Recruiters stereotyped as postmen

“Hi! I shared 23 resumes. Hope someone suits the job.” is what is typically heard from an associate in the recruitment department. HR role in an organization is shared by a manager, consultant and assistant which is influenced by the scale of HR operations in a firm. A HR manager’s scope of work has neither been given due significance nor has it been addressed as value addition, ensuring cost efficiency in the organization. The role of a HR manager or consultant is stereotyped as those who deliver smart resumes onto the desks of various department heads.

This is not a complaint, but an effort to reorient towards the definition, scope of work and crucial role of a HR consultant. This is a reorientation exercise for HR consultants and their colleagues who set expectations around this role. To address this diverted orientation I would like to lay focus on the attitude and self-expectations of HR consultants and the lifecycle of the company.

Attitude of HR consultant and their peers

HR consultants are not mere messengers who deliver bio-data sheets from a prospective candidate to a vacancy holder. They don’t find ‘jobs for people, but people for jobs’ and hence have a more responsible task of filling the skill gaps rather than just announcing job openings. It is simple to accept and understand that HR consultants offer hiring solutions and not messenger services.

Upon freezing this thought, we need to delve upon what is their actual role and scope within an organization. Let me address this in a separate section below.

Company’s lifecycle

The involvement and role of a HR consultant grows and changes with the growth of the company. The consultant could be associated for an exclusive set of tasks, when HR needs arise or when a firm is in its early years of business operations. Eventually as a firm grows in size, scale and vision, the role of their HR consultant gets inclusive to an extent that hiring people for a client’s firm would be as good as hiring for one’s own firm.

Hiring people now would be motivated by getting the best talent for a given job and negotiating the best price to bring maximize value for an organization.

Keeping these two aspects on the table, I would like to mark these words in bold, “Recruiters are not mere postmen, they are valuable resources who grow with the firm.” This will help us to set smart and viable expectations from the HR fraternity as well as the ecosystem being built around it.