Recruiting should never report to HR. As much as HR and people operations leaders may bristle at this declaration, it’s true: HR should never be responsible for managing recruitment strategies.

Before diving into the “why” behind this truth, let’s look at why so many companies feel compelled to make this common mistake. You definitely won’t hear recruiters say how much they love reporting to HR. The push always comes from the company itself. Here are three reasons for it.

IT’S THE WAY IT’S ALWAYS BEEN DONE

Companies get stuck in a rut of doing things, even if it doesn’t produce results. Sure, they may throw in a few new recruitment tech tools, but the reporting structure stays intact. When building a company, a CEO or founder may not be aware that there’s a real difference between HR and talent acquisition: The two are related to people, they reason, so why shouldn’t they be  linked in the org chart? The fact that each department should separately report to the CEO may never come to mind.

IT’S A SHORTCUT

HR departments have their own protocols and do things by the book. In contrast, successful professional recruiters know that building a talent-centric organization—finding the right people, hiring them, and then putting them first—involves relationship-building, employee-centric strategies, and time. By pushing recruitment to HR, companies bypass these vital steps and take a shortsighted shortcut.

THEY WANT TO KEEP THINGS MOVING ALONG

It’s easy for companies to get into the mindset of churning through the hiring process. They see a chair waiting to be filled and their goal is to find a warm body to occupy that spot. That way, they can just keep things moving along. However, this never works out well.

THE CTO SOLUTION

So, what works better? The answer: Hire a chief talent officer who reports directly to the CEO.

Your CTO should be a highly trained executive recruiter or headhunter. This person will work to staff your company in partnership with the executive team and every manager down the line.

Talent strategy is the engine that will keep your company humming—which means your chief talent officer is just as critical as the other executives on your team. Consider these four facts:

CTOS HAVE CRUCIAL RECRUITING EXPERIENCE

In my many years of research and working directly with human resources officers, 98% had zero experience in recruiting. And the other 2% had only a minimal amount of recruiting experience, either with recruitment agencies or corporate recruiting, but not enough to have mastered “the art of the search.”

To be a top recruiter, you must put in years of work and undergo extensive training. Even then, it’s not for the faint of heart. There are many setbacks. Hence, only 2% of all recruiters make it to the top. Recruiting isn’t something you can read a book about and just “get it.” It takes being on the ground with candidates, doing the searches, going back and forth, negotiating, knowing when and how to give offers, and more. Without that skill and knowledge, you won’t see lasting results.

RECRUITING REQUIRES RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Quality recruiting takes years to master. You need a recruiter who’s not only experienced but also excels at long-term relationship building. Recruiters need emotional intelligence for the deep communication that’s required to get candidates to open up. Some candidates may be teetering between a “yes” and a “no” and need an authentically good listener to understand the hesitation. That requires years of understanding people and the human condition.

CTOS ARE NOT BOUND BY HR’S RED TAPE

Yes, budgets are important and red tape often exists for a reason, but too much concern for either can hinder the recruitment process. HR, by its very nature, isn’t inclined to color outside the lines. In many organizations, HR reports to the chief financial officer, which turns HR teams into bean-counters, not recruiters. Landing the right candidate may require workarounds HR won’t be likely to approve—or even think about—allowing great candidates to slip by.

Read the full report here