You should be on the same team, but hiring managers and recruiters don’t always speak the same language. Miscommunication leads to slower processes, more unqualified applicants and fewer of those elusive great hires. It causes more than a few headaches, as well.
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If you want smoother and more effective hiring, stop assuming and start communicating. Here’s how to do it and why it matters.
Write Better Job Descriptions
Miscommunication at the job description level can end in a slew of unqualified candidates and hours of wasted time for the recruiter and hiring manager. Communication brings both parties together so the job description is both accurate and effective.
According to HealthcareSource Director of Marketing, Rachel Weeks, at The Recruiter Magazine, it doesn’t matter who writes it. When hiring managers and recruiters collaborate on the job description, each party understands not just what matters, but also why.
Build Ideal Candidate Profiles
Along with the job description, a candidate profile helps recruiters understand on a deeper level what hiring managers need from a candidate. Sometimes, a situation requires a judgment call. The more information the recruiter has, the more likely their judgment will align with the hiring manager’s needs.
Fast Company says, ”Forget about being open to a range of skills.” Both sides of the talent strategy should work toward building a complete profile for the perfect candidate. Include requirements that the ideal candidate must possess as well as nice things that sweeten the pot.
Communicate Company Culture
Hiring managers understand the company culture much better than recruiters. The only way to convey it is, you guessed it, through communication. Regular communication offers clues about culture, but hiring managers can’t count on recruiters knowing the ins and outs.
There’s a caveat. Cultural fit helps new hires settle into the company and the off with fewer hiccups along the way. However, Financial Review explains that ”it might pay to hire a few square pegs after all.” Diversity, at least to some degree, helps make a company stronger and more creative.
Give and Receive Feedback
If you complain, at least in your mind, about your hiring partner, chances are they do the same. Hiring managers and recruiters need mutual feedback to keep recruiting strategies moving in the right direction.
Weeks explains that particularly for recruiters, feedback helps them get a clearer picture of what went right as well as what went wrong. When hiring managers don’t like a candidate, recruiters need to understand specifically why. If recruiters have difficulty understanding what the hiring manager wants, the onus is on the recruiter to ask for details to fill in those blanks.
Rely on Technology for Fewer Errors
The clearest and straightest path to a good working relationship is paved with communication. However, the vehicle that makes the journey better might very well be technology. Technology can’t replace the nuances of conversation, but it can make better sourcing and hiring decisions once the groundwork is in place.
With a great candidate profile, job ad distribution can hit the mark more often than it misses. Solid job descriptions help match candidates with the right jobs so the ads they see stay relevant. Programmatic ad buys work better when they’re based on data. And with predictive analytics, every improvement creates another layer of better sourcing and hiring results.
Good communication is the root of effective recruitment and hiring. That’s especially true when both sides of the hiring coin work in different offices or perhaps different parts of the world.
Work together and share what you know. The less guesswork, the better the results for hiring managers, recruitment professionals and all of the job candidates who make their way into the funnel. It helps all of the technology you rely on perform better, too.
If you’re ready to break out of the hiring rut and make real progress, have we got an offer for you.