How Hiring Managers Can Improve The Quality Of Hire

When companies start talking about sourcing, engaging and hiring the best talent, the conversation always turns to attraction strategies, recruitment technology, social recruiting and recruitment process. This was very evident at this week in Paris at HR Tech World Conference - Europe’s biggest HR conference. There were many vendors and speakers with products and sessions respectively, covering every aspect of the recruiting lifecycle - and they all ultimately came down to the conversations above. The standout session for me was about a subject that many companies overlook (at their peril), how hiring managers can improve the quality of hire.
Every single recruiter can tell you about multiple occasions where the hiring managers have directly contributed to a lost hire or a lost fee. The reason could be any one of: pre-conceived ideas, bad interview technique, ignorance, not selling the opportunity or the company (to the candidate), poor preparation, untimely feedback (if at all) etc. etc. You know exactly what I mean.

Now I am not on a hiring manager witch hunt here - to be fair, they are not trained recruiters and they have a job to deliver on within their company, so don’t necessarily have recruitment high on their agenda. Too many hiring managers expect the HR and recruiting teams to deliver them the perfect candidate, without much help from them, and moan like hell when that doesn’t happen. There are however, a growing number of hiring managers that now understand the important part they can play in improving the quality of the hire, and who are working closely with their recruiters to help them do this.

Hiring managers are critical to recruiting talent in every company, yet it is the part of the recruitment process that companies acknowledge, yet (ultimately) do little to change. So back to Paris and the session I referred to earlier. John Vlastelica, is one of the world’s leading recruitment strategists and works with many of the Fortune 500 companies, helping improve their recruitment efficiency via his consultancy Recruiting Toolbox. His session was all about how the hiring managers can greatly improve the quality of hire in any organisation - and it was spot-on!

I wanted to share three slides that I shared on the day via Twitter, that really encapsulated his message, where he uses many successful client examples, to show how hiring managers can be more effective in helping recruit the best talent.

1. How to use hiring managers better in attracting and engaging the best talent.

2. How hiring managers can be more effective in interviewing and selecting the best talent.

3. How partnering with hiring managers and rewarding them (non- monetarily) can raise the quality of hire.

Obviously I appreciate you are not getting the full story behind each company story, but they provide an excellent snapshot of the many different ways companies are embracing hiring managers and making them a key part of the recruiting process.

If you want to grab a copy of John’s slides from the conference, then you can obtain the presentation from his website. 

If you have any success stories of how your company has managed to get the hiring managers to become an integral part of your recruiting process, then please share them in the comments below.

If you want to discuss / need help with regards to improving your recruitment process, just let me know. And remember, if you like this post, don’t forget to subscribe to Sirona Says blog to ensure you don’t miss the weekly posts.