During my time as an account manager with Greenhouse’s Customer Success team, I learned about some of the common challenges recruiters face with their hiring teams. Helping companies to create great recruiting processes and overcome related blockers is one of my favorite parts of working here, and in my time at Greenhouse I’ve partnered with more than 100 customers to achieve this. But no matter what the company, industry, or region, I consistently heard that recruiting teams needed more hours in the day—and that the hiring managers and executives they partner with feel the same way.
One of the superpowers of an account manager is helping create more time in the days of the customers they’re working with. I couldn’t make time move more slowly, but I could see the positive impact that proactive planning conversations and defined process could have. A few small, key actions helped interviewers, hiring managers, and executives to prioritize their hiring tasks without feeling it was a burden.
How can you save time for yourself and everyone on your hiring team—while also earning their respect and admiration? Read on for my top three tips!
1. Set expectations early
Your recruiting process begins long before you first post an open job—and with that in mind, you’ll want to hold a kick-off meeting to discuss timelines, process, and expectations before opening a new role. When expectations aren’t clear, it’s harder to move forward as a team—and leaves you at risk for miscommunication and delays. Before you begin collecting applications, talk with your hiring managers and executives, and determine what you each need to deliver throughout the hiring process. From there, you can establish realistic timelines for delivering on this work.
Some potential questions to discuss include:
How quickly will your recruiters review initial applications, and forward them to your hiring managers? How quickly do your recruiters need interview feedback to keep the process moving? And how should that feedback be shared? How quickly will your executives review and approve offers after interview feedback is collected?
Talking through these details before opening a role—and discussing the commitments you, your hiring teams, and your executives can realistically make to one another—will make it easier to check in when needed and hold each other accountable.
Just as many sales and marketing teams create Service Level Agreements (SLAs), you may find it useful to put an SLA in place with your hiring managers. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and there are no disappointments or unhappy surprises. For more on setting up a Recruiter SLA, check out the Talent Ops eBook: Become a Recruiting Business Partner.
2. Proactively send reminders and updates
Once the recruiting process has started, even the most engaged Hiring Managers and Executives will be juggling their assigned tasks in addition to their primary job function, making it easy to miss those agreed-upon timelines.
First, find out your hiring managers and executives’ preferred line of communication, and make note of whether they’d rather receive reminders by email, chat, or another method. Confirm the check-in cadence that will work best for each of the key members of the hiring team. If needed, also let them know when they should expect to receive automated reminders. (Greenhouse, for example, automatically sends an email to interviewers on the morning of their scheduled interviews, alerting them to these upcoming meetings. If you’re using an ATS with this feature, let your team know that these types messages are coming.)
Beyond any automated reminders, it’s now on the recruiting team to follow through. If you and your hiring managers agreed to a 24-hour turnaround for reviewing candidate applications—and you notice the task is still outstanding as the deadline approaches—ping your hiring manager to help them prioritize the work. If approval for an offer is still outstanding at the end of the day, reach out to your executives to see if there’s anything you can do to help keep things moving.
And most importantly: Follow the guidelines you established together. You may prefer that you get interview feedback returned within 24 hours (and there are lots of good reasons to collect it as soon as possible!), but if the hiring manager you’re working with has said they need a longer turnaround, stay attuned to those constraints.
3. Work around their constraints
In tandem with feeling strapped for time, your hiring managers and executives may find that they’re rarely at their desks, and are generally trying to check email, give input, and complete work on the go. With that in mind, try to identify ways to make it easier for your staff to stay on top of their recruiting deliverables regardless of location or limited time.
A few concrete ideas to help make completing recruiting work easier for those on the go:
Does your C-Suite have difficulty finding time to send interview feedback? Consider adding 10 minutes to their scheduled interviews, with the indication that this extra time is for writing and sending quick notes to the recruiting team.
Is your Sales Director regularly traveling? Or, have interviewers expressed that finding a résumé before an interview can be a challenge? Consider attaching a candidate’s resume directly to the calendar invite, so that your team can quickly find it when needed. In Greenhouse, a candidate’s résumé and cover letter are automatically included in the interview kit. If you’re not currently using Greenhouse, your ATS may have a similar functionality that allows you to get interviewers the information they need without an additional step.
Is it easy for your team to complete tasks by phone? Most ATS’s are also optimized for mobile, and many have a mobile companion app that lets your team access key functionality when on-the-go. See what’s possible, and be sure to communicate this functionality to your wider team (including new hires, or new hiring managers), to make it easier for them to complete tasks when running between meetings or traveling between offices. Note: If you’re using Greenhouse, check out our mobile capabilities and download the app here.
I hope that the points I’ve shared here help you see that you have a lot of power as a recruiter to manage your relationships with your hiring team. Creating a better relationship doesn’t just make your work more effective, but it makes it a lot more pleasant, too! Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to having a hiring team that loves you.
Want to learn more about building a better business relationship with your hiring managers and executives? Download a copy of the “Become a Recruiting Business Partner” eBook.