Recruitment Team
Recruitment is a core competency so you shouldn't rely on external recruiters; building a recruitment team with a sole focus on your hiring needs will help you maintain control over quality and is more cost-effective
Build your recruitment team like you would a sales team, staffing it with people who can find and engage the right candidates while setting the proper incentives and KPIs
Start a team with a simple structure reporting to the Head of Recruiting, Recruiters and Sourcers to run the recruiting process, an Ops Manager to set up processes, and a Recruiting Coordinator to manage admin tasks
The size of the team will depend on your hiring needs, with one Recruiter hiring for 4-7 roles a quarter and number of people in other roles growing proportionately
As you are scaling the team, organise Recruiters by business function to leverage synergies from hiring for similar roles and add Team Leads and Managers to manage the team
Pay Recruiters quarterly bonuses, in cash, with a direct link to the achievement rate of their quotas
The case for an internal recruitment team
An internal recruitment team is necessary when you start scaling
Recruitment is a core competency
as attracting A-players can give you a strategic advantage
Sole focus on your hiring needs
with clear understanding of your priorities and business nuances
Control over quality
ensuring consistency and a high talent bar
Cost efficiency
as expenses of third-party recruiters can add up significantly
You can’t scale a tech company without a top-notch internal recruitment team. Revolut learned this the hard way - a few years in, hiring became a bottleneck. External recruiters were too slow, too expensive, and couldn’t deliver enough high-quality candidates. Growth stalled until the company built an internal dedicated recruitment org, separate from HR, designed to move fast and hire at scale.
Internal recruitment is critical for many reasons:
- Recruitment is a core competency - attracting and retaining A-players is a long-term strategic advantage; an internal team will have the ability to identify and engage candidates who are technically qualified but also culturally aligned
- Sole focus on your hiring needs - third-party recruiters juggle multiple clients at a time; an internal team is fully immersed in the nuances of your business and quickly reacts to changing priorities
- Control over quality - an internal dedicated team gives you full control over the hiring process, from sourcing and screening to interviewing and onboarding, ensuring consistency and a higher talent bar
- Cost efficiency - while setting up a separate team may seem costly initially, it can be more cost-effective as the expenses associated with third-party recruiters can add up significantly
Building a recruitment powerhouse
Build your recruitment team like a world-class sales team
Outbound driven
proactively reaching out to candidates
Tech enabled
using CRM-like tools
Data backed
monitoring and analysis of performance
Quota based
recruiter comp based on targets
You should build your recruitment team like a world-class sales team.
Recruitment shares many aspects with traditional sales, such as relationship-building, effective communication, understanding needs and motivation, and negotiation, so best practices are often transferable:
- Outbound-driven approach: Recruiters should proactively source and engage top talent, not just filter inbound applications
- Tech-enabled hiring: Use CRM-like tools to track candidate interactions and nurture long-term relationships (for example staying in touch with candidates who are not currently available)
- Data-backed decision-making: Monitor pipeline metrics, pass-through rates, and hiring velocity to optimise performance
- Quota-based recruiters: The biggest share of recruiter compensation should be based on reaching quarterly quotas
Structuring and scaling the recruitment org
Start out with a simple structure for your recruitment team
- Head of Recruitment
- 2-3 Recruiters
- 1-2 Sourcers
Click a node to see who sits in it
We recommend you start with a simple structure for your recruitment team: one Ops Manager, one Recruitment Coordinator, as well as Recruiters and Sourcers, all reporting to the Head of Recruiting. The number of Recruiters and Sourcers will depend on your hiring quota:
- a Recruiter can hire 4-7 roles a quarter
- a Sourcer can support 2 Recruiters
Scale your recruitment team by vertical of your business
- Head of Recruitment
- Team Lead
- Sales Recruitment Team
- 5-10 Recruiters
- 2-5 Sourcers
- Team Lead
- Engineering Recruitment Team
- 5-10 Recruiters
- 2-5 Sourcers
Click a node to open its part of the org
As your hiring needs grow, we recommend you adjust the size and structure of the team accordingly:
- add a second team once you reach more than 10 Recruiters
- organise recruitment teams by vertical, based on your company’s functions
- add new manager roles with a Team Lead managing a team of 10-15 Recruiters and Sourcers and a Recruitment Manager managing 5-7 Team Leads
- add more Recruitment Coordinators with a ratio of one per 9 Recruiters
- add a Data Analyst to support recruitment operations
Overall, the size and structure of your recruitment team should grow according to your hiring targets:
0-10 hires per quarter
10-50 hires per quarter
50+ hires per quarter
Recruitment team roles
Recruiter
Sourcer
Head of Recruitment
Ops Manager - Recruitment
Recruitment Coordinator
Data Analyst
Recruiter Quotas & Incentives
Each role in recruiting has quotas that reflect their objectives
Recruiters
Sourcers
Recruiters
# of hires
accounted at the moment of signing an offer
Recruiters
benchmark deviation
percentage by which salary benchmarks are exceeded for new hires
Sourcers
# of offers
out of sourced candidates varying based on seniority and role
Team Leads have targets that include the collective quotas of their teams
To build a high-performance hiring team, quotas and incentives should be structured like a sales organization; measuring output and impact.
Recruiter
- 4-7 Normal Roles
- 10-25 Volume Roles (e.g. customer support)
- 1-2 Executive Roles, varying based on seniority
- Typically calibrated at 10–15%, depending on vertical and budget tolerance
Sourcer
- 6-9 Normal Roles
- 20-40 Volume Roles (e.g. customer support)
- 4-7 Normal Roles
- 10-25 Volume Roles (e.g. customer support)
- 1-2 Executive Roles, varying based on seniority
- Typically calibrated at 10–15%, depending on vertical and budget tolerance
- 6-9 Normal Roles
- 20-40 Volume Roles (e.g. customer support)
Bonuses should be paid quarterly and in cash, calculated as a % of the base salary. This percentage is determined based on the performance of the team member against their predefined quotas.
Bonuses are calculated based on the achievement rate of quotas on a quarterly basis
Weight
for each quota
Achievement rate
of each quarterly quota
Quarterly performance score
example
- Under 60%
- 60% – 99%
- 100% – 149%
- 150% – 199%
- 200% and above
Quarterly bonus
of total base comp for the year, paid in cash
- -
- -
- 12.5%
- 25%
- 50%
Example
Performance score calculation
The performance score is the weighted average achievement rate across multiple quotas. Consider the below example for Q2 for a Recruiter.
They achieved 120% on their Hires Target (6/5) and 100% on their Salary Benchmark Deviation Target. Each is weighted, meaning 120% * 75% + 100% * 25% = 115% Performance Score
Performance score calculation - Q2, Recruiter
Hires target
Salary benchmark deviation
Average achievement rate
120% × 75% + 100% × 25% =115%
115% performance score for Q2 corresponds to a 12.5% quarterly bonus. The % bonus is applied to the total base compensation of the Recruiter for the year. If the Recruiter’s base comp is $50k annually their Q2 bonus will be $6.25k.