Both the term and responsibilities of a Hiring Manager should be well known to every recruiter out there. Also, Hiring Managers themselves should understand what their job involves – and what it doesn’t. Meanwhile, this is not always the case, and there are occasional tensions between recruiters and Hiring Managers. In this article, we will explain who a Hiring Manager is and what their responsibilities in the recruitment process are.
Who is a Hiring Manager?
Generally speaking, a Hiring Manager is responsible for hiring the best candidate for a vacancy. Hiring Manager doesn’t have to be – and typically is not – an HR employee. Hiring Manager is usually the person in charge of the department the recruitment has been open for, so they are the future managers of the employees being looked for.
As such Hiring Manager is not responsible for the recruitment process itself, meaning that candidate sourcing, screening, inviting for an interview, etc. are not their job. Nevertheless, Hiring Manager is the key person in the whole process and its outcome depends on their actions.
What is a Hiring Manager responsible for?
Let’s have a look then at the Hiring Manager’s responsibilities. Hiring Manager:
- Decides that there is a need for a new employee and formally requests hiring of one – both a replacement for an employee who has decided to leave the company, and creating an entirely new role within the organization.
- Discusses the above with senior management involved in making key financial decisions (i.e. CEO, COO) and gets formal permission to start the recruitment process.
- Creates a precise job description for the HR department to base the job advertisement on. This is a very important part as it will decide whether or not the whole process will be successful. Candidate requirements should be realistic and adequate to the job responsibilities, and both should be described in great detail.
- Defines requirements and expectations for the HR in relation to the recruitment, mainly the interview: its character, length, number of stages, tests and tasks requested of candidates, etc.
- Independently of standard HR activities, Hiring Manager sends out the info on new openings both internally and externally, including their professional network outside of the organization, to encourage referrals of candidates that meet the criteria.
- Conducts interviews alongside the HR, evaluates candidates’ skills and experience, and – even more importantly – candidates’ compatibility with the team and the organization culture.
- Verifies candidates’ references, if required.
- Picks the best candidate, offers him/her the job, and negotiates the contract, including salary.
- Builds a rapport with the new employee on that ‘in-between’ stage after accepting the job proposal and before actually starting work.
How to set up cooperation with Hiring Managers?
To avoid the tensions mentioned at the beginning of this article, it is a good idea to go together through the above list of responsibilities and make sure that both parties are on the same page. It is also important to make the Hiring Manager realistic about their expectations and clear about the situation on the job market: the size and quality of the talent pool, and an estimated time that finding the best candidate can take (you can support your case with your internal statistics).
It is also a good idea to discuss candidate requirements to avoid situations when Hiring Manager’s expectations towards candidates’ skills and experiences are not realistic or inadequate for the job.
Make sure you also sensitize them that they act on behalf of the company, becoming its ‘interface’ in communication with the candidates. It is crucial then for them to act professionally at all times, as this can heavily influence chosen candidate’s decision on accepting the job offer.
Seamless communication is the key. Choose the best channel to communicate fast. Some applicant tracking systems provide an option to share a candidate’s profile and add notes. That way, you can save time on sending CVs and other details via email and get feedback easier. It’s crucial for decreasing time to hire and improving the candidate experience.
Conclusion
Hiring Managers and recruiters play on the same side and their jobs complement each other. But it is a Hiring Manager who is the key in the entire recruitment process. That’s why you need to make sure they’re aware of it and well prepared for what’s ahead. Finding the perfect candidate will then become much easier.
