The best way to burn out a recruiter is…

Drumroll please.

There’s no better way to make an internal recruiter inefficient than giving them too many recs to work on.

We talk to a lot of companies who need help with hiring. Our OnDemand model is geared toward orgs with teams and processes in place. But need more bandwidth.

You get a dedicated, experienced internal recruiter at a fixed monthly cost. Add someone to the team at a moment’s notice to get through the spikes. (Instead of hiring, onboarding, training, and…laying off when the rush is over.)

In these early client convos, rec load comes up. Every time.

What’s an appropriate amount? Depends on the skill sets. It can vary wildly. For example:

• High volume recruiting (think call center, skilled trades, etc.) ➡ 20-25. Could be more, it really depends on the role and level.
• Enterprise operations or technology ➡ 10-12. Seriously.

We get one of two reactions to that last one:

“Cool, sign me up.” (I wish it were that easy but pretend with me.) 

Or

“Wait what? We assign our team 2-3x  that…”

Which is why we’re talking in the first place. Things aren’t getting done, because they’re expecting 1 person to fill 2 dozen software engineers, devops, and product managers every month.

You’re all familiar with the end result of excessive rec loads:

????Poorly targeted outreach

????Rushed conversations that can miss key details

????Lack of timely follow up

????Hiring managers wondering where their candidates are

????Burned out recruiters

Most importantly:

????Less real results than had expectations been set appropriately.

When you force people to cut corners, don’t be surprised when sh*t falls apart.

Full episode of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, Episode 53 “No One Understands Recruiting But Recruiters, Volume 2” here.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.