Hiring managers: Your secret agents

The financial impact of a bad hire can be significant. In fact, it can be equal to 30% of an employee’s first-year potential earnings, according to the US Department of Labor. Further, the time spent on building relationships, onboarding and training is never recovered. And then there are intangible costs such as the impact on morale, reputation and culture. So, how do you ensure hiring managers are up to the job?

If you want to improve time-to-hire, candidate experience and engagement, ensure a good cultural fit and, ultimately, improve the quality of hire, here are some simple steps to get you started.

Hire the best of the best

It seems obvious, but sourcing, screening and selecting high-performing hiring managers will ensure your organization has access to top talent. Choosing hiring managers with a proven track record means those on the team who are less experienced will have mentors on hand to guide them.

Increase skills and knowledge

Build a learning and development program that helps your hiring managers hire while ensuring they’re aligned with your business values. Like we mentioned earlier, the more experienced members of the team will help to create a groundswell of advocacy among not just the junior members of the team, but wider business. Create a culture of continuous learning to ensure hiring managers are up to date on the latest techniques and technology.

Standardize (and humanize) your interview process

Not only does standardization ensure hiring managers have access to the right resources to successfully hire, but it also improves the candidate experience by creating consistency in the process. Hiring managers should be inspired to have natural, two-way conversations with candidates but parameters around those interviews reduces the chances of bias creeping in.

Eliminate unconscious bias

Raising awareness about unconscious bias and its presence in human nature will allow hiring managers to become more self-aware and will ensure they’re not unintentionally excluding candidates. The consciousness of this, coupled with the use of intelligent technology that’s designed to reduce bias, will help to sell the employee value proposition (EVP) and harvest better candidates faster. Additionally, unconscious bias training should be a company-wide initiative, not limited to hiring managers. The culture it creates will be apparent throughout the organization.

Power of the people

Encourage hiring managers to seek assistance from current employees as they can really help when it comes to deciding if a candidate will be a good match culturally. Peer-to-peer interviews are a great way to assess culture fit and can help improve retention rates. Applicants will feel more relaxed talking to employees and will ask more questions, revealing more of their personalities in the process.

Hiring manager certification program

Some of the world’s leading organizations succeed because they have recruiting hardwired into all their people. A certification program is an excellent step toward an enhanced candidate experience and a winning employment brand. Draw your hiring managers toward you with a shared responsibility for attracting and engaging top talent.