How to Build Relationship Between Recruiter And Hiring Manager

How to build a collaborative workflow between recruiters, professional interviewers, and hiring managers? Today we would like to share with you the main secrets of the recruiter and hiring manager relationship that we use in Axterior and which can be useful for you.

What Is Collaborative Hiring?

Collaborative hiring is the process of team-based recruitment. As its name suggests, collaborative hiring is the recruiter/hiring manager relationship and interaction of these individuals in the hiring process.

We all know that solid collaboration and positive recruiter/hiring manager relationships are vital for the success of an organization’s talent acquisition process. There are many general rules on how to interact with hiring managers, but there aren’t many step-by-step manuals that can be integrated into the work process.

Main Challenges of Collaborative Hiring

Two years ago, our hiring team started growing fast. As a result, we needed to restructure interaction processes since most managers were excellent experts in their fields but had problems with hiring challenges.

The main bottlenecks and pain points we considered in the recruiter and hiring manager relationship during the development of the workflow were:

• Unclear selection process for all the participants;
• Slow interactions between hiring steps and a lengthy hiring process in general;
• Low ability to analyze the hiring workflow results (lack of statistics and feedback to improve the process).

Now the world is witnessing mass dismissals, and therefore the mission of HR managers is to optimize the hiring workflow so that the pace of hiring can meet the business needs of unstable economic times. And if your hiring budgets are already decreasing, then you should train and optimize the team for maximum efficiency with fewer participants. Let’s consider the process of building relationships with hiring managers in detail!

How to Begin Collaborative Hiring Workflow Properly?

Building any workflow should start with the determination of:

Purpose

Define the issues that a new workflow has to cover or improve. Think about your business needs - why do you need to implement the new procedure or improve the existing one? Realizing such gaps and pain points will help you rebuild the system to save time and resources.

Procedure steps forming

Prepare the model of the upcoming procedure and define all templates and documents you will need.  

Roles

Assign the responsible people and participants. The most common hiring team for companies up to 150 people includes a Recruitment Manager or HR Manager (internal or external like an agency), Professional Interviewer, Hiring Manager (internal or external as a client in service companies). Also, it’s important to remember that external hiring managers need closer interactions and more information about your internal processes.

Expected outcomes

Define the final result you wish to receive and success markers.

Preparation of a New Workflow

New vacancy briefing

Agreeing to all the position details before starting hiring activities is essential.

Position requirements gathering and pitch preparation. Define must-have and desirable skills, which can be obtained during the first working week as a part of probation goals, the definition of personal approaches and team values - soft skills and specific interactions in the current team, perfect candidate portrait, upcoming challenges and goals - especially important for high-level positions to decrease fast living because of lack of tasks. For more guidance on crafting a compelling job description that attracts top talent, check out our article on Development Director Job Descriptions. The collected information will be used to prepare the company/vacancy engagement texts and pitch (remember that workers are choosing us too).

Hiring flow set-up for the current position. Typical hiring steps include pre-screening, recruitment interview, HR interview (optional), professional interview, test task (optional), managerial interview, and references check (optional). Be sure to clarify all the necessary steps. It is necessary to have a test day or reference check etc. Will the hiring manager participate in the offer negotiation or not? Feel free to argue why some flows can be shorter for high-demand positions.  

Score maps and evaluation forms agreement. Be sure that you developed all evaluation forms for every step - necessary skills were implemented in the interviewing script, and you can evaluate it without biases. Make a transparent evaluation form for all participants and choose a skill for every step without duplicating questions. Be sure whose evaluation is more valuable and why. Also, in this step, we develop rejecting templates that can be clarified for each candidate.

Building the workflow model for all sides of the process. This means the way how all the participants will interact with each other during the interviewing and selection activities.

If you need job description templates for various positions, you can use our special blog posts, f.e., Full-stack software developer job description.

Models of interviewing process

In our company, we use 2 models of building the interviewing process - iterative and waterfall. It depends on the position's specifics and urgency.

Waterfall model

The waterfall model works better for non-urgent, managerial, or top-level positions when we need to friend the candidate. Since it takes more time and higher cost, use it only if you need to find someone specific.

Advantages of this model include regular communication for each candidate and the ability to correct requirements after every candidate to provide the next one more relevantly.

Disadvantages of this model are the long search and the possibility of losing pretty good candidates because of the lengthy hiring process. This model requires a clear understanding of the role and high negotiation skills to catch the candidate who already could be rejected some time ago. Also, the model isn’t so good for vacancies with strict deadlines.

Recruitment 1 - Tech - 1 - Managerial 1.
Recruitment - 1 - Tech 0 - Managerial - 0.
Recruitment - 1 - Tech 1 - Managerial - 0.

Feedback session is possible after every rejection.

Iterative model

Iterative model works better for fast hiring for positions that have to be closed urgently and do not require super-specific skills. Candidates can be provided time-to-time (like 1-2 times per week to the manager) to choose who from the selected group can be moved on to the next step or hired. A great option is to compare candidates and use less time with the hiring manager.

Advantage of this model is faster processing if you need to choose someone, not the best, but optimal for the role (and have an adaptation period to obtain the required skills).

Disadvantage of this model lies in the fact that requirements for hiring can be changed only after 1-2 interactions with candidate pools, so all descriptions for the position must be well-done at the beginning. This model is better for companies with experienced hiring staff.

Recruitment 6 - Tech 3 - Managerial 2 ( decision and feedback session after the whole pull).
Recruitment 6 - Tech 3 - Managerial 1 ( decision and feedback session after the whole pull).

