Finding and hiring the perfect candidate is a team effort. It takes close collaboration with various members of a hiring team to carry a football from start to finish and achieve the best possible results for the company.
But, in many companies, recruiters are the ones in the driver's seat. In our TGTHR survey, we found that in 57% of organizations, it's the recruiter who owns the hiring process versus the hiring manager.
Unfortunately, recruiters often struggle to get hiring managers fully involved in the process. This can mean poor alignment as a team, and missed opportunities for hiring great new people.
In this article, we’re going to dig a bit deeper into why collaborative teams sometimes struggle to engage hiring managers, and the steps you can take to make this process easier.
But before we get started, let’s begin with the basics.
What is a hiring manager?
A hiring manager is an employee within the organization—typically a manager or director—who is in charge of initiating and overseeing the hiring process for new positions within their departments or team.
They request that a new position be filled, are the driver behind a new requisition being created and actioned, and are the go-to person for information about requirements and expectations. Hiring managers collaborate closely with recruiters and the HR departments to define job requirements, create ideal candidate personas, conduct interviews, and make the final hiring decision.
Most importantly, hiring managers have ultimate say over which candidate is hired at the end of the recruitment process. They also have a major impact retaining that new hire, as they typically work as the employee’s direct supervisor and mentor.
Because of this, it’s critical for hiring managers to take an active and engagement role in every part of the recruitment process.
16 important hiring manager duties
As you can imagine, the role of the hiring manager contains a laundry list of responsibilities, such as:
- Identifying staffing needs: Hiring managers—in collaboration with HR and workforce management teams—should continuously monitor the department's staffing requirements to ensure they have adequate resources at all times. This will allow them to initiate recruitment proactively to ensure team efficiency and productivity.
- Requesting a position to be filled. Once the need is identified, the hiring manager is responsible for formally requesting the creation or filling of a position based on identified staffing needs and. obtaining necessary approvals.
- Collaborating employer branding: Working with the HR and marketing teams, hiring managers can play an active role in enhancing the company's employer brand to attract top talent via job ads and outreach strategies.
- Advising of job requirements: Hiring managers must play an active role in crafting detailed job descriptions that accurately reflect the role's responsibilities and necessary qualifications.
- Setting realistic candidate expectations: Defining clear and achievable candidate requirements to streamline the selection process is a key requirement from hiring managers.
- Consulting on recruitment ads and sourcing strategies. Hiring managers collaborate with recruiters to develop effective job advertisements and sourcing strategies to reach a broad and qualified candidate pool.
- Coordinating with recruiters to drive the process forward: The hiring manager’s role once candidates start to role in is to maintain smooth communication and collaboration with recruitment to keep the hiring process on track.
- Engaging in pre-screening: Hiring managers are directly involved in initial phone screens or informal meetings to assess candidate fit early in the process and save time in later stages.
- Reviewing resumes and shortlisted candidates: In collaboration with recruiters, hiring managers also take an active role in evaluating applications and narrowing down the candidate pool to the most qualified individuals.
- Defining the interview strategy: Hiring managers play an active role in developing a structured interview plan that includes key questions and evaluation criteria to effectively evaluate candidates.
- Interviewing candidates: Hiring managers conduct interviews to assess candidates' skills, experience, and cultural fit with the team. They also may coach or collaborate with other interviewers, especially if a collaborative hiring approach is used.
- Reviewing results with the recruitment team: Hiring managers must be available to discuss interview outcomes with the hiring team to gain multiple perspectives and ensure a thorough evaluation.
- Making a final hiring decision: The ultimate say in which candidate is selected falls to the hiring manager. They’re job is to take all inputs and perspectives from the recruitment process into account, and make the best decision for the team and company.
- Working with HR to determine total compensation: Once a candidate is selected, hiring managers work with HR to establish a competitive and fair compensation package for the selected candidate.
- Making the job offer and coordinating acceptance with HR: Hiring managers may personally extend the job offer to the chosen candidate. They will also coordinate acceptance documentation with HR.
- Facilitating onboarding: Hiring managers take a central role in the onboarding process to ensure new hires are well-integrated into the team. This could include creating onboarding curriculums, setting in introductory calls with teammates, and acting as a mentor while the new hire ramps up into their position.
This list is, of course, quite lengthy and comprehensive. Hiring managers play a major role in the recruiting process, which can put a significant amount of burden on their plate.
A highly engaged hiring manager can help set the job search out on the right foot with proper guidance from the start. Of course, hiring managers are often incredibly busy people, meaning that recruiters and hiring teams must work collaboratively to help move the process forward. This comes down to ensuring that your hiring manager is engaged, and feeling confident that the hiring process is moving in the right direction.
The hiring manager’s role within a collaborative recruiting team
Collaborative hiring works by creating a strong, cross-functional hiring team. This means that the team is made up from people who work in different departments and at various seniority levels.
Useful definition:
Useful definition:
Collaborative hiring is very much a ‘divide and conquer’ technique that leverages the team member’s unique skills and roles to achieve the best results.
The hiring team is responsible for every phase of the recruitment process, and its impact will depend on how it’s implemented. The hiring manager, of course, plays a central role on this hiring team.
As mentioned, they’re the team member that initiates the hiring process. They often request the position to be filled, and are therefore the catalyst for the entire hiring process. They define requirements, interview candidates, and make the final hiring decision.
Other members of a collaborative recruiting team that work alongside hiring managers include:
- The recruiter oversees the end-to-end hiring process, and coordinates closely with each of the other team members listed below.
- The HR lead manages important administrative tasks like organizing candidate documents, maintaining the ATS, and orchestrating salary and benefits.
- The sourcer does much of the legwork for hunting down the right talent, and is often in charge of sourcing new or existing candidates for the role.
