Why is it that the new market shows that a hybrid recruitment model clubbed with the best in market ATS software results in greater efficiency and fairness to the ideal of recruitment?

To understand this first let’s begin by understanding what a centralized and decentralized recruitment model means. One of the difficult decisions for a company to make is to choose between centralizing or decentralizing their recruitment process. A centralized recruitment model allows all the decisions and recruitment responsibilities to be taken up by a single team in the entire organization. So one entire HR team/department in a company has the sole decision-making authority with respect to the recruitment process. Whereas in the decentralized model of the recruitment process, each department in an organization may have a dedicated recruiter who is solely responsible to make the decisions within that department and can select the to-be employees based on their preferances and different criteria laid down by them.

Why is it important that a company should centralize the recruitment process and when should they do it?

If we talk about a specific company and an ideal system for centralized recruiting, Samsung is a good example wherein for a communications-based tech company it allows for in-depth product development oversight at the corporate level. Centralizing the human resources department results in a more comprehensive recruiting strategy, as the talent acquisition team is made to consider the long-term, leading to better candidate sourcing. One of the best sources of great prospects, for example, is leading candidates who struggled to qualify for previous job interviews. Hiring selections are distributed among several departments in a decentralized recruitment process. As a result, you won’t find much consistency in the hiring process. Indeed, there would be a severe lack of communication between the two divisions or departments in the company in question. Despite accumulating large amounts of data about former applicants who’ve already gone through the complete process but have been neglected, this leads to a loss of this absolutely vital resource.

As many advantages are there in the process of centralized recruitment, there are also certain shortcomings/disadvantages to it:

1. Giving responsibilities to one particular department will allow efficiency and reduce the costs incurred as specific employees such as talent acquisition specialists in the HR department will take care of the process rather than less qualified individuals from other departments. But in most cases with bigger and established organizations, there could be a lack of liberty or flexibility in the hiring decision-making process.

2. The larger companies benefit the most from a centralized form of the recruitment process as it results in a faster and more cost-effective process. But at the same time, a centralized hiring unit often has very less understanding of the specific needs of each specific department’s needs or business nature, or even as a matter of the fact about the local market.

3. When the process of recruitment becomes standardized, it results in every candidate undergoing the same process rather than according to the department or business needs, now this results in an equal or unbiased process and is fair to all the applicants without any biased selections.

4. It could be challenging for corporate headquarters to comprehend the specifics of what is required to assist clients from various geographies. Employees may benefit from centralized hire if they feel like they’re a part of the company. However, the informational edge of managers outweighs the potential benefits of centralized recruiting.

At least 35% of the organizations have embraced the idea of Hybrid recruitment wherein they have embraced the idea of bringing together technology/ AI software and bringing together both centralized and decentralized models of the recruitment process in their corporations. Big brands such as Coca-Cola and Subway have adopted the hybrid model. So what Coca Cola did was to retain all of its decision-making processes with the global headquarters and their other corporations are divided on a zonal/regional basis, basically bringing the idea of both models into these corporations. In the current market scenario, many companies are transitioning to the hybrid model of the recruitment process as it allows the centralized teams to bring in standardized policies and tools for the hiring process as allows fair hiring practices. Simultaneously, the half and half model empowers organizations to likewise fit nearby local hiring functions to bring forth specific market needs, all while guaranteeing a proficient and coordinated recruitment technique. The right balance of a centralized and decentralized model of recruiting added with the most efficient software technology can help reduce all the manual work or labor that goes into the hiring process and make the applicant data and tracking result in a smooth and successful hiring process. Hence, a hybrid model of recruitment along with the help of best in market software that can be tailored to the company’s needs is the ultimate solution to deriving the most efficient results and bringing in required individuals to the organization.