FROM GOOD TO GREAT

GREAT HIRING MANAGER

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BEING A

Why this guide is important for you?

“Hiring Right is a Necessity” Today it is a necessity to find & retain high-quality, high-potential employees in a diminishing pool of talent. 

“Hiring is not the only job that you do” Hiring is not the only task that you perform, you are not Hiring expert still you are expected to Hire the Best.

“You get the Blame” From discussions to blogs a lot has been talked about the problem with the Hiring Managers, their relationship with recruiters, the communication gap and lack of participation.

“You bear the Brunt” Since you are most commonly hiring your own direct reports, there’s a lingering perception that you’ll be the one who will bear the brunt of the consequences of a bad hire.

“Hiring is the most important Management Skill” For most managers it’s certainly not something that you need to do frequently so why invest time refining a management skill that’s seldom utilized? Steve Jobs has a simple answer, “I disagree totally. I think it’s the most important job.”

Because, an organization is only as strong as its people & thus your company’s future depends on your hiring decisions.

The Step by Step Guide for

HIRING MANAGERS TO EFFECTIVE RECRUITMENT

WARM UP TO YOUR NEW ROLE

PART ONE

Understand your roles and responsibilities as a HIRING MANAGER

To be a great Hiring Manager who consistently hires the right candidates at the right time, you need to play multiple roles: a Catalyst, Consultant and a Marketer.

The Primary roles of HIRING MANAGER

1. Liaison & Communicator – You are the one who is going to communicate with Human Resources to fill the open position through every step of the organization’s Hiring Process. You will also set up the timely communication between you, the selection team, recruiters and or HR partners.

2. Marketer - Hiring managers are in a unique position to make their departments, teams, and job opportunities look great. You’re responsible for transmitting information about your organization and its goals to the new member onboarding your team.

3. Leader –  You make the final decisions for new talent to your group or company. As a leader, you are responsible for setting up a healthy team culture with a right mix of compatible people and a fostering environment.

4. Champion - Whether you have identified a new position, or there is a need to fill an open position in your team, as an initiator of the position, you are the champion of the whole process – from start till the end.

What is the impact of GREAT HIRING MANAGER? The Corporate Leadership Council surveyed over 8,000 recruiters to determine the key to hiring success. The most common answer was “THE HIRING MANAGER”

The success of your organization is predicated on your ability to hire great new people, and to get them onboard and working effectively quickly.

Your decisions determine the pace at which your company can move. If you take too long looking for the perfect fit, it’s going to slow you down. 

But if you hire too quickly and brazenly, you can end up filling your ranks with ineffective workers.

DEFINING THE JOB PROFILE!

PART TWO

Defining the problem is the first step to solving a problem

When so many Job Descriptions are already available, why invest my timing in defining a Job Profile?

Why to invest time in defining Job Profile? Your obvious question would be – I have so much to do already, why put so much of my time here? Because only well-defined problems lead to breakthrough solutions. 

If you leave it to a fast job description which is a cut & paste job most of the times, handover the requirements to the recruiter, you cannot expect a great deal of desired talents in return. So it’s wise to spend some time in defining the Job Profile well.

According to a study, in most hiring programs the critical missing piece that can bring the recruiter, the hiring manager and everyone in the hiring team on the same page is a well-defined performance based job profile.

Once you are able to define/visualize your ideal candidate in the job and are able to explain it well to the recruiter, the problem is well defined and half solved.

How to define a Job Profile? To define a job profile try to dig deep into understanding real job needs.

Apart from listing the usual Skills and Objectives of the Job role, try to define the job in terms of key performance goals of the position.

A Well Defined Performance Based Job Profile can be used to attract the best applicants and later this Job profile can be used to assess their motivation to excel, based on evidence.

AN ATTRACTIVE JOB DESCRIPTION

PART THREE

This is your ATTRACTION MAGNET

The Job Description should look like a compelling opportunity that emphasizes what a person will learn, do and become.

How to right an effective JOB DECRIPTION? Now that you have composed the Job Profile, now you get armed to write an effective job title and a detailed Job Description that will attract the right pool of applicants for the position.

A Job Description needs to be accurate as well as attractive enough to bring you the right sort of talent pool.

The key to great job descriptions is to be real. Be honest about what the company does, what is the position all about and what the candidate will actually be doing.

Keep the job title and summaries short and simple. The summary should be short and precise, not more than one to three sentences. You are pitching the candidate for the job, so keep it conversational. 