- Core team members will help with defining job requirements and screening potential candidates. They are the team members who the new hire will work with, so they are usually brought in to share their opinions about job expectations.
- The direct supervisor should be involved alongside a hiring manager and recruiter. They will be in charge of ensuring the right candidate is hired and onboarded effectively.
- The CEO/Owner may be brought in to showcase the vision and values of the company to help sell the employer brand. This will help assess the cultural fit, too.
Hiring teams come in many shapes and sizes, but the hiring manager is always a central piece in these recruitment activities. Keeping them engaged, therefore, is critical to a successful hiring process.
Why hiring manager engagement is important
An engaged hiring manager has a direct impact on efficiency of the hiring process, and the quality of fit for the selected candidate.
When hiring managers are actively involved in the recruitment process, they provide essential insights into the specific needs and nuances associated with the role and industry. This comes in handy at a variety of points in the requirement process, most notable when creating job descriptions and interviewing candidates.
Direct and active engagement from the hiring manager helps align the recruitment strategy with the department’s goals, culture, and skills gaps. This ultimately leads to a better candidate fit and a higher likelihood of retaining the selected hire.
Disengaged hiring managers, on the other hand, can wreak havoc on a recruitment process. Without their input, recruiters will lack a clear understanding of job requirements, leading to misaligned and poorly targeted recruitment ads. The down-funnel impact is that the wrong candidates apply, and are screened based on the wrong criteria. This ultimately can result in a costly bad hire.
In addition to the risk of bad hires, disengaged hiring managers also delay the hiring process overall. Poor communication can extend the time between touchpoints, frustrating top candidates and risking them dropping out of the process.
Learn 24 skills you need to succeed as a recruitment manager
5 reasons a hiring manager might not be engaged
More often than not there is a clear reason why a hiring manager might not be fully committed to the recruitment process, and it often comes down to either communication or previous experiences.
Here are some common reasons why a hiring manager might not seem engaged. We’ll dive into how to tackle these issues in the next section.
1. They don’t trust HR, or have had bad experiences in the past
It’s possible that a hiring manager might have a taste in their mouth about recruiters or HR. It’s your job to ensure that their experience with your hiring team is different.
2. They don’t know how the recruitment process works
Being unsure about how something works can often lead to a lack of confidence, leading to poor engagement. Make sure to always be transparent about the process, and willing to help get your hiring manager up to speed.
3. They’re too busy
This is probably the most common one, and a tough barrier for many recruiters. Taking steps to make the process as streamlined as possible helps to take the burden off hiring managers.
4. They aren’t sure what to ask for
Again, this comes down to a lack of awareness about the process. It’s your job to work with hiring managers to help them formulate an idea of what they need, and how to get it.
5. They aren’t confident in their ability to interview or screen candidates.
Keep in mind that hiring managers aren’t recruiters. So they likely won’t have the same skills as you. Identify this skills gap early on, and take steps to address these concerns.
Now that we’ve tackled some common reasons why a hiring manager might not be engaged, let’s look at how you can reverse that trend.
How to get hiring managers involved in the collaborative hiring process
Techniques for engaging your hiring manager will obviously vary on a case-by-case basis. No one person is exactly the same, so your approach for each new requisition might need to adapt accordingly.
Overall though, your strategy should ensure a clear and consistent line of communication, and assurances that your hiring team is there to help and drive the process forward where needed.
With that in mind, here are some techniques you can use when you want hiring managers to get involved in the collaborative hiring process:
- Hold a discovery session to get a clear picture of what kind of candidate they’re looking for. You should also clearly lay out what the recruitment process will entail so that the hiring manager is clearly informed from the outset.
- Clearly define your ideal candidate early on. Establish clear parameters for job requirements, education, experiences, and responsibilities, and move forward with a shared vision.
- Define what success looks like. Identify what requirements are must-haves, and which are 'nice-to-haves'. Establish target timelines and costs to set clear expectations for what a successful hire will entail.
- Always be transparent. Share data into what hiring techniques have worked, what hasn't, and what might be effective for this requisition. Continue to share data about the requisition as the hiring process unfolds.
- Tap into the manager’s pain points to keep them motivated. Hiring managers likely have a strong need for help within their department, which can be a major motivator for keeping the recruitment process going. Stay in touch with hiring managers, and show that you’re working with them to alleviate pressure points.
- Provide continuous feedback. The recruitment process is a give and take between hiring manager and recruiter, aimed at finding strategies that work, and weeding out those that don’t. This can only be accomplished if you’re giving hiring managers honest feedback about what’s working, what isn’t, and whether there needs to be a change of expectations.
- Train hiring managers on interview techniques. Not everyone has experience interviewing candidates, so it’s important to give your hiring manager a primer on how the process works if needed.
- Keep the lines of communication open, and regularly collaborate to identify the best way to keep the process moving forward.
As you can see, getting hiring managers to take part in the collaborative hiring process is all about teamwork and communication.
Your hiring manager is a fundamental part of your team, and everyone involved in the process should take ownership of the result.
Managing expectations and processes early on is the best way to ensure that your hiring team knocks it out of the park on each and every new hire.
Hiring manager FAQs
What’s the difference between a hiring manager and a recruiters?
A hiring manager is responsible for making the final hiring decision and managing the new employee, while a recruiter focuses on attracting and screening candidates for the hiring manager.
What’s the difference between a hiring manager and an HRBP?
A hiring manager oversees the recruitment and decision-making for their department, whereas an HR Business Partner (HRBP) provides strategic HR support and aligns HR initiatives with business goals.
How do you collaborate with a hiring manager?
Recruiters can collaborate with a hiring manager by maintaining clear communication, setting mutual expectations, involving them early in the hiring process, and providing regular updates on candidate progress.
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