On the Front Lines: Recruiting

Recruiting – that’s easy. You just talk to people and then ask them if they want a job, right? Before I attended ‘On the Front Lines’ (OTFL) with Recruiting, that’s what I thought the team’s job entailed (no offense) – they made a few phone calls, interviewed a couple of people and then called it a day. Rinse and repeat. And this seemed to be a common misconception about Recruiting’s responsibilities because it was one of the very first things that was addressed during OTFL. And the Recruiting team was happy to do so. “I was excited to show how much preparation and coordination goes into recruiting,” said Becca Gralka, Recruiting Coordinator. “People only get to see part of the process when they’re hired, so it was fun to show everyone the behind-the-scenes aspect of recruiting and how much work goes into each hire.” Getting a behind-the-scenes look at Recruiting revealed just how difficult the process actually is and how important it is to be efficient.

An Introduction to Recruiting

OTFL with Recruiting was all about giving the attendees a better idea of the steps it took to recruit a single person. It started with some trivia that was not only fun (prizes!), but also very informative. “I really liked the trivia part at the beginning,” said Tayo Falaiye, Customer Support Specialist. “It spelled out exactly what the Recruiting team has to go through to find quality employees, which made me appreciate the people I worked with a lot more.” The Recruiting team also shared a “recruiting lifecycle” handout, which immediately dispelled any notion that the process was easy. It detailed the steps of hiring a candidate and while it wasn’t complicated, there was enough information to emphasize the difficulty of the process. And the handout was just the beginning.

Information from Station-to-Station

To provide a clearer picture of what it took to hire someone, we dispersed into groups and then rotated through five different stations:

• Sourcing – how to find candidates that fit within the FrontPoint culture
• Résumés – the good and the bad of résumés
• Screening – the structure of a general phone screen conversation
• Automated Database – how to efficiently manage and coordinate between the team
• Dangers of the Oversell – how to talk about FrontPoint

Recruiting Efficiency

At these stations, different members of the Recruiting team described each of these key aspects in great detail. It was during this time that I realized how important it was to be efficient if you were a recruiter. Sifting through the mountains of résumés, having long conversations on the phone and taking care of other time-sinks required excellent time management skills. Heck, even the stations were efficient. We only spent about 10 minutes at each, so the information had to come fast and quick – I imagine it’s similar to what speed dating feels like – before we were ushered to the next station. “I enjoyed that we were really able to tap into a little bit of every aspect of Recruiting through the rotating session,” commented Kyle O’Neill, Workforce Supervisor. “I also liked that we were able to interact with everyone on the Recruiting team.” The Recruiting team seemed to enjoy it as well. Becca thought the stations gave a great opportunity to talk to everyone on a more individual basis and really showcase what her team did. Senior Corporate Recruiter Nick Brakebill agreed. “It was great hearing genuine curiosity from the participants in how we find the right people,” he said. “Recruiting is like a puzzle – getting the right pieces in place can be challenging, but fun.”

The Goal of On the Front Lines

“OTFL opened my eyes about our Recruiting team and how much of a skill it is to identify, pursue and interact with talented candidates,” said Kyle. Recruiting is not easy. Finding not only the right, but talented, people to fit into FrontPoint’s culture is much more of a painstaking process than I ever imagined. But after realizing it, it made me appreciate the fact that I was here much more. And that’s the great thing about OTFL – it gives us a great opportunity to communicate and interact with those at work we normally don’t get to. And it builds a better understanding of what a department does, eliminating any preconceived notions. “It was great sharing some of our strategies with everyone,” added Nick. “It’s how we put all the pieces together to find our ROCKSTARS!”