Talk about the particular job and what it is like in your organization. Provide a link or a video for the applicants to learn more about the job role. 

MEET THE RECRUITER

PART FOUR

Tell him what GREAT looks like

Hiring Managers and Recruiters must be on the same team playing by the same rules to win in today’s competitive hunt for top talent.

The things you should brief Recruiter about.. LinkedIn Profiles: You can sit with the recruiter and perform live searches on LinkedIn. It will give the recruiter a much better understanding for what you are looking for and what you are trying to avoid.

Sample Companies & Employees: Give recruiters names of companies where you are likely to find suitable candidates for that role as well as names of current employees who would fit the bill. This will help the recruiters visualize your ideal candidate.

Selling points of the position: To help your recruiter be in a better position to source candidates effectively, provide him the selling points of the position.

Experience & Skills: Though in some cases experience and skills might be necessary to perform a task, but a Hiring Manager should not always insist on certain years of experience and certain set of skills.

Other Factors: You may discuss other factors that may affect sourcing options like the current labor market, any anticipated obstacles and career paths so as to determine the optimal profile and options.

DEVELOP RECUITMENT PLAN

PART FIVE

Set the course of action for your Hiring Team

Great Hiring Managers plan a recruitment strategy that clearly sets the path for the complete recruitment process that is now going to take place.

The things you should brief Recruiter about..  A well-structured recruitment plan maps out the strategy for attracting and hiring the best-qualified candidate. It clearly defines:• Placement Goals• Posting Plan• Recruiting Resources• Pre-Hire Screening Procedures• Interview Procedures• Hiring Procedures

The Recruitment Planning Meeting is the opportunity to not only gather key details for the position and build out a recruitment strategy but also to set the stage for the entire recruiting experience.

Most Important Tip – Keep an eye on the progress of sourcing! Analyze the first few candidates’ information given by the recruiter; if they don’t match with what you expected then meet your recruiter.  

Explain to him again about what you are looking for in the candidates and what you did not like about the current candidates.

ASSEMBLE THE SELECTION TEAM

PART SIX

Carefully decide who should be involved in your Hiring Team

A right Hiring Team is crucial to reap benefits of your hiring efforts. 

Who should be involved in the Hiring Process? You are responsible for getting all of the right people looking at a candidate. To inject the

right balance and insight into the hiring process, you need to bring a right mix of right people in the hiring team.

1. Skills: At least one Job function specialist or a technical skill expert, basically one or more people who can assess the required skills in the candidate.

2. Diversity: You need to have a right mix of people and experience to avoid bias or imbalance in decisions.

3. Team Members: It helps to involve some members of the team the candidate is joining in the selection process of any new talent.

4. Customer: In some cases it is wise to include an individual who can interact closely with the position and/or serves as the main customer.

5. Other Factors: Some other factors that you may also need to consider are availability, willingness, role-playing abilities, patience & sociability of the members that you wish to bring in the Hiring Team.

COACH YOUR TEAM

PART SEVEN

Prepare Interviewers for Interview

 Proper coaching of the selection team is needed to avoid a wrong recommendation.

Engage & Educate the people in your team It is important to properly prepare your team for the interview as this is the opportunity to evaluate the skills and competencies and validate the information the applicant has provided in their application and resume. 

The team needs to have knowledge and skills to make an informed decision.

You can engage & educate the people in your team about the below topics:

• Approach: How you approach each candidate?• Expectations: What are you looking for in this hire?• Interview Process: How will the interview work?• Assessment Plan: What’s the plan for assessing the candidate?• Negotiations: What’s the salary negotiation strategy?

Make sure that all interviewers are all in agreement as to what the hiring profile is, and that they send a consistent message to the candidate on the position, company and culture.

SOURCING RIGHT TALENT

PART EIGHT

Play a Catalyst to get Stunning Results 

Your little contribution here will lead to your hiring team talking to the right type of candidates.

Quick Tips for Outreach To be a great hiring manager who consistently hires the right candidates at the right time, you need to play multiple roles: a Catalyst, a Consultant, and a Marketer.

A few quick initiatives from you will help a great deal to source great talent to your team. Please see below some quick tips to outreach right sort of talent you want.

1. Update your Social Profile: Start with your LinkedIn profile and make sure it’s complete. Similarly, update your other social profiles like Twitter, Google+.

2. Social Updates: Through status updates, sharing articles or posting presentations, you can showcase candidates the kind of work opportunity you present, your team’s passion and goals, and most importantly your team’s achievements.

