Blog

14/12/2022

By Chris Andrews – Managing Director

Hiring managers are front and centre in any recruitment process and often have more impact on outcomes than anything, or anyone else.

Are they doing all the heavy lifting on their own?   

They are the face of the company; they sell the opportunity to applicants and make the final decision on whether someone joins the team. It is therefore surprising, how little support they often receive in hiring. Here, we look at several ways they can be supported to ensure more effective outcomes on a regular basis.

Help them plan ahead

Workforce planning is a great way to support your hiring managers. It allows them time to review their team objectively, to think about the skills needed for delivery over the next year, and to start looking at where those skills are in the market. They can also take time to look at internal flight risks and create mitigation strategies based on scenarios. This means they are ready for whatever comes along, feel more in control, and make better decisions. It also provides insights into this decision-making around the team which can inform training needs down the track.

Challenge their job requisitions

When a hiring manager requests a new hire, they are often only challenged internally on the functional value of the role and the salary (what will they do for us and how much will they cost?). They are not pushed to outline the skills required outside of the functional ones, the traits of the ideal candidate, the drivers and career path opportunities, or how they will sell the opportunity to the ideal applicant. These are all important issues which should be addressed in advance, as standard procedure – it may be an extra step, but over time managers will develop better hiring decisions for it.

Coach them in real time

Most internal hiring KPI’s review what went wrong, some time ago in the past. In addition, they tend to be summaries of lag indicators rather than data that is useful in the short term. An example could be that ‘time to hire is X days’, or ‘Y % of current roles are unfilled for Z days at any one time’.  Clearly these are useful to know but they are the effect, not the cause. This is not much help to a busy hiring manager in one of the most candidate-short markets in recent memory. Managers need help in real time as they cannot afford to make any mistakes in the current climate.  Real-time coaching can identify and prevent the causes of failure as they happen. For example, a manager that takes too long to review resumes can be chased to move faster, or a manager who failed to sell the role in a first interview can be coached on how to sell way more effectively in the second one.

If you need support supporting your hiring managers, then reach out to us for a confidential discussion. We help you plan, map, brand, search, select and filter for talent and our approach is simple, effective and proven.