What Is a Recruit, Train, and Deploy Program? 

Companies across the workforce are experiencing a common staffing issue: the struggle to maintain staff and fill employment vacancies.  

Because of this, recruiters, HR departments, and hiring managers are looking for new and innovative ways to fill their vacancies quickly and efficiently. But, while full-cycle recruitment often works for individual roles, companies wonder how they can address the larger problem of building a larger talent pipeline. 

A recruit, train, and deploy program can help. 

Let’s dig into how this model can benefit your company. 

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What Is a Recruit Train Deploy Model? 

A recruit, train, and deploy program is a model that helps fill company vacancies with qualified candidates and build a sustainable talent pipeline. 

This model provides a strategic way to identify, teach, and employ new talent, ensuring their training and skills are optimized for roles at—and needs of—your company. 

While large companies can create these programs on their own, these programs are often developed by third parties like staffing agencies, who work in conjunction with companies—or multiple companies—to build the program.  

These third parties sometimes build these programs on their own, too, and place graduates at companies they work with. 

Breaking It Down 

The terms recruit, train, and deploy are quite literal. 

First, you recruit new talent. This includes attracting and sourcing promising individuals for roles at your company. It can be in any field, job role, or division you identify needs help with hiring and retaining talent. These candidates must be willing to learn and prepared to undergo extensive training to fill the needs of potential companies. 

Next, you train these individuals. Higher education and certifications are pretty expensive for individuals. This is why there are skills gaps in a lot of industries. There are barriers that keep people out of the field.  

In this model, the company provides all the training the individuals need to learn and do the job they’re working toward. In addition to training hard skills, these models usually offer mentorship, ongoing support, and assessments to evaluate the recruits’ progress. 

Deployment happens after most of the training is done. Naturally, recruits need on-the-job experience. Some may begin working on contract projects, while others gain full-time employment with the company that trained them. The onboarding and deployment of a skilled individual ready to take on their new role is quicker than within a traditional recruitment model. 

But what are the differences between these models? 

How Is the Recruit, Train, Deploy Model Different from Traditional Recruitment Strategies? 

Whereas traditional strategies focus on hiring and then training, this model emphasizes training before hiring. It can also streamline the hiring process.  

For instance, a standard recruitment cycle looks like: 

1. Companies advertise their open requisitions. 
2. Dozens or hundreds of candidates apply. 
3. Of these, only a few move forward to the interview process. 
4. Those candidates often go through multiple rounds of interviews. 
5. A new employee is hired once a final decision is made. 

That’s a model that’s worked well for a while! But what happens if you’re growing fast and consistently face a shortage of qualified workers? Like, say, hospitals trying to find, hire, and retain nurses? 

Recruiting, training, and deploying candidates can simplify the recruitment process and provide that company with a pipeline for years to come. Plus, this recruitment model can be exceptionally beneficial for candidates. It sets up the candidate for a long-term commitment and gives the pipeline they need for roles they need to scale.

How Can the Recruit Train Deploy Model Benefit Your Candidates? 

Before diving into how a recruit, train, and deploy program can benefit your company, let’s consider how it can help your candidates.  

Sometimes, companies can’t hire entry-level employees for certain roles. Sometimes, they need hires with a lot of experience so they can start making an immediate impact.  

Candidates struggling to obtain employment in a specific industry should consider entering a recruit, train, and deploy program. This kind of program can help candidates:  

• Learn new skills. 
• Obtain technical, industry-specific training. 
• Receive practical hands-on experience in the trade. 
• Boosts self-esteem and confidence in their professional skills. 
• Obtain employment at the end of the program. 

Why Should You Consider the Recruit Train Deploy Model for Your Company? 

Feeling weary about implementing this strategy model into your recruitment process is normal. But consider some of the benefits it can offer: 

1. Reduce the Length of Your Recruitment Process 

As mentioned, the traditional recruitment model takes time and resources. Filling one vacancy can take three weeks at best, if not more. The recruit-train-deploy model significantly reduces that time and reduces the training time needed to prepare new hires for their roles. 

2. Lower Recruiting Costs 

Reducing the length of your recruitment process also lowers your recruitment costs. Updating your recruitment cycle will require you to use fewer resources on finding, interviewing, and training new employees.  

That may even allow for increased budgets toward further training of current employees. 

3. Increase Skills Training 

Again, many companies now focus on skills-based hiring, and the recruit-train-deploy model can increase skills training. It offers a higher chance of staffing workers trained for the requirements of a specific position, special projects, or whatever your company needs. 

4. Scalability and Flexible Deployment 

Depending on your recruiting needs, this model can help you permanently grow your team or fill needs for temporary staffing shortages. Having this flexibility is essential when the company is growing, taking on piloting projects, or restructuring. 

Ready to Recruit, Train, and Deploy? 

Utilizing a recruit, train, and deploy program can offer these and many other benefits, and Insight Global can help develop and implement these programs.