Why HR and hiring managers need to sync

How much damage could be done to your teams if they suffer through just five months without adequate management and leadership?

• According to our recent survey with Fiverr, hiring processes take an average of 5.4 months to fill a role.
• Of the people leaving to seek new opportunities, 46 percent are managers and directors.
• Fifty-eight percent of HR leaders and hiring managers agree that turnover harms productivity.

Finding the right job candidates and retaining your current talent is a huge priority. What are some best practices to develop better recruiting processes to bring in top candidates and ensure the position’s responsibilities match their expectations? 

Let’s start with the key aim of every hiring team.

Find the best-qualified candidates for the job

We’ve used the word ‘best’ on purpose to point to the difference between most qualified and best qualified. Keywords in a resume or CV may be the first indicators of top talent, but HR and management teams shouldn’t rely on them to determine the nuances that make someone a great team player. The interview process can—and should—determine which external candidates will fit your team and company culture best. 

How does a great hiring process start?

A great hiring process starts with a clear understanding of the role a person needs to fill. This makes it easier to align the rest of the process with the best result—a person who is a great fit for their new job and their new company.

Creating an excellent recruitment process happens when HR leaders and hiring managers work together through the entire hiring and onboarding process.

Here are four key areas where hiring managers and HR teams should always sync.

1. Which job openings to fill

Which open position does the company need to fill first? One of the first steps to take is to agree on a recruitment plan before hiring people.

The team leader, hiring manager, and HR leaders can come together to determine the most pressing hiring needs. There may be unique insights from bringing everyone together to review the team’s progress. For example, the team may need to focus on UX before hiring more developers.

2. Responsibilities of the new joiners

Look beyond the job descriptions and focus on the role. Skills and job requirements only account for a portion of what happens once someone is hired. Other things to look for in new hires include emotional intelligence, background checks, and how candidates will mesh with your current team.

The best way to accomplish this is for HR leaders and hiring managers to talk. A meeting—or several—will help bring the right people together to understand how to choose the best person for a role.

3. The flavor of your job description

Are you looking for a lone wolf or a solid team player? Do you want to attract candidates with high potential but also risk? These questions point to the flavor of the job description you decide to write and publish. Job applications will come in and match the flavor of the description you put into the world.

Bringing HR leaders and hiring managers together to talk about the role should also produce a shared understanding of the hiring need and the job description that will fill it. This will help the hiring manager through pre-employment testing, initial screening, and face-to-face (or, let’s be honest–Zoom!) interviews.

4. What makes the best-qualified candidate

All the above steps come together to create a clear picture of the ideal new joiner. Soft skills, education, hard skills, and experience all factor into choosing the best new hire. Bringing the hiring team together will produce a shared view of who the preferred candidate really is.

One of the mismatches you can avoid with a shared view of the hiring process is the proliferation of job requirements. How many skills or qualifications does the new position really need? Talking about the actual minimum requirements gives HR leaders and hiring managers a clear understanding of the best candidate without muddying the waters of the talent pool with a bunch of unnecessary qualifications.

HR leaders and the hiring manager can—and should—talk more

It can be challenging for HR and hiring teams to find time to sync and align their priorities, but collaboration is the key to making better hiring decisions. Talking should be at the top of the priority list, starting with:

• A kick-off meeting to discuss the hiring process. This might be best as a one-on-one meeting to allow free discussion and clarification.
• A follow-up meeting where you bring together the entire team. You can include all stakeholders so the whole process runs smoothly.

Connecting your hiring and onboarding processes

The hiring process is a series of steps that begins with realizing that a position needs to be filled and ends—sort of—when the new joiner finishes all the onboarding procedures. We say “sort of” because a flawed hiring and onboarding process could produce a disappointed or disillusioned employee. The opposite is also true:

Exceptional hiring and onboarding experiences are the foundation of great employee experiences that result in higher retention rates.

Here is how many companies separate the hiring and onboarding processes:

1. The hiring process includes all the steps and procedures, from identifying the role to be filled to hiring the new person.
2. Onboarding begins when the new person is hired and includes new joiner documentation, training, and team assignments.

HR leaders and hiring managers can meet to discuss the two processes to create a shared understanding of how the whole journey will work for the candidate. Here are some things to look for:

• Does the job description accurately describe the role in the context of the team the new person will join?
• Should any of the training offered during onboarding become a prerequisite for the job?
• Are there any points where the hiring and onboarding processes seem to create different expectations for the new person?

Bringing your HR leaders and hiring managers together will create a smooth journey for the new joiner and help the company get the best results from its investment in the hiring and onboarding processes.

So, here are a few ways to create better onboarding processes to ensure your new hires’ highest level of success.

Collaborate with current team members

Talk to the people on your team. What can they tell you about their own hiring process?

Here are a few ideas:

• Create ‘pulse surveys’ to check on how people felt as they moved through the entire process.
• Ask for specific feedback on how the steps prepared people for their roles and what could be improved for future candidates.
• Conduct scheduled follow-up meetings with new hires to gauge the alignment of your hiring and onboarding.

Regular feedback will ensure you have the right view of your current hiring and onboarding processes and help you see any changes needed.

After hiring, roles typically shift, and hiring managers may become the line managers of the new joiners. At this point, HR leaders can check in with the new people to ensure they are receiving all the tools, resources, and support they need to be successful. The managers can also schedule regular check-ins to discuss daily work, company processes, and the responsibilities of the new person. 

During these check-ins, the HR leaders and managers can do two things to help improve their processes continually: 

1. Ask for feedback from the new joiner. New joiners may feel reluctant to offer anything that seems like criticism, so some careful chats may be needed to draw out helpful information. 
2. A debrief or check-in with the HR and hiring teams may reveal areas where the hiring and onboarding processes haven’t quite matched what was needed.

Don’t be afraid to change your hiring and onboarding processes

The world of work is constantly evolving, and the best strategies need to evolve with it. To stay ahead of the game, consider these questions to ensure your processes continue to align with the current talent pool and job marketplace:

• How can you personalize the process for each position and person?
• Which steps can you eliminate to make the process better?
• Do you have an applicant tracking system to monitor successes and failures?

The bottom line: Talking more leads to shared insights and better outcomes

Attracting top talent is about building an effective hiring process that you can continuously plan, implement, and assess. Bringing your HR leaders and hiring managers together to talk will help you create hiring and onboarding processes that are exceptional and repeatable. With greater collaboration between HR leaders and hiring managers, you can make sure your hiring and onboarding processes work better for everyone.