Technology Scale-up Hiring
Should a Head of Talent recruit or lead the function?
The short answer
A Head of Talent may continue to recruit selected senior or sensitive roles, but their primary responsibility should be leading the hiring system. That includes capacity planning, stakeholder alignment, team development, data, process and provider strategy. If most of their time is spent filling individual vacancies, the function is likely under-resourced or insufficiently structured.
Heads of Talent are often promoted or hired into leadership roles while continuing to carry a full requisition load. The two jobs pull in opposite directions, and the balance quietly determines how strong the function becomes.
Retain involvement in critical hires
There is value in a Head of Talent personally running the most senior, confidential or strategically important searches. Direct involvement keeps the leader connected to the market and to hiring manager reality.
Protect leadership time
Leadership work, capacity planning, stakeholder alignment, team development, data and process, only happens if it is deliberately protected. Left to compete with live vacancies, it will always lose.
Delegate repeatable delivery
Repeatable vacancies belong with recruiters or embedded partners. A Head of Talent working through a general requisition list is doing recruiter work at leader cost, and leaving strategic work undone.
Measure function-wide outcomes
The right measure for a Head of Talent is the performance of the function: quality of hire, offer acceptance, time to productive contribution, stakeholder confidence and cost. Individual placements matter, but not as the primary scorecard.
What this means in practice
Set an explicit split between personal search work and function leadership, and adjust it as the team and hiring plan grow. If most of the leader's time is on requisitions, the function is under-resourced or wrongly structured.
The Saiyō view
Saiyō believes Heads of Talent create the most value when they lead the operating system and reserve their personal search capacity for the appointments that most warrant it. Embedded and specialist capability should be used to protect that leadership time, not compete with it.
Explored in depth
This topic is explored in more depth within Building an Internal Talent Acquisition Function.
Frequently asked questions
See this in practice
Move from the concept to the way Saiyō delivers it.
Related questions
When should I hire my first internal recruiter?
Hire the first internal recruiter when hiring is recurring, leadership time is being consumed by coordination and the company needs consistent ownership of process, employer brand and agency relationships. The decision should be based on the next twelve months of demand rather than a temporary spike. If hiring remains highly variable, a lean internal owner supported by flexible external capability may be safer.
Read the answerAnswerHow many recruiters does a 300-person SaaS company need?
A 300-person SaaS company may need anywhere from one strong Talent Acquisition lead to a small team, depending on annual hiring volume, geography, role difficulty and operational support. A company hiring 25 straightforward roles has a different requirement from one hiring 60 enterprise sales, product and leadership positions internationally. Plan capacity from the hiring portfolio rather than employee count alone.
Read the answerAnswerWhat should internal Talent Acquisition own?
Internal Talent Acquisition should own hiring strategy, workforce-plan translation, employer brand, process standards, candidate experience, data, technology and provider governance. It does not need to execute every research, scheduling or headhunting task itself. Clear ownership allows external and embedded partners to strengthen the function without fragmenting accountability.
Read the answerRelated guides
Choosing a Hiring Model for a Technology Scale-up
The right hiring model depends on the pattern of hiring, not the company size. Most mature scale-ups run a deliberate portfolio, not a single provider.
Read the guideAuthority GuideThe Economics of Technology Hiring
Cost per hire is only one variable. Real hiring economics balance total annual investment, speed, quality and the business cost of vacancies remaining open.
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