4 Reasons Why Hiring Managers and Recruiters Should Collaborate More

These days, work environments are growing increasingly collaborative. We tend to approach our jobs and our companies from a team-centric perspective. Departments are being redefined as cooperative groups, and employees are encouraged to reach out to their coworkers to accomplish projects and goals. It seems that great things happen when teamwork is the name of the game.

So then, why is it that talent acquisition professionals and hiring managers are often at odds when it comes to making new hires? Shouldn’t collaboration be key in the recruiting process, too?

Collaboration Can Boost Recruiting Success

Vistage, which provides peer coaching and advisory groups for executives and business owners, has a great tagline that I’m really fond of: “Find out what happens when the group meets.” This is a wonderful and positive message is all about the power of collaboration. It reinforces a shared purpose in business: We’re all in this together. In today’s increasingly team-oriented work environment, it also serves as a reminder that many voices can strengthen a project.

However much companies preach collaboration, the unfortunate reality is that the relationship between talent acquisition departments and hiring managers is often very tense. This should come as too much of a surprise, though. Often, these stakeholders have separate business goals and handle separate pieces of the hiring process. In many companies, the two are very rarely in contact with one another outside of brief notifications regarding openings and candidates.

Shouldn’t the hiring process be more integrated? If business collaboration is so great, couldn’t increased collaboration enhance recruiting success?

The answer to both of these questions is a firm “Yes.” Consider the ways in which talent acquisition departments and hiring managers can collaborate to produce better hires:

1. Developing Stronger Talent Pools

A hiring manager has likely been in their industry and/or department for a good many years. During that time, it’s only natural that they would have developed wonderful industry contacts.

Talent acquisition can actually develop stronger talent pools by consulting hiring managers. The hiring manager’s own network is likely to be a great place to mine for new candidates.

Talent acquisition professionals can benefit greatly from conferring with hiring managers on where to find new candidates for a role. Especially in industries and/or roles requiring highly specialized skills, this guidance can strengthen the talent pool and produce better candidates for consideration.

2. Developing More Attractive Job Descriptions

A hiring manager is the best resource for job descriptions. They know which skills are actually needed in a given position. Talent acquisition pros can fill in the blanks around these key skills. By developing more realistic and targeted job descriptions, employers can attract candidates who better match a role.

3. Screening Candidates More Effectively

Collaborative interviews are a great way to enhance recruiting success. What better way to collaborate than to involve the hiring manager in the process early on?

Technology can really help here. In video interviews, up to 16 team members can fit on one screen to conduct a panel interview. This the enhances diversity of the questions asked and make it easier for interviewers to gain the information they need. With more information on their hands, interviewers can make more accurate decisions when screening candidates.

4. Encouraging Smooth Transition

When candidates are hired, they have certain expectations, and these expectations are often set by talent acquisition. Sometimes, however, talent acquisition doesn’t do a great job of framing the role properly, and this can cause new hires to jump ship relatively early when they find out the role and/or company is not what they expected.

Collaboration with hiring managers can encourage a smooth transition into a role and set a candidate up for a better experience. Hiring managers generally know the open position much better than the recruiters do, and they can help candidates set more realistic expectations. This, in turn, will ensure that candidates are not in for any nasty surprises, meaning they’ll be less likely to leave the company early. More realistic expectations will also help the company better attract the kinds of candidates who are likely to thrive in the position.

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If you want to boost hiring success at your company, try collaboration. Teamwork truly does make the dream work, and hiring managers and talent acquisition departments can both benefit from more cooperative hiring processes. Together, talent acquisition pros and hiring managers can find better hires – the kind of hires who will take the company to the next level.