How to Turn Recruitment into a Core Leadership Skill?

We publish a job ad, invite candidates for interviews, and select the best person for the role. Simple, right? 🤔

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In reality, recruitment is anything but simple. And it's certainly about much more than job ads and interviews. Every conversation, every promise, every piece of feedback, and even the way a manager talks about their work shapes the candidate experience and the organisation's reputation as an employer.

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Together with the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), we created an e-learning course that helps managers see recruitment from a different perspective. Not as something HR takes care of, but as an essential part of leadership.

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Because recruitment is a two-way process built on collaboration. The organisation chooses its people, but people also choose their organisation.

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One e-learning course won't solve the challenges of the labour market or magically attract more great candidates overnight. But it can help managers:

• make more informed and thoughtful hiring decisions;
• create a better candidate experience, regardless of the recruitment outcome;
• feel more confident throughout the recruitment process and collaborate more effectively with recruitment partners;
• understand how every manager contributes to shaping their organisation's reputation as an employer.

Here's how the course came to life and what learners took away from the experience.

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🔎 1. Who and Why?

Client: Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA)

Sector: Internal Security

Goal: To create a practical e-learning course for PPA managers that supports more informed recruitment decisions, improves the candidate experience, and helps managers understand their role in shaping the organisation's employer brand.

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At the heart of the course is a shift in mindset: recruitment isn't a one-off event that begins with a job advertisement and ends with a signed employment contract. It's an ongoing process of building and maintaining relationships, in which every manager plays an important role.

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🛠️ 2. The Solution

When talking about recruitment, it's easy to get caught up in processes, paperwork, and deadlines. We decided to start somewhere else: with people.

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We organised an in-depth co-design workshop, bringing together managers from different units, recruitment partners, and employer branding specialists. Together, we mapped the real-life challenges, decisions, and dilemmas managers face when recruiting.

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It quickly became clear that the challenge wasn't simply about conducting better interviews. Equally important were the questions managers need to answer long before meeting a candidate:

• Who do we actually need, and which competencies really matter?
• How can we collaborate effectively with our recruitment partners?
• How can we assess candidates as objectively as possible?
• How do we give honest, constructive feedback, even when the answer is "no"?
• How can we talk about our work in a way that makes people want to join us?

These discussions became the foundation for a learning design framework that approaches recruitment as a complete journey – from identifying the need and preparing for recruitment to assessing candidates, providing feedback, and consciously shaping the employer brand.

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Our guiding principle was simple: managers don't need another textbook full of theory. They need knowledge and practical tools they can actually use.

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That's why we combined practical examples, videos featuring colleagues and industry experts, decision-making exercises, and self-reflection activities that help learners connect new insights with their everyday work.

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💡 3. What Makes This Course Different?

We didn't want learners to simply consume information. We wanted them to experience recruitment decisions, reflect on their existing habits, and experiment with new approaches.

To make that happen, we designed several practical learning experiences.

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An interactive recruitment journey helps managers understand which decisions and actions matter at each stage of the process and how their role connects with that of their recruitment partners.

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Interview simulations invite learners to analyse different interview situations, recognise common mistakes, and explore how to assess candidates' competencies and suitability more thoughtfully.

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A candidate experience story allows managers to see the recruitment process from the other side of the table. How does the candidate feel? Which decisions and communication choices build trust, and which might undermine it?

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Practical employer branding and personal branding exercises encourage managers to think about how they talk about their work and teams, and how they can make PPA more visible as an employer. Because an employer brand isn't shaped by the marketing team alone – it's shaped by every manager through their everyday actions.

Video interviews with colleagues and experts connect learning with real-world practice, offering perspectives from within PPA as well as broader insights into recruitment and leadership.

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One idea runs throughout the entire course: recruitment starts long before the job ad goes live.

That's why the course isn't just about choosing the right person. It's also about creating an organisation that the right people want to join.

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💬 4. Impact

Can one e-learning course really change the way managers think about recruitment and the decisions they make?

The initial feedback gives us reason to be optimistic.

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In the post-course evaluation, 96% of participating managers rated their understanding of the manager's role in recruitment at 9 or 10 out of 10. Similarly, 92% gave the same high rating to their awareness of how their behaviour and communication style influence the employer brand.

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But the learners' own words tell an even more compelling story.

For some, the course offered a new perspective on their role:

"I realised just how important the manager's role in the recruitment process really is."

"I feel that I now understand the recruitment process better than before."

For others, it was an opportunity to revisit established practices and refresh their recruitment skills:

"I have quite a lot of experience in recruitment and haven't really gone wrong so far :) The course was a good reminder of how important every step is."

What we found particularly encouraging was that learners also identified specific actions and principles they intend to apply in the future:

"The importance of the employee value proposition. In the future, I'll try to think it through and articulate it more clearly."

"Even a rejection can be a positive candidate experience."

And perhaps one learner's simple comment sums up the value of the course best:

"I needed this training a long time ago."

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The long-term impact of the course will become clearer through future recruitment experiences. But an important first step has already been taken: learners are reflecting more consciously on their role, recognising new possibilities, and expressing a willingness to put what they've learned into practice.

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Because better recruitment doesn't start with a better job ad. It starts with a manager who knows who they're looking for, why they're looking, and what kind of experience they're creating for every candidate.

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A big thank you to PPA and everyone involved for the trust and meaningful collaboration! 💙

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Course title: Recruitment and Employer Branding

Client and Publisher: Estonian Police and Border Guard Board

Project Management and Learning Design: MindShifters OÜ (Helena Heidemann, Jaanika Siiroja)

Subject Matter Expert: Minna-Maria Lõbus (Brandem OÜ)

Content Writing: Maarja Savi (OÜ Lugu Loeb)

Audiovisual Production: Director: Marta Pulk; Camera Operator: Mattias Veermets; Camera Assistant: Jekaterina Abramova; Sound: Kauri Lemberg; Makeup Artist: Kelli Neitsov

Actors: Tõnis Milling (Guide), Liisa Pulk (Manager)

Graphic Design: Grete Siim

Special Thanks To: Kadri Sooberg-Aettik, Riina Vaikmaa, Priit Lilleväli, Veiko Kommusaar, Regina Juga, Henry Murumaa, Irina Gross, Romet Niilus, Tiina Hiller, Rita Mesi, Jelena Roos, Enely Estaal, Merje Mägedi, Paul Pihelgas, Erkko Piirimägi, Silver Pälsing.

Completion Year: 2026

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