Recruit like a football manager - What TA can learn from sport

As a passionate sports person, I’ve noticed a couple of smart personnel moves made by Jürgen Klopp and other successful team managers: whilst we in Talent Acquisition always focus on just filling vacant positions, Jürgen Klopp has always built a team of 11 players plus a strong reserve bench. While many companies are still waiting for suitable applications to arrive, in football the best talent is proactively scouted for at a very early stage. Junior talent plays just as big a role as the fans in football. Especially in times of “ghost matches” in empty stadiums, we are once again aware of how important the 12th man or woman is for the team. But in TA, we often miss the chance to win over internal staff and interested candidates as “fans” and secure their early loyalty.

Wasted potential - and time for a new game plan

I am convinced that, in our recruitment processes, we are still losing too much potential along the way and that the role of the recruiter needs to evolve into that of coach, designer, and enabler. The scope of our recruitment strategy is also changing in two respects: we need to start earlier – and no longer stop after an appointment has been made. At the moment, many companies are stopping their recruitment activities and will have to ramp them up again quickly at a future date. Particularly in uncertain times such as these, both a proactive recruitment strategy and the early creation of talent pipelines are essential, so that in periods of rapid growth, we are then able to fill vacancies quickly, without expensive headhunters.

Want more tips?

You will find the way to a new game plan in recruitment, with lots of “Klopp moments”, in this e-book.

And perhaps in the future, in keeping with the Liverpool ‘Reds’ traditional anthem “You’ll never walk alone”, in recruitment it will be a case of “You’ll never recruit alone” as well.

Enjoy reading it! I look forward to your feedback!