3. Recommendations: Ask people you have managed to describe, in a recommendation, what it’s like working for you.

4. Personal Touch: You can also opt to engage your target with an In Mail. Professionals want to see that their potential managers care about them.

SCREENING APPLICANTS

PART NINE

Separate Wheat from Chaff

 You must screen candidates with the use of effective screening softwares and save billable hours.

Choose the Right Assessment for Your Candidates  With the use of right tools and technology, the recruitment team can minimize hiring mistakes and can save a lot of hassles, time and money.

By choosing the right kinds of screening tests, you can reliably separate the wheat from the chaff and ensure that your selection team’s maximum time should be spent with only relevant candidates.

Even though screening tests are occasionally challenged in court, companies can reduce their legal risk by ensuring test validity and reliability, by making sure tests do not cause a disparate impact on minorities or protected groups, and by consistently applying tests to all candidates.

Employment screening tests typically include various employee assessment tools. The most commonly used pre-employment assessment tests fall into 3 categories –• Skills tests• Personality tests &• Drug tests

Now, let us take a quick look on each of the pre-employment assessment.

1. Skill Tests

Pre-employment skill testing is a commonly used tool for screening applicants at the first level of candidate interaction.

Skill tests are designed to confirm that applicants have the skills they say they have. These tests can range from simple employment typing tests to a complex software coding test.

Now as you are clear with the Job Profile, you have identified the primary skills required and the experience range of the candidate. You can choose a ready/custom made skill test suiting your needs.

Now the question that remains is how to choose the right online assessment software for your role?

The Answer is: Your Online assessment software should be to provide you a secure platform with quality skill tests.

Essential Elements of a Pre-employment Skill TestTo ensure a high-quality skill test, check whether your pre-hire skill test has:

i. Difficulty Level: Appropriate difficulty level as per the experience mentioned in the job description.

ii. Right Mix: Carefully decide the right mix of theory, practical and hands-on questions to be asked in the screening.

iii. Comprehensiveness: A Quality skill test should be comprehensive to cover the skills required to do the job.

iv. Aptitude: Don’t forget to check the aptitude required for that job profile. E.g. mechanical aptitude (with questions on pulleys, struss etc) for the job that requires mechanical knowledge.

v. Valid & Reliable: The tests should be proven, validated and reliable in similar scenarios in the past.

Benefits of Pre-employment Skill Tests With suitable Pre-employment Skill Tests, you can –

• Screen out unsuitable applicants• Minimize hiring mistakes• Decrease employee turnover• Increase productivity• Improve morale

Pre-employment testing was once a targeted solution designed to meet the specific need. Pre-employment testing is now much more about hiring the right person for the job – a

person whose background, experience, and personality type fits in with the overall needs of the company.

It is an in-depth way to evaluate which applicant or candidate would be a good fit for a particular position.

2. Personality Testing Personality assessments to use in a hiring context should be valid predictors of job

performance and measure stable traits.

While choosing any personality assessment, you need to step back and ask yourself one basic question before giving it to a potential employee: Is this test predictive of future jobperformance?

3. Drug Testing

Many companies require potential job candidates to have a drug screen before extending an offer of employment.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, workers who abuse drugs are more likely to use their health benefits and submit claims for workers’ compensation.

In addition to medical expenses, drug abuse is associated with increased tardiness, absences and poor performance in the workplace.

INTERVIEWING CANDIDATES

PART TEN

It’s an Art & Science

Hiring managers who can interview effectively are a rare breed.

Points to keep in mind while interviewing any

candidate1. Spend time only with relevant candidates: Avoid wasting your team’s time with wrong

candidates, use tools for screening and skill testing.

2. Candidate’s Willingness to Learn: Find out whether the candidate is willing to learn new skills, overcome problems, make difficult decisions, increase confidence and achieve challenging results.

3.  Sell the Position during Interview: Selling a candidate does not only consist of pitching the role during the first call or interview, it’s an ongoing effort that continues until the employee is in the role (and beyond of course).

4. Indulge in Casual Talk: You can send strong positive signals to your candidates with a casual talk, and also find out if there will be any difficulties closing the candidate later and address them early. For example by asking even simple questions “Do you have any questions for me?” or “What surprised you during these last conversations?” With this type of casual talk, you can take the candidate’s temperature, identify objections and handle them quickly.

