20 Pieces of Advice for Hiring Managers – Part 1

Hiring managers have one of the hardest jobs at any enterprise, and also the most important. After all, they have to put together the team(s) responsible for every success or failure, but have only a limited number of resources to draw on to source and evaluate candidates. In order to try to make the mission of hiring managers a little easier, we have put together a list of advice:

  1. Get Personal – If you will be overseeing the hired candidate, create a narrative describing your own experience with the company and your reasons for staying on board. Basic job descriptions often do a poor job of describing the actual employment experience.
  2. Define Success – It’s frustrating for both managers and new hires when benchmarks for success are either unclear or unattainable. When vetting candidates, make sure you’re explicit about what success in the role looks like.
  3. Establish Trust – Your relationship with the chosen candidate will likely, or even necessarily continue after the hiring process is over. Make sure that candidate trusts you to be a partner in their long-term career advancement.
  4. Gather Consensus – There are many stakeholders involved in any hiring process. Make sure that each is on the same page about the purpose of the recruiting process and the character/qualities of the ideal candidate.
  5. Be Real – Make sure you know exactly what your perfect candidate looks like in terms of both credentials and personal qualities. Then determine which of those traits is mandatory, ideal, or simply desired.
  6. Act Fast – You don’t want to rush the hiring process, but at the same time, dragging it out too long does a disservice to both your company and potential candidates. Be timely about responding to resumes and scheduling interviews.
  7. Create Structure – One of the problems that often weakens the interview process is that every interview is conducted a little differently, thus failing to provide a true comparison of candidates. Make the process as structured and systematic as possible.
  8. Be Fair – You can’t expect top talent to want to work for you if they will objectively earn less than the average of similar professionals in the same region. Do your research before establishing compensation packages.
  9. Act Competitively – In many industries there is tough competition for simply qualified candidates, to say nothing of top talent. Remember that you’re competing against hiring managers at other companies for a talent supply that often falls short of demand.
  10. Partner Up – Establishing a relationship with a specialized staffing partner solves many of the most common staffing woes and has a measurable impact on the quality of the process overall. If recruiting and retention is regularly an issue consider relying on outside resources.

We will be back next month with 10 more pieces of advice for hiring managers. If you would like to have a conversation directly about hiring, contact one of the experts at The Squires Group.


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