How to get hiring managers engaged in the recruitment process

Who is responsible for recruitment in your organisation? HR Business Partners? Talent Acquisition? Recruitment? Agencies? Your hiring managers? Chances are it's many or all of these.

What about candidate attraction? In many industries hiring managers playing a crucial role in candidate sourcing. Most notably in: Hospitality, Leisure & Tourism, Construction, Property & Facilities Management, Government & Public Services, Education, Retail & Wholesale and Health & Social Care*. However, often hiring managers are not equipped with the best tools to promote collaborative working.

In some cases, recruitment will be heavily centralised with hiring managers attending interviews and providing feedback to their recruitment team. Elsewhere, hiring managers may have much greater responsibility for raising job requests, gaining approvals, shortlisting candidates, scheduling interviews, creating offers and even kick-starting an onboarding process.

No matter how autonomous your hiring manager community is, their needs must be considered when implementing any new recruitment technology.

Recruitment harmony

One of the biggest hurdles to implementing a new recruitment process or ATS/E-recruitment solution is the buy-in from hiring managers. Working collaboratively with hiring managers doesn't just happen. It needs to be an inclusive process and made as easy as possible, so hiring managers have the right tools and 'buy-in' to the recruitment process. Often working remotely, hiring managers need to feel empowered, and it is crucial to gain their interest and show them how a new way of working can improve their day- to-day role.

Prepare for the change

One issue is that hiring managers aren't hiring every day and can feel overwhelmed at the level of change they are experiencing. Access to the intricacies of an in-house recruitment platform and expecting them to learn its whole range of functionality can result in low adoption rates and a breakdown in the online recruitment process.

Unfortunately, many Applicant Tracking Systems are designed for recruiters, not hiring managers. However, modern platforms provide a dedicated Hiring Manager Portal, accessible on any device and providing a streamlined, simple, task-based experience that lets them get the job done quickly.

The benefits of a Hiring Manager Portal can include:

• Creates a consistent way of working across the business.
• Channeling all recruitment feedback through the ATS allows for more meaningful reporting of decision making.
• Options for anonymised screening stages.
• Using standardised scorecards and feedback forms makes for a more level playing field at evaluation and interview stages.
• Automating reminders can help to ensure that activities are completed on time.

Hiring manager engagement toolkit

• To get hiring managers engaged in the recruitment process, you must communicate the common goal. Take them on the journey with you from the very start.
• Hold stakeholder sessions with business areas to share the vision for growth, focusing on providing the best recruitment and candidate experience possible.
• Plan training for hiring managers that will help them understand the strategy and how their role has an impact. Make training content available to access on-demand to suit individual requirements,

We have a handy hiring manager checklist that will help you identify how you currently meet the needs of your hiring managers and which areas could improve communication and collaboration.

The shared goal is to find the best candidates quickly and have transparency of activity. To achieve this, recruiters and hiring managers work together to move candidates through the process, ensuring consistency and accelerating hiring time.

Video, demo, datasheets - you choose!

Eploy works with you and your selection processes. For example, recruiters can manage the initial sifting and screening using Eploy's intelligent skills matching tools to identify potential talent. Then, your hiring managers can view the shortlisted candidates' details and even schedule their availability for interviewing.

If you want to find out more, get the hiring manager datasheet or book an online demo with one of the team. 

_{*Candidate Attraction Report 2020/2021}