Hiring roadmap preparations

Why does your hiring manager need to know about it? It’s not a usual step to share with a hiring manager, but it can be handy for high-level positions. Since transparency is the most crucial element in the hiring manager and recruiter relationship and the whole company, we pay attention to all the details. We usually clarify any additional sources to hire candidates - maybe some companies/universities / or even some candidates would like to be hired (and we need to start headhunting). Or if the manager has some red flags for any industries/companies etc., it's better to clarify such details onsite.

Evaluation forms

Evaluation forms for each step are the last preparation steps used during the interviewing process.

Clarify areas to check and evaluate (make a skills matrix). Create a separate block for soft skills (collected during the vacancy briefing) and technical skills. Clarify which skill will be more important and how to combine it. You should be ready to have a plan for such a case: to hire more experienced with some soft skills gaps OR excellent soft skills with some knowledge gaps (depending on the tasks for the probation period or long-term perspective). Be sure which skills have not to be checked twice on different steps and what have to.

Use Case: Iterative and Waterfall Workflows in Axterior

So, let us share with you how the Axterior internal hiring team works with the following 2 different recruiter - hiring manager relationship models.

1. Selection process - how to range validity of the talents in the Recruitment and Professional step

So we have all vacancy requirements and necessary templates, the perfect candidate portrait, and 2 models of hiring - how to prioritize candidates?

• Iterative model - allows us to collect a bigger group of people to let the hiring manager choose. We highly recommend making the first group with people of different experience ranges and additional skills and interviewing the whole first group to compare all the applicants. And even after the professional evaluation, choose a few candidates with the best evaluation marks from both steps -  for the next step. We use a group size of 4-5 specialists in one 2 weeks iteration to pass the whole cycle from application to managerial step.
• Waterfall model - requires prioritizing candidates and providing the most relevant at first. A feedback session is required after every rejection. By offering candidates one-on-one, we can improve the quality of candidates with every next applicant. This step requires high skills in the evaluation and interviewing process -  choose the most relevant candidate and range them by priority. Choosing one is more complicated than forming a pull.

2. Managerial step

Managerial step with Iterative Model - talent’s short and long lists of talents

So we finally have the last step of the journey - a recruiter is working with a hiring manager again. The group of selected candidates has final interviews. From 6 candidates chosen by the recruiter  - we have 1-2 for now. We’re sure these are the best of the group of options for the period. And we need to hire someone now  - these are the best candidates. If the best of the pool was failed, we have to change the parameters for entering the pool as a requirements update step.

Managerial step with Waterfall model - how to be sure that your candidate is the one (comparative presentation of the candidate with the perfect portrait)

If you have one candidate with upcoming options to compare - you have to use a perfect candidate model to be sure the skills are enough. That works for positions for replacement but only sometimes for newly opened positions. If the candidate is not relevant enough, but your manager would like to take them on hold - clarify the time of such hold (2-3 weeks) and the reason to make the candidate still engaged but keep waiting. And clarify what parameters need to be better for the subsequent hiring.

3. Engagement of a Manager in the offer process

If you clarified with your manager possible participation in the offer negotiation - help your manager to prepare the final pitch for the position, schedule the meeting for the 3 of you, and clarify the areas of presentation: HR/Recruiter benefits, Manager possibility of growth and value of the job. Don’t omit any nuances when building relationships with hiring managers since the success of your recruitment efforts depends on them too.

4. Overview and analysis step

Feedback session after the position is filled

It's useful to have an overview session after the position is closed to compare the experience of all the participants and even a hired candidate. 3 possible feedback to compare:

1. Feedback form for the chosen candidate (quality of the processing, information clearness, reason for the offer acceptance) - works for improving the selection and company pitching process (what catches candidates the most);
2. Feedback from the recruiter (availability of the requested information and interactions with the hiring manager) - works for following the agreed procedures and improving for the following vacancies;
3. Feedback form for the hiring manager (to rate the quality and quantity of the candidates, feedback about chosen hiring model, especially if you tried it the first time).

Feedback session after closing the Probation period

This part is not required but can be a helpful extension for your hiring process. HR Managers can be engaged in this step to provide information for the recruitment team.

1. Expectation/reality candidate’s form (to compare with the form filled after offer acceptance - how the expectations changes, if the candidate has the workflow he expected) - can help for similar upcoming positions or changing vacancy requirements or position pitch.
2. Professional evaluation (can help with possible changes to future hiring strategies and making short-lists of the donor companies). If the candidates for the specific company have the required skills.  

How to Improve Collaborative Hiring with Special Software?

Everything isn’t as complicated as it may seem. You can manage different hiring flows through a professional recruitment platform.

For example, Axterior recruitment platform can assist you with the following challenges:

• Set up in-depth job requests and organize responsible approvers management. This tool allows all hiring process participants to clarify all the position details in one CRM and create a specific process flow. You can quickly discuss all the details, make a request, get approvals from all participants and enjoy precise requirements.
• Customize vacancy flow and evaluation forms. You can create a specific working flow for your organization, add customized evaluation forms with particular functions, and enjoy all candidate`s data in the same place. Such an option is perfect for iterative search if you have to compare information about the group of candidates.

As you can see, the possibilities for collaborative hiring are almost limitless with the right technology. Such an automated platform can simplify your general HR workflow and reduce your time per hire by up to 23%!

Conclusion

Collaborative hiring can look different from company to company due to team dynamics and nuances in the hiring manager and recruiter relationship. But in general, this is a real rescue from the fatiguing daily routine of recruiters and HRs.

The best way to make better hiring decisions is to distribute the work and decision-making in a team. With the right tools, collaborative hiring can become the key success factor in your recruitment strategy. Do you want to see collaborative hiring in action? Try Axterior for free in one click!