If you’re a recruiter facing endless cost-cutting mandates, sideswipes from AI, and dwindling internal credibility, Katrina Collier’s new book is the ammunition to turn things around. Because the current recruitment situation is a vicious cycle that hurts everyone.
For our 8th episode of The View, we got to sit down with the incisive, high-octane Katrina Collier, to talk about her latest book Reboot Hiring.
Following the success of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, Katrina wanted to write another gritty, hands-on guide to level-up recruitment, this time speaking directly to managers and leaders.
Because we’re all on the same side: the side of wanting to hire brilliant people, while saving the organisation time, money, and hassle. But that often gets lost in translation, with recruitment treated as a cost-centre rather than a strategic partner.
It’s the book you wish your CEO would read. And every manager you work with.
Catch-up with the webinar now, or read our takeaways below 👇
The false economy of recruitment cost-cutting
For Katrina, chronic recruitment underfunding has left us in a dangerous place. A chicken and egg place, where underfunding begets underperformance which begets underfunding.
- Recruiters are doing their best but can’t have the impact they’d like (or prove that impact) because they’re firefighting, frustrated and burnt-out.
For example, one recent study found that one third of recruiters are heavily or very heavily stressed over their workloads. Not good.
- Leaders understandably expect recruitment to deliver, but deny teams the respect, credibility, budget, and collaboration which impact hinges on.
And then there’s the AI prerogative, which offers a tantalising mirage of low-cost high-efficiency hiring – but one that disregards the fundamental humanness of recruitment.
Katrina talks about how these pervasive cost-cutting attitudes risk spiralling into long-term, hard-to-heal damage.
She sees many organisations undervaluing the importance of great TA professionals with the budgets, credibility, and autonomy to drive strategic value. And without that, you don’t have great TA.
Instead you have a vicious cycle of underfunded teams, overworked recruiters, unimpressed candidates, and escalating inefficiency that costs more and delivers less.
High human stakes for recruiting right
One thing Reboot Hiring is really good at is emphasising the human cost of all of this. For many managers and leaders, Katrina points out, “candidate experience is buzzword bingo”.
But beyond the buzzword, a poor candidate experience means there’s a real person – many people – being treated badly. People:
- Being ghosted, because teams lack the resources to reply
- Wasting time interviewing for roles that aren’t anything like the JD
- Lurching through disconnected, inconsistent recruitment processes
- Being treated with bias and discrimination
- Accepting opportunities that have been totally missold
Speaking to that last point, recent research shows that only 18% of employees believe their organisations’ stated values align with its culture.
When managers spin half-truths to get a hire over the line, the consequence is often mistrust and attrition. But managers rarely have this long-term, bigger picture view – because it’s not their job; it’s not their priority. That’s why organisations need dedicated TA professionals whose job and priority is this long-term bigger picture.
Katrina believes there’s a fundamental naivety among professionals whose core job isn’t hiring about the cost of these mistakes: “leaders don’t seem to realise just how chatty people are online. How quickly word of bad treatment spreads.”
(Do your leaders know, for instance, that over two-thirds of employees write online reviews of former employers?)
Recruitment isn’t just processes; technology; KPIs. It’s people. And our recruitment practices have a deep human impact:
When somebody finds the right job, it’s life changing. It impacts their physical health; their mental health; the wealth of their family; their engagement with life.
But the opposite is also true. So many people’s happiness, self-worth, and identity are tied to their employment status. It’s leaders’ responsibility to remember that.
Katrina shares a harrowing real-life example that brings this point home, of a candidate who was made redundant in March 2020. After six months of applying to roles but nobody getting back to him, he took his own life.
That’s an extreme example, of course. But there is a clear connection between mental health and poor recruitment practice. Our EndGhosting report reinforces that, finding that 89% of ghosted candidates are left feeling down or depressed.
The fact is, the stakes here are astronomical. But in many organisations, leaders aren’t backing the professionals who’ve built careers getting this stuff right.
What needs to change?
Leaders and managers need to read Reboot Hiring, first of all…! Katrina’s on a mission to get the book into the hands of every manager and leader, to get them to reset their thinking about recruitment.
But what can recruitment professionals do? Katrina shared a few pointers:
- Talk business language: make sure you’re having long-term conversations about how recruitment connects to the bottom-line
- Ask the challenging questions: work on your confidence to push-back and set boundaries with managers and leaders, rather than taking orders.
- Coach managers: managers aren’t hiring professionals. You’re the expert: help them to help themselves and set themselves up for success.
- Push for input into HR tech: don’t let the organisation decide your most important tools. Make your voice and priorities heard.
- Hold yourself accountable: understand that giving feedback is a gift, even if candidates aren’t successful. Don’t ghost because it’s uncomfortable.
- Look after yourself: recruiter burn-out is rife. Put your own mask on first – there are people counting on you.
- Pour effort into your partnerships: behind every recruitment success story is a really close partnership between managers and recruiters.
These negative cycles are a dance that’s terrible for everyone. But there’s a responsibility here on both sides to break the pattern.
Yes, leaders and managers need to stop treating recruitment as a cost centre and an admin function. Yes, they need to give recruiters the credibility and trust to have impact and influence.
But recruiters too need to step up, to show organisations why they need to take recruitment seriously. It won’t just happen – we have to fight for it.
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