FINDING THE RIGHT CULTURAL FIT

PART ELEVEN

A key Trait to look for

Every time you make a hire, you need to think about how they’ll fit into the team, with respect to both their formal and informal role.

Right Culture Fit Cultural fit has nothing to do with appearance, affability, assertiveness, and how articulate

the person is.

At best these traits represent social skills and extroversion, but certainly not ability, team skills, performance, or cultural fit.

According to a study from Radford University cited by Kerry Schofield on ERE.net, employees that fit in well with their organizations reported higher job satisfaction, identified more with their company, were likely to remain in the organization, were more committed, and even demonstrated better job performance.

The culture fit could be different for every team, every manager, every person, and every job, but most logically speaking the primary factors that determine a company’s culture-fit are as follows.

5 Factors to Determine if a Candidate is Culture Fit1. The CEO and the company’s strategy, vision, and mission: A company’s underlying

culture is largely defined by its CEO. Consider Steve Jobs as an example in comparison to every other high-tech, big or small company CEO.

2. Job fit: Cultural fit is a meaningless assessment when the work isn’t motivating. If the candidate is not a job fit, he would be harder to manage and work with, less flexible, less cooperative, and overall less productive.

3. Managerial fit: The relationship with the hiring manager is a prime determinant of cultural fit. Most people agree that even good people underperform due to a difficult working relationship with their manager.

4. Organizational pace and structural fit: Fast-growing companies are coupled with a highly charged and competitive environment whereas mature organizations represent a slower paced, process oriented environment. Therefore, while determining a culture-fit, you should also keep organizational pace into account.

5. Decision-making: Whether formal or ad hoc, a company’s decision-making process is a core component of its culture that needs to be considered when assessing candidates on cultural fit.

ON-BOARDING

PART TWELVE

This is an ART too!

It’s time to get them up to speed and down to work. It’s time to onboard them.

Its time to onboard Candidates A successful onboarding process is the one that:

• Socializes new hires to the company culture.• Improves new hires experience.• Is beyond the initial few days (beyond early adopter phase) as well as• Meets business objectives.

Good onboarding rapidly engages and connects the new hires to the life of the organization. That engagement leads to employee commitment. And their commitment leads to accomplishment.

On-boarding remains a key factor in inspiring employees, supporting them climb the corporate ladder and lastly, retaining them. Don’t believe this?

A study by Deloitte showed that 22 percent of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment. Moreover, 4 percent of employees would make a hasty exit on the basis of the first day, given it turns into an awful experience.

Few tips for creating a better presentation on the day

of onboarding1. Customize: Customize the onboarding according to the nature of the newly hired employees

role and tasks.

2. Make it smooth: The essential company paperwork and tasks are unavoidable but with good processes in place you can save time and avoid any mess.

3. Automate: Automate some processes, so that there’s no compelling reason to take exhausting and time wasting halts for individual tutoring.

4. Simplify: A tedious onboarding procedure can cut the connection through which an employee see him as potential supporters of the organization’s mission and vision. Hence, a general guideline of discussion with new hired should take place in a shorter, sweeter and much simpler manner.

A successful onboarding is not a one-and-done thing. Check in regularly to ensure the onboarding experience is consistent with the employee experience.

IDENTIFY NEW HIRING TALENT

PART THIRTEEN

The Last Part – Mentor Budding Hiring Managers

The Hiring Manger is in the best position to help develop other hiring managers.

Soft Skills of a Hiring Manager

Being a great hiring manager doesn’t only mean making great hires. It also means identifying talent that’s already onboard, and developing those stars to be the great hiring managers of

the future, this would be like a future investment that will certainly give you a high ROI.

Soft Skills of a Hiring Manager:

1. Evangelists: Look for people who have the passion for being evangelists of your culture,2. Approachable: The personality of the new hiring manager should be approachable and

non-threatening.3. Strength: She should have the strength to advocate for or against prospective hires4. Intelligence: Should possess the intelligence to know when they’re wrong.

Get your budding managers involved in several different hires, and see how it goes!

In the end, having the right people in the right places at the right time will enable you, your team and your company to take advantage of market opportunities, meet business goals, and spur innovation.

About Interview Mocha – Interview Mocha is a leading provider

of online assessment software for pre-employment skill testing.

Interview Mocha offers a pre-employment testing solution to recruit

quality candidates and reduce administrative hassles in recruitment.

THE COMPANY

Contact us - support@interviewmocha.com

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You can view the detailed Guide for Hiring Manager here.

QUESTIONS