A recruiter’s job is tough. With the power in the job seekers hands, a recruiter has to dig deeper and think of innovative ways to fill a role with the perfect candidate. As the talent pool shrinks the task of filling many job requisitions can be tough on its own, but what about when you’re filling a role and outside factors like employer brand, interview processes, and the job description are out of sync?
When recruiters face a bad employer brand, it makes recruiting much more challenging and when interview processes are long and drawn out making a candidate uninterested, keeping the candidate is a challenge. And to start the entire process off with a terribly written job description that asks for things only purple squirrels would have makes it even more impossible to fill open roles. The simple solution? Consulting your hiring manager when things beyond your control affect the ability to get your job done will help both sides hire faster and smarter.
We’ve come up with a few issues that recruiters tackle on a day to day basis and offer a piece of advice on how to talk with your hiring manager to make things right.
4 Ways to Consult Your Hiring Manager When Given a Hard to Fill Role
Your brand is off.
If your brand isn’t on point, you could be missing out on a lot of candidates. Your employer brand dictates how candidates perceive you. Sites like Glassdoor have been able to capitalize on the reviews and rating systems between candidates and employers. When a candidate is looking for a new job whether passive or active, Glassdoor is an excellent resource for them to see what other candidates have gone through and essentially if the employer is someone they ideally want to work for. If your employer brand is off, it’s going to be hard to fill your next role.
Pro Tip #1: Consult with your hiring manager to understand why candidates lose interest in the process. Conducting exit interviews for all candidates will help you figure out what isn’t working and how to help fix parts of your employer brand that are suffering because of it. Whether it’s a bad interviewer, the interview process (which we talk about below), or the negative perception of your company. Exit interviews will surely help you get back on the right track for all employer branding issues.
The interview process is long and drawn out.
Remember when you applied for your current job? Did you wait weeks on weeks to go through different stages of the interview process? Did you have a six-hour panel interview grilling you from everything to metrics to hypothetical situations? Believe it or not, that’s a complete turnoff for all candidates. Companies who are quick to hire and fill a job requisition will eventually be an employer of choice for candidates across all industry verticals. Streamline your process and stop wasting both your time and the candidates.
Pro Tip #2: Talk to your hiring manager about the ability to shorten and simplify your interview process. No one needs to go through five questionnaires, three initial interviews, followed by a panel interview, and finishing off with an interview of a c-suite executive. While finding the right candidate is imperative, understand that the candidate isn’t going to stick through a six-week interview process. Make it short and sweet while getting the most out of each interview. A candidate should never have to come into the office more than three times max.
Your job description doesn’t match the actual job.
Have you ever read seven to ten years of experience for a job that requires only three to five years of experience? Writing a job description will make or break a recruiter’s ability to hire for a job. Make sure your expectations, must-haves, and nice to haves are spelled out correctly. Not only will you prevent from candidates applying who aren’t qualified at all, but you set the right expectation for everyone. This gives recruiters the ability to find candidates who fit within the two different boxes.
Pro Tip #3: As a recruiter, make sure you’re in constant communication with the hiring manager so you can fully understand the needs of each job. If something sounds a little off, have a conversation and see what exactly needs to be written in the job description. Talk about must-haves, want to have, and not necessarily needed when it comes to the job description. This will help prioritize candidates and the ability to fulfill a role successfully.
No clear advancement opportunities.
Keeping the position interesting and full of opportunity will get every candidate to apply. If you’re hiring for a software engineer or a content marketer, write the job description and sell the job as a launching point to a bigger career. This will not only create a sense of commitment, but it’ll give you better selling points for an entry-level position. If you’re hiring for a more seasoned job, sell it as a chance to help shape strategy or sell it as a seat at the table. Regardless of the level, it’s important to sell, sell, sell.
Pro Tip #4: This ties into the job description and how a recruiter is to sell the job. Consult with your hiring manager to understand the career path of each role you’re recruiting for. Once you understand it a little better, use that information to sell the job to a candidate. No one wants to stay at the bottom of the totem forever so tell them how to advance before they even take the job. That’ll keep the interested in the position and hopefully stay for a longer time.
Whether you’re selling the job, setting realistic expectations on experience, or building an employer brand, selling a job isn’t always for the role of the recruiter. Working with all departments which are a part of the process will ensure that the recruiter can do their job efficiently. So next time a job isn’t being filled take a look at these four things and ask yourself if all parties involved are doing their job at maximum efficiency. If they aren’t, open a discussion with your hiring manager and see how you both can work together to make each of your jobs easier and more efficient.