Part 2: Hiring Manager Roadblocks, Making Improvements

This blog post is the second in a series of five posts based on our webinar with Greenhouse, 10 Hiring Manager Recruiter Roadblocks and How to Overcome Them. Within an organization, each team or department should work side by side like cogs in a well-oiled machine. The partner relationship between recruiter and hiring manager is a terrific example: one cannot function successfully without the work and cooperation of the other. Meanwhile, the job market is red hot. Most likely, candidates you’ve brought in to interview are exploring several job options. If there is a lack of communication post-interview between your hiring manager and recruiter, your organization might miss out filling an open position with the ideal candidate, who may look elsewhere while miscommunication reigns. Improving your process Recruiters and hiring managers lead busy work lives. Often, they overlook responding to candidates simply because they’re focused on other duties, paperwork or daily assignments. Not responding, therefore, may be more about workload rather than concern or misgivings about a candidate’s interview, skills or cultural fit. Still, when recruiters receive no replies from hiring managers, that forces them to determine alone if a candidate should continue or not. This not only convolutes the hiring process (i.e., “the Ripple Effect”), but also may ultimately result in the wrong person being hired. It is imperative to have an understanding of the hiring responsibilities within your organization; otherwise, hiring managers can and do blame recruiters for fumbling the candidate ball and vice versa. Simply put, with a lack of clarity, problems arise. 1. Be persistent Rather than mere inconsideration or a simple time crunch, unresponsiveness may stem from shifting requirements. For example, ask your hiring manager if the position is no longer a priority. Has it been put on hold? Is someone being promoted internally? Regardless of the reason, you need an answer. In today’s competitive recruiting landscape, telling your manager or the executive leadership “our hiring manager is being unresponsive” is simply unacceptable, even amateurish. As a recruiter, it’s your job to get an answer! So how do you do this? 2. Get their attention Whether by text, email, voicemail, chat or simply dropping by for a quick, 10-minute chat, get your colleague’s attention. If you must, find out if they arrive early to work or stay late—often, these are the best times to grab time. Above all, come prepared with the questions you need answered to move the hiring process forward. And be succinct! By demonstrating that you understand your colleague’s time is valuable, you’ll start to build real rapport, which will set you both up for success in hiring great candidates. 3. Use your allies If all else fails, call on your manager to break the silence deadlock and stimulate communication. After all, candidates left in the dark about where they stand in the hiring process are bound to look elsewhere. Certainly, both hiring manager and recruiter need to respect a candidate’s time and journey. If it takes a manager’s intervention to get things rolling, so be it. Losing great candidates to miscommunication is far worse than potentially hurt feelings or bruised egos. At Glassdoor, we want to make the hiring process run like a well-oiled machine. Check out our webinar 10 Hiring Manager Roadblocks and How to Overcome Them for insight into effectively communicating within your organization – and stay tuned for the next post in this series!