Season 4, Episode 13:

The Hurdles that Recruiters Face with Hiring Managers

This week on Recruiter Fuel, Steve sat down with Qualigence Recruiters, Melissa and Hanna, to discuss some hurdles that recruiters face with hiring managers. One of those hurdles would be when hiring managers don’t have every necessary detail about a role they are trying to fill.

What are the things you wish a Hiring Manager was prepared with when they come in to talk to you about a role?

Hanna said the key thing is giving the recruiter what is expected of that person to accomplish in terms of a measurable type of goal. Job descriptions need to be set aside. We are in a candidate driven market and the right information needs to be provided to sell the opportunity – what’s going to be fun in the role and what are the challenges that will be presented.

If a manager doesn’t know the expectations of the role but has the job description, what is the challenge in that?

“The job description is the challenge”, joked Melissa. There is so much more to a job than just the skillset. A job description doesn’t include other important details such as the goals expected of a new hire after three months, six months, or after a year. In fact, many job descriptions were created the last time the position was open, which could have been one year, or it could have been five years ago. A lot can change in the work place in that amount of time.

In terms of deliverables, three, six, or twelve months from now – give a practical example of what a recruiter would be looking for.

Melissa used the example of a Sales Manager position. She continued, “What type of sales goals are they going to have for their team? Where does their team have to be at a certain point? Where is the team currently? How much sales need to be made up for the year?” Steve put it blatantly, “So, we have to be honest with the candidate too? We can’t just say it’s a great opportunity and this is why they should go join?” – Yes, you do have to be honest, Steve! It’s important to present the candidate with the challenges they’re going to be faced with so that they are prepared when they walk into that role. “If the candidate is prepared, that’s going to lead to a better ‘long term success’ if they understand the role fully and all the challenges that come with it” said Hanna.

“What frustrations or challenges are you currently facing with hiring managers?”

Hanna said her biggest issue is timing. She’s constantly hearing from hiring managers, “oh I’m so busy, I’m so busy but this is a really important need!” If it is such an important need, then you need to make time for it. Hanna feels that hiring managers need to be getting back to candidates and recruiters within in 48 hours. “It’s common practice and if you are not mindful of peoples time and understanding the market, you’re going to lose out on those candidates because other clients or other companies are moving at that rate because they understand.”

Hanna gave another practical example that I’m sure many recruiters can relate to. A hiring manager told Hanna that the Director role they were looking to fill was all focused around improving customer service. There was little explanation beyond that. Hanna wanted to know, “how is improving customer service being measured? Where are you at currently? What does measuring customer service success look like? Is it giving more back to your clients? Providing more services?” and usually those questions are answered with, “I wasn’t prepared for that. Wow, I’ve never had someone ask me that before or I’ve never thought about that before.”

If candidates have never been asked these questions before, that would mean a previous recruiter never asked those questions. Is that a common occurrence?

Melissa thinks it is a common occurrence. “I think a lot of recruiters have gone off of job descriptions and get the order and that’s what they’re working off of” said Melissa. No recruiter wants a call from their candidate on week one with complaints about the job.

If a recruiter goes on an intake call and the hiring manager does not have all the information or doesn’t know all of the expectations, should you start recruiting? What if you’re a corporate recruiter that needs to support all of your clients, should you start recruiting?

Your answer to both of those questions should be no. It’s important to go back to the hiring manager and clear up any questions before you start looking for candidates so that you don’t end up sending candidates that they’re not wanting to interview. There ends up being a miscommunication and could leave the hiring manager with the impression that you don’t know what you’re doing. The key thing is to educate the hiring manager on WHY you need the specific information.

Steve’s advice to recruiters that struggle to get the information they need from hiring managers?

You’re the one training your hiring manager. It’s the recruiter’s job to retrain the hiring managers on what information is important. “We’ve created the monsters in the hiring managers that we have because we didn’t hold them accountable to bringing in the information that we really need to be successful OR we didn’t know what questions to ask” said Steve.

In order to get your hiring managers to change, you need to be consistent, you have to be willing to push back, you have to be willing to say no to filling that job without all of the information. You have to retrain your hiring managers.