How to Improve Communication Within Your Recruiting Team

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

When most recruitment teams discuss communications, the focus will naturally go to the outbound communications between company and candidates. While this is essential for successful recruitment and hiring strategies, solid outbound communications and content sharing require a foundation of solid internal team communications. So, how can you ensure good internal communications without losing your primary focus on candidates and talent development?

Here are five simple strategies you can implement for effective internal communications that will support your outbound messaging and recruitment efforts.

1. Build and maintain internal relationships

One on one time can make a huge difference in effective communications. With today’s “remote” workers and telecommuters, this can be even more important for those who don’t already spend all day in an office together. Respect their time and keep your meetings brief and friendly, a short lunch or coffee is ideal, somewhere away from the distractions and pressures of the office environment.

2. Collaborate whenever possible

Even for solopreneurs like me, with mostly virtual team members, collaboration is vital. As the old saying goes, two minds are better than one. Whether you need a fresh idea from a different perspective, or simply need some confirmation on an idea you are already working on, ask for help. Being available to help others is the flipside of this coin and does a lot to build communications and trust. Hop on a call or video, invite a peer for coffee or just swing by their office to foster good partnerships, great ideas and a fun atmosphere focused on doing awesome things.

3. Keep your meetings short

Strategy sessions and endless meetings have become a running joke among office dwellers. Only hard core loners hate all meetings on principle, and you can do a lot to make your meetings valuable to all concerned by keeping them short and focused. Keep meetings regular, but only as frequently as is actually productive to minimize the frustration associated with interruptions.

4. Avoid impersonal communication

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with too much communication especially among a fast paced recruiting team. This can be worse than not enough. To combat this, avoid the urge to send copied messages to those who don’t really need them. Make your communication targeted. The extra time it takes to personalize messages, at least to smaller groups if not individuals, will be made up for by the seriousness your communications will be treated with. By respecting your team members and only giving them what they need, you save them time in sorting out the essential information as well.

5. Open source best practices

Even those who consider themselves least creative, have brilliant ideas from time to time. By providing a place to share the tips and tricks that are working best, you can open source your own best practices among your team members. Whether it’s a great tip for getting the responses you really need in interviews, or a piece of open source software that saves time and money, encourage your team to share what works. Anything that saves time, money, or grief is always appreciated. Use a Facebook Group, Google doc, or work platform such as podio or basecamp as a central repository for your ideas. Check out HootSuite's #HootOS initiative in recruiting and hiring.

The benefits will astound you

Once open and clear communication is established within a work team, the outgoing communications will improve dramatically. From being able to use team members where their strengths lie, to understanding the motives behind what is being done, the benefits are almost limitless.

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Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology anthropologist specializing in HR and recruiting. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs and author of The HR Technology Field Guide. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.