’s where recruiters can certainly come in and play an important role. What we’re starting to see in large organisations is that internal recruiters are getting involved in internal mobility and redeployment, and starting to gain skills in this area.”
Two or three employers he knows of are moving their internal recruitment people to a redeployment function, and “over the coming months it will be something that will become even more critical”.
Redeployment has traditionally been handled by HR, Warren says, but recruiters are in a good position to assist because they understand the business and the skills employees have.
What they must learn in addition to that, he says, is “what redeployment actually is. How do we roll it out; how does it work? What does it look like? How do we actually assess the capabilities of our staff for redeployment?”
As well, internal recruiters must be able to identify gaps in terms of future skill needs. “That’s a new skill that internal recruiters – or recruiters in general – don’t really apply.”
Another area likely to come to the fore is counseling, Warren says. Recruiters will need to know how to counsel staff going through redeployment – “because that’s a stressful
situation, especially if there’s a lot of change happening within the organisation”.
Finally, influencing and persuading is another important skill that good recruiters generally have, but it will be more important in a redeployment environment, he says.
Career advisors
Warren says the role of the recruiter today is changing from one of simply filling jobs or requisitions, to becoming a “case manager” in terms of redeployment efforts.
But recruiters also need to become career advisors, he says. “That is, working with organisations and their staff to help them actually develop roles for the future.
“So, I really see this as a good opportunity for internal recruiters to gain some new skills, but most importantly add real value to organisations and the staff within them, in the difficult times that we’re facing today.”
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