Almost all job openings anywhere start with a hiring manager wanting to replace a team member or to expand team capacity with a new hire. Obviously in both cases filling the role is presented as the highest priority and recruiters usually start cracking at it immediately to fill the recruitment pipeline as fast as possible. Some smart companies actually do have a talent pipeline ready and waiting for the new acquisition request to come in.
So where’s the problem? Hiring Managers genuinely do need help from their HR/recruitment team to find a suitable colleague. The problem starts once the candidates are sourced, selected and all lined up for their job interviews. Here’s 3 reasons why you will need to demand from the hiring manager to walk the talk:
When the Hiring Manager called you for help, the hiring request was very urgent and critical to the success of the team and company. So the recruiter better hurry in the best interest of the company. However, when the selected CVs are sent to the Hiring Manager and interviews need to be scheduled, suddenly it is hard to find time in the daily. In fact, 81% of hiring managers (survey: Research Now) admit to the fact that their lack of time can cause unnecessary delays in the recruitment process. But weren’t they in a hurry?
Most hiring managers will tell you what you want to hear. That they are looking for the best possible candidates with a skillset that complements and strengthens the team. They will even go as far as giving you the description of the impossibly perfect candidate. As a matter of fact, if you were even able to find this superstar candidate, you would probably not hesitate to replace the hiring manager with them. In the end most hiring managers just want recruits who have the potential to be friends (according to a study by Kellogg School of Management). But didn’t they just tell you they wanted the best possible candidate?
With all this urgency and time invested to find the right candidates, you would think that the hiring manager prepares well and makes sure there is a structured approach to the job interview. It is a significant time investment after all to spend on average one hour with each candidate and we all know they have waited too long to be able to come in. In reality most hiring managers print the CV just before candidates come in and take a quick glance only to look at the copy of the CV a bit longer in the actual interview trying to find clues on which questions to ask. The majority of hiring managers do not use any interview script, allowing a lot of room for personal bias and making it an impossible task to recap and compare candidates after the interview.
I personally believe that we can improve this process to the benefit of candidates and the companies hiring them. This should also be to the benefit of the hiring manager. The solution lies in both education and technology. Don’t stop when you have taken the brief from the hiring manager and start writing a job posting to be published on your company career page. Book timeslots for the interviews well in advance and help the hiring manager to develop a detailed interview script. You can also set up the process in such a way that more people are involved to collaboratively evaluate the candidates based on pre-set criteria, such as competencies or specific skills. Offer to join the interview so you can ensure quality. Obviously using video interview technology will help you power such a process with easy scheduling, panel reviews and scripted interviews that can reduce bias and increase the quality of hire. If you still need to sell video recruitment to your hiring manager, you can promise a process that is faster than anything they have ever seen. In our experience your hiring managers will be addicted soon enough.
