When I was a recruiter, I often got frustrated with hiring managers when I found them a great candidate for a difficult role, did a good job selling the company and the culture to the candidate, only for the hiring manager to totally muck up the whole process!
The candidate loses interest, and all my hard work went to waste.
I know this happens to recruiters all the time. Only later in my career did I realise it wasn’t incompetence and a don’t care attitude for the most part, but a genuine lack of knowledge and experience on how to run a recruitment process professionally. Don’t get me wrong – you do get hiring managers who are total a-holes when it comes to recruiting new employees, to the recruiter and the candidates, but thankfully they are very much in the minority.
When someone is promoted to the manager through the ranks, most of the time companies do not provide training to the new managers.
Things like;
- How to manage a recruitment process,
- Managing their own as well as the candidate’s expectations,
- Formalising a recruitment process,
- How many interviews should take place,
- Who will be involved, what questions to ask, what questions NOT to ask and
- How to sell the company culture and benefits to a prospective employee.
Are all left to chance!
In larger organisations it is mostly up to Human Resources to create and drive the recruitment process, but ultimately it is still up to the hiring manager to take the final step and make the hiring decision. After all, this is who the candidate will work for, and if this person comes across as unorganised, uninformed, and doesn’t have the capability to assess if the prospective employee will fit into the team, the company can lose a great candidate, no matter how good the whole process flows.
I am surprised that most companies, small and large, still do not understand how important it is for the culture and reputation of a company to make sure they provide prospective employees with the best hiring experience. We live in a digital age where candidates and employees have access to platforms such as Glassdoor, Seek, Indeed and many more where they can voice their displeasure with a company and its processes, and believe me, candidates may not research a company’s website as thorough as they research reviews about companies on these platforms and any company who does not pay attention and value the community feedback on these platforms, does so at their own peril!
I understand many companies do not necessarily have the know-how and or funds to train managers in the recruitment process and interview techniques, and that is where a good recruiter comes into their own. Most companies do not utilise their agency recruiters to their full potential. Instead of complaining about the fee, they must pay for “receiving CVs”, why don’t they involve their recruiters in the process, from what a good process looks like, to providing good interview questions. You can even ask your recruiter to sit in on interviews to help you get the most out of an interview and help in assessing the candidate’s response to difficult questions.
Most professional recruiters welcome being part of the process and providing hiring managers with guidance and they see it as part of the value they add at no additional cost. This way they learn more about the culture, the team, and the manager so they become a valued consultant for when the next hiring process starts…. After all, nobody likes to replace an employee who didn’t work out and involving your recruiter more, minimises the risk of a replacement.
As a Hiring Manager with limited availability, it can be hard to find the right recruiters to work with.
iMaven only works with recruiters who are pre-vetted against their years of experience in recruitment as well as their experience in their current industry to ensure they can provide clients with the best services and advice. By allowing employers to rate the recruiters they work with, you know the recruiters you select are highly regarded by other employers and you can rate them based on your own experience when a job is completed.
To find out more about how iMaven can help make your life easier when you have to recruit for your next employee, give us a call on 1300 462 836 or head to the website imaven.com.au.