Recruiting leaders are investing in Applicant Tracking Systems, AI enhancements to these systems, Job Posting sites, and both RPO and domestic contractors, hoping to achieve incremental improvement in their candidate quality, process cycle times, while cutting costs.
But the greatest investment opportunity for recruiting leaders is in their development of the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their Hiring Managers.
Since the fall of the US job market in both 2001 and 2008, the role Hiring Managers play in the recruiting process has been focused on the definition of positions, and the evaluation of candidates.
This focus is the result of a 15-year period, from 2001 to 2016, when there were far more talented candidates looking for work than there were jobs.
During this period, employers didn’t have to sell, didn’t have to care about what candidates thought, and began actively looking for ways to automate and reduce the cost of their recruiting processes.
Recruiting organizations transitioned from Sales-based processes to Procurement-based processes, where the focus is only on the evaluation and selection of candidates.
As a result, Hiring Managers stopped being active, collaborative partners of their recruiting teams, instead becoming their customers.
That approach will continue to work for employers who only need to recruit generically skilled candidates, or candidates working in shrinking job markets.
But for employers seeking an advantage when they must actively, aggressively compete for hires out of a limited candidate pool, that model will only produce failure and frustration.
The shortest path to a competitive advantage when recruiting from a limited candidate pool is the return of the trained, empowered Hiring Manager. Here’s 5 reasons why:
Reason #1: No one has more potential touch points with the process.
From the definition of position requirements to the on-boarding and integration of new hires, Hiring Managers have at least 16 critical touch points with the process.
By training Hiring Managers to effectively execute against their opportunities to manage and perform transactions across all 6 steps in the recruiting process, they are empowered to lead the build of their teams as a partner, rather than a customer, to their HR team.
Reason #2: No one is better positioned to identify and deliver selling points about the company, the team, and the opportunity, enhancing candidate interest.
These are the 7 factors that will individually or collectively drive a candidate’s motivation to pursue an opportunity
Place: Location of the job
Products/Processes: The product or method of production
People: The opportunity to work with industry leaders or rising stars
Potential: Growth and/or profitability of the company
Position: Growth and/or enhanced path to advancement
Pay: Compensation plan components
Personal: Something unique, of specific interest to the candidate
Hiring Managers, if properly informed, are best positioned to field and respond to candidate questions regarding all motivational drivers.
Reason #3: No one is a higher potential, higher value advocate for the candidate.
Hiring Managers are best positioned to deliver against any commitments they’ve made to a candidate. Given their access to their management and HR team, no one should be more aware as to what they can and can’t do for a candidate.
If properly trained and prepared, Hiring Managers can become a powerful partner to HR in the preparation and delivery of offers that will be accepted.
Reason #4: No one has more to win or lose based on recruiting outcomes.
When a position goes unfilled for 30-60 days, the value of the resulting lost production can add up to 10’s, if not 100’s of thousands of dollars, while causing delays for all collaborative efforts associated with the unfilled position.
By enabling and empowering Hiring Managers to play an active, impactful role in all 6 steps of the recruitment process, employers give their leaders the opportunity to drive their own success.
Reason #5: Hiring Managers trained to excel in all recruiting transactions and touch points with candidates will get the highest value from their HR partners and systems.
The better two parties understand each other’s functions and transactions, the better prepared they are to partner in a collaborative effort.
