Recruiting is to HR as Sales is to Accounting

Over on ERE, Ken Forrester has an interesting article on "What Your Kids' Basketball Coach Knows". After dissecting some of the challenges that we face, Ken makes some suggestions of what to do:

Move recruiting from HR to sales and marketing. Prior to the Internet, recruiting and HR folks were never on the same page philosophically; one was focused on results and the other on procedures. Like sales and marketing, recruiting is one of the most challenging professions; it requires a certain type of individual with a competitive risk-taking mentality, strong self-discipline, and interpersonal skills to be successful. The typical HR personalities tend to be more cost driven, bureaucratic, and administrative. Having recruiting report to HR is certainly not a good marriage and will only guarantee mediocre recruiting performers.

This disconnect between the HR gatekeepers and the "go-go" recruiting staff will always be a source of tension in a company.

The best way to put this is the analogy I proposed to CTRN back in the day:

Recruiting is to Human Resources as
Sales is to Accounting

But just try to convince your VP of HR about that.