RippleMatch is proud to recognize Krystal McIntosh, Early Career Talent Acquisition Partner at Paylocity, as a Rockstar Recruiter in the Campus Recruiting Community!
Krystal discovered her love for recruiting while working as a retail manager immediately after graduating from college. In her role, she had the opportunity to mentor, create growth potential and succession plans, and hire employees for her team, outside of other operational duties. “I fell in love with the hiring and interviewing part of my job,” Krystal said.
A few years later, she found herself pursuing recruiting roles, and transitioned from retail into staffing.
“I worked at two different staffing agencies, and I learned so much from both roles. With the agency, you really must get creative in how you find employees to fill your roles,” Krystal said. “I did a lot of grassroots recruiting — from being out in the community handing out fliers about our positions and attending community job fairs, to searching on job boards to find candidates.”
Krystal joined Paylocity as a recruiter for one of its high-volume roles, but soon moved into early career recruiting after a team restructure.
“Whenever there was an opportunity to attend a university or community college and speak to those early in their career, I always raised my hand,” Krystal said. “Our early career candidates and new college graduates are the future of our workforce. They bring a new energy and ideas that can really help an organization get to the next level. I am proud to have the opportunity to help them find their passion and turn it into their career.”
RM: What are some of the challenges you have faced in the industry, and how have you overcome them?
KM: What once used to work to attract top talent just does not work anymore. Social media has been a huge driver in our recruiting efforts the last couple of years. I have also never seen as many reneges in my career. This has made our team reevaluate our benefit offerings, compensation, and other factors to help attract and retain the new generation of talent.
RM: What motivates you today professionally?
KM: What motivates me professionally is the ability to see my hires get to the offer stage, accept their offer, start with us and grow. It makes everything I do totally worth it in the end. I love thinking back to when I met candidates at their career fair and 1-2 years later, seeing them promoted within their teams, seeing them take on additional responsibilities, and even seeing them jump in to help me in recruiting the next generation of talent like themselves.
RP: What has been your proudest professional accomplishment to date?
KM: One of my proudest accomplishments to date would be really growing our early career tech team, while maintaining a 90% retention rate throughout the program and increasing our D&I efforts by just putting more of a focus on diversity in hiring. I am proud of being able to learn a new space and hit the ground running in a tough hiring market. Throughout COVID there were a lot of unknowns and uncertainty, but by pushing through and in partnership with my team, hired our largest intern class to date.
RM: What are your current professional goals?
KM: For me, I want to continue to grow professionally as more of a senior level recruiter who is known as the subject matter expert within the early career space. I want to take on more challenging aspects of my role, such as strategic planning and partnerships within the business. I enjoy learning from other recruiters around me so a big goal that I have for myself is to make time to reach out to my peers to help develop myself and learn from their expertise.
RM: What advice would you give to someone newer to the talent acquisition space?
KM: Ask questions, share your ideas, and do not be afraid to try something new or different. We grow the most as recruiters when we are faced with challenges that we have to overcome. It’s not always easy and we definitely have those rough days, weeks, and sometimes even a rough month, but the more you can push through it and take every challenge as a learning experience, the more you will grow. Also, your peers may be doing something different from you that could help with your recruiting efforts. Reach out to other recruiters to discuss their challenges and what has worked for them. We are all trying to navigate this space so let’s share our experiences.
*RippleMatch is recognizing standout individuals in talent acquisition through our Rockstar Recruiter, D&I Champion, Program Innovator, and Outstanding Leader spotlights. Know any standout individuals who should be recognized? Please submit their info through this survey.