The working relationship between recruiters and hiring managers
can often be strained by poor communication, especially when recruiting for
tough-to-fill roles. Eighty percent of recruiters believe they have a good
understanding of the jobs they’re recruiting for, yet 61 percent of hiring
managers disagree, according to studies conducted independently by consulting firm
Deloitte and recruiting platform iCIMS.

Image source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140507222455-4228232-why-does-the-hiring-process-take-so-long-and-how-to-fix-it

But
recruiters can make that crucial relationship better by acting as talent
advisors, coaching hiring managers on the talent market, managing their
expectations and providing valuable information to develop an optimal
recruitment strategy.

Shanil
Kaderali, executive vice president of global talent solutions at San Jose,
Calif.-based Pierpoint International, a global recruitment process outsourcing
firm, discussed with SHRM Online how recruiters can work better with
hiring managers.

Here’s
a three-step approach that has proved very effective at building a
collaborative relationship with hiring managers and making all those purple
unicorns much more manageable and hiring goals more realistic.

First,
review the job description and collaborate with the hiring manager. The fear of
making a mistake is very high among hiring managers, especially for their
mission-critical hiring. Recruiters have to understand this and find ways to
collaborate. Challenge the job description if needed. This does require the HR
or talent acquisition professional to be committed in truly learning the
business and really understanding the roles beyond the words on the job
description.

Second,
support your case with data. Tools and services that provide data about the
addressable talent market are very valuable in setting expectations. Wanted
Analytics, Talent Stream and other candidate inventory tools use job postings
as a measure of demand and can provide a valuable picture of recruiting supply and
demand. These definitely help with the development of sourcing strategies,
especially with purple unicorn roles.

Lastly,
build functional expertise on your team. A recruiter may lack the knowledge of
a degreed engineer when assessing an engineering candidate but can certainly
know enough to ask the right questions. Recruiters should read blogs and use
other approaches to improve their knowledge of the roles. Really understanding
the day-to-day realities of the role and how performance is measured will provide
a big advantage when dealing with candidates and gaining credibility with
everyone involved in the hiring process.

Without
a basic understanding of roles, plus business acumen, becoming a true talent
advisor is much more difficult. Knowing the role and being able to speak to a
company’s values as well as its products and services are critical steps to
becoming more collaborative with your hiring managers.

Recruiting
is a big piece of HR. If the people involved are not on the same page, this
disconnect will most likely yield negative results for your company. Don’t lose
talent, let us help you with your recruitment process. Visit
our website for more information https://convergehrsolutions.com/.
Contact us directly at info@convergehrsolutions.com or
610-296-8550.

Article source: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/recruiters-challenge-hiring-managers-improve-search-process.aspx