Welcome back, talent acquisition pros! Allow me to introduce a new series from Entelo, Recruitment Faceoff! In these posts, I'll take a look at two sides of the same recruitment coins, and size them against each other according to how they match up in areas such as candidate experience, vetting accuracy, sourcing strategies, and hiring cycles. Cause let's face it, after building a great team, the main reason you recruit is to engage with and defeat the recruiting endeavors of other like-minded organizations. Anyway, for round 1, we're heading back to campus, pitting the wildly successful recruitment practices of Fraternities and Sororities against one another.
Sourcing
Gotta hand it to the Greeks, here, they excel beyond even some of the most recognizable brands. Often, houses have hundreds of applicants for only a handful of positions, and they can afford to be picky. At my alma mater (Boiler up!) for example, Sororities meet over 900 hopeful girls on the first two days of recruitment.
When it comes to the organization, the Greeks can promise it all: community, networking, and, of course, social life. Typically, most sourcing takes place through flyers or giant banners hung from balconies (see below), as well as mass recruitment events such as "Meet the Greeks", which is basically a career fair where each booth is a different house.
Since sourcing tactics are pretty standard and effective across the board for the Greeks, there's no edge here.
Advantage: none
Hiring Cycle
For the uninitiated, allow me to explain official recruiting process: Rush. It's done quite differently for the men and the women, so I'll go one at a time.
Fraternity Rush
Hopeful candidates are invited to the houses on various evenings for poker nights, game nights, and other themed events reflecting the exact sort of activities eventual members will participate in. Each proceeding event involves fewer candidates and more serious and meaningful conversations. Here, the candidates are presented in a low-stress environment where they are encouraged to relax and not stand on occasion. In presenting candidates with the types of activities they'll likely partake in once joining the house, they get a chance to see what the candidate will be like once they have 'boots on the ground.' Also, the repeat visits allow many different house members to meet with the candidates in longer sessions.
Houses often schedule events on the same night as other houses, forcing candidates to do their homework and make a decision on where they want to focus earlier.
Sorority Rush
The ladies have a much more structured process. Over two days, girls who hope to pledge a Sorority will go on a grueling tour of all the campus' houses, getting a cursory view of the houses, their members, and having only brief conversations. Think of this as an initial phone screen, where rather than looking to deeply assess candidates, you're only looking to make sure they are relevant, well put-together, and professional.
After members vote and cut down the field, remaining candidates are brought back for house tours. Here, they get to envision themselves in the house, seeing what the rooms and facilities are like, while simultaneously having more meaningful conversations with members.
Once the tours are done, another vote takes place, and those remaining are invited to a more social, low key event, similar to the entire Fraternity process. Here, the tone is more relaxed and candidates get a chance to see what the girls are really like. If done correctly, this is an expert way to turn off interview mode and learn what it might be like to actually live with these candidates.
After a handful of these rush events, both sororities and fraternities have a more formal interview night. By this point, only around 10% of the initial field of candidates still remain, and house members are generally ready to have any of them become a member. Typically, it will be up to the houses to make their final sell and convince candidates why they should choose their house. Compare this to your internal 'closing' strategy that takes place right around the time you extend the official offer.
Because of the structure, scheduling, and clear designation between what each phase of the process represents, I gotta give this one to the gals.
Advantage: Sororities
Candidate Experience
Certainly, the processes each reflect the preferences of each gender. The men prefer things to be less structured and serious, while the women want to plan out and schedule. While the female candidates probably appreciate the structure and certainty, I imagine the conversations about the whole process would be quite different. Women may let out an exasperated sigh, left exhausted by the process, while the men would shrug their shoulders and admit "it was fine."
Although the process may be less stressful for the men, let us remember that the recruitment process isn't meant to be a carousel ride. Rather, it is meant to fully assess candidates in a procedural manner which guarantees continued success for the house. From this angle, it seems to me that the ladies deftly toe the line between genuine, unguarded human interaction and necessary rigidity in such a way that ultimately benefits both the candidates and the organization.
Advantage: Sororities
Vetting Accuracy
While both sides offer recruiting cycles exhaustive in their own ways, different elements of their process mean they can only assess with a certain amount of depth. The carefully scheduled Sorority process allows them to interview many more candidates. While it's good to have the top of your funnel wide, this necessitates a more knee-jerk and superficial method of initially ruling out candidates. With a slightly smaller funnel, you can speak with many candidates and judge them based on longer, more meaningful conversations. Because the men limit their funnel at the beginning, their first round of cuts will be decided by more information. Simply put, when you interview 900 candidates, you don't have the time to really dig in and make a deep decision about each one.
Advantage: Fraternities
And the Bid Goes to...
Well, it was a close one, but considering the meticulously planned procedure Sororities practice, as well as the fact that their process seems to closely mirror that of established, professional hiring cycles, Round 1 of Recruitment Faceoff belongs to the women.
Who do you think has the better process? Who should be the next featured organizations in Recruitment Faceoff? Leave a comment or tweet @EnteloRob!
