5 Tips for Hiring Manager Communication

Ever had to follow up repeatedly with a hiring manager? Or perhaps sent a duplicate email to a candidate because you didn’t know that your hiring manager had already sent the same email? When good communication between you and your hiring manager determines everything from the quality of hire to the candidate experience, you may be searching for a way to streamline things a bit. Here are five tips on communicating with hiring managers for a seamless recruitment process.

1. Develop Your Relationship

Between recruiters and hiring managers, there needs to be more understanding of their roles in recruitment. As a hiring manager, I think, “Does this recruiter even know what we’re hiring for and why?” As a recruiter, I think, “Great, another hiring manager that doesn’t understand my role and has unrealistic expectations for this process.”

So before jumping head first into hiring, start by developing a relationship between recruiter and hiring manager. It may seem obvious or even unnecessary to some, but this is the most crucial part of the hiring process. Get an understanding of your hiring manager personally, as well as their duties and bandwidth. Also, share that information about yourself and your role at current state. Leading with connection and empathy goes a long way. And, of course, within that kick-off meeting, review and define in depth the role, job functions and requirements, among its other nuances. You should be on the same page.

2. Define Roles and Responsibilities

Once you’ve gotten acquainted, you need to clearly define the role and responsibilities you will each play in the hiring process. I know we’ve all experienced a lack of communication, process or duplicative efforts within the hiring stage. Last thing anyone wants is a rejection email sent multiple times to the candidate or a congratulatory email sent right after a rejection email. I shiver even thinking about it. But more often than not, even if there’s no outward appearance of communication struggles with candidates, there most definitely are internal communication issues.

Determining what needs to get done by listing out all the tasks in order of how they must be performed. You can then give ownership of each task to individuals or teams. For example, define who’s in charge of creating job descriptions, job postings, candidate sourcing, resume screening, shortlisting candidates, interview scheduling and candidate follow-ups. While this may seem obvious, maybe someone is better suited or there are bandwidth complications. It’s crucial to stay in lockstep.

3. Set Clear Expectations

In addition to clarifying roles and responsibilities, it’s important to define expected turnaround times and other expectations for yourself and hiring managers. This will help to ensure that you stay on track with your recruitment timeline and determine which stages of the process require communication and document when the communication must be shared.

Create a guideline or communication timeline to share with your team and hiring manager. The document must specify the different types of communication needed at each stage of the candidate’s journey. Make sure to clearly define when those communications need to be shared, so hiring managers know exactly what’s expected of them. You may suggest that rejection emails are sent out within 24 hours of the decision being made, which would require the hiring manager to send you a list of rejected candidates immediately after they finalize their decision.

4. Use Automation to Collaborate

Collaboration thrives on communication and vice versa. However, this can be challenging when either party has too many tasks and responsibilities to maintain that they cannot hold up their end of the bargain. In fact, people spend just about 33% of their time doing the job they’re meant to do because they’re too busy switching between platforms and hunting down information.

Automating certain tasks and reminders can help to simplify things and ensure better collaboration between recruiters and hiring managers. If able, invest in automation tools that allow you to easily set reminders, assign tasks, and automate routine activities such as interview scheduling, job postings and candidate communications.

5. Be Proactive

The reactive method is long gone. If you are reactive, you’re failing. To establish better communication with hiring managers, recruiters must become proactive communicators. Feel free to reach out first or follow up consistently with your hiring manager to avoid confusion or miscommunication. Finding the best fit alongside your hiring manager requires proactive communication. Whether it’s a brief email updating them about your shortlisted candidates or a follow-up call asking for updates on a candidate’s offer status, this type of proactivity ensures a seamless process with robust, clear communication.

Better Communication for Seamless Recruiting

When there’s good communication between recruiters and hiring managers, it creates a smoother recruitment process. It lets you stay on track while saving time and enhancing the candidate experience. This will reflects positively on your expertise as a recruiter and your hiring manager’s employer brand–a win-win for everyone involved. Yes, even the candidates.

Authors

Taylor Moon

Taylor Moon is the Director of Content at RecruitingDaily.com. She's a seasoned Content Director with a demonstrated history of working in various industries, predominantly in digital marketing and technology. As a hiring manager throughout her career, she's worked closely with recruiters and HR and acted as a sourcer and recruiter in various roles, bringing a unique perspective into topics.