How Hiring Manager's should work with Recruiters

Being a hiring manager, staffing becomes one of the most important aspects of your job and, if not done correctly, the most time consuming and damaging. Choosing the right candidate to join your team could be the difference between hitting your goals and exceeding expectations or having severe discord and turnover. A bad hire is an expensive hire so it is imperative that, as a hiring manager, you use best practices when searching for the right candidate.

In this discussion we are focusing on how a hiring manager should work with a recruiter whether they be internal to your organization or as a third party agency. Here are a few short tips on best practices.

Relationship

Your recruiter is your partner and the best will always aim to develop a consultative relationship with their hiring manager. Being a manager, your time is valuable and, your recruiter will understand that. Make yourself available to share feedback, review candidates and schedule interviews. Understanding who is the expert and in which areas is key in this relationship. Your recruiter has knowledge in staffing and has a much stronger sense of what is available to you in the market place. You are the expert in your domain and  a good recruiter would never assume that they carry that expertise. Treat your recruiter as you would your doctor or lawyer. Seek their counsel and advice but at the end of the day understand that it is your decision.

What does it mean to you

When engaging the services of a recruiter,particularly an agency recruiter, you must understand their value proposition. What does it mean to you? What advantages do you hope to gain by working with an agency recruiter? Here are a few to think about

- market knowledge

- pricing

- availability of skill set

- competition

- time management

- lower the risk of offer refusal

Time Management

Working with the right recruiter will save you time and headache. Ask to receive multiple resumes in one email and that the presentations include short "sale" points for each candidate. These should highlight why the candidate is a good match for your job. Also, set times in your calendar to review the presentations over the phone to walk through the candidates' backgrounds. Sometimes a quick discussion may reveal something that you have overlooked and you can learn about intangibles which are not evident on the resumes. The last thing you want to do is miss out on the right candidate. Lastly agree to follow up in timely manner and share feedback on after interviewing the candidates. Being delayed or tardy does not make a good impression on prospective candidates. Regardless of who you are or how strong of a reputation your company has, the best candidates always have some other opportunity to consider. Your opportunity is never too good to be turned down.

Communication

This is important and must work both ways. As a manager you are busy and your time is valuable. The best recruiters will be proactive and call you when they have questions. You must be open to to discussing candidates, feedback and schedule over the phone as well as email. Phone discussions are quicker and greatly reduce the chance of misinterpretation which is a crux of emails.

Internal vs Agency

So the constant tug of war between Internal recruiting resources versus external resources such as Agencies generally causes much strife if not dealt with properly. Some internal recruiting functions have exceptional ability but many are just aspects of the HR department. If the internal recruiting function is of the latter then, most likely, the staff is overwhelmed and unable to dedicate resources towards recruiting and you will not be seeing the best candidates in the market  Also, internal recruiting functions have their hands tied when it comes to sourcing from competitors. Agencies have free reign to source from companies you believe have the right talent. A good recruiter will sift through hundreds of resumes and present only what is relevant to your needs. External agencies tend to specialize in particular skill sets and have a much stronger network of relevant talent. Due to an overwhelming influx of resumes to an internal recruiting function, there is often the issue of poor vetting where many irrelevant candidates are presented and some of the best are overlooked

These are just a few tips on how you, as a hiring manage,r should work with a recruiter. Let your search be painless and error free so that you can focus on doing your job. Use the best recruiter and establish a long term relationship.

How to improve a difficult relationship with a co-worker

From time to time, relationships with co-workers may become strained or just never get off to the right start. Depending on whether you are a full time employee or contractor there is a different way to handle the situation. If you are a contractor, call your agency and have them take up the issue.

Behave

So you feel very turned off by your coworker. Their mere presence upsets you and you are irked by their words and actions. Stop. Be professional. Treat them with respect and continue to work collaboratively as best as you can. Do not be a part of confrontations or disputes with this coworker. Furthermore do not complain to your other coworkers about how much of a problem you are having with this person. That does little for the team dynamic and you may be looked at as the disruptive one.

Why is the relationship strained

Step back and take a look as to way the relationship has become strained. Is it due to work performance?  Is this coworker under-performing in a way that is affecting your goals and objectives. Are you having to work extra hours and take on more responsibilities to cover for what you may see as incompetence? Is this co-worker being dishonest and causing stress within the organization? SIt down and really think about what is causing the strain and then you take the appropriate steps to improve the relationship.

Set goal

What do you want to do? How do you want to resolve this conflict? It is important, moving forward, that you have a clear idea of how you wish to relate to this individual. The most important aspect is to always maintain a high level of respect not only for this individual but also for the your co-workers and organization. 

Communication

As much as possible, document your communications by using email or having another person witness. Do not set up direct face to face meetings without a third party and ask that your manager mediate some discussion in an effort to move the relationship forward. Do not manipulate facts to skew your story because that will neither impress your colleagues nor manager. They will be more aware of the facts than you may be aware. Speak the truth and be accountable for any areas that may be your responsibility. Don't be critical but provide solutions speak of "areas" or "opportunities to improve.

Speak to your manager

Be constructive when approaching your manager about a strained relationship in the work place. Do present it as a complaint but, rather, share that you recognize that the relationship is not optimum and you are seeking advice on how to improve on that . Your goal is to look like a team player who is looking to do what is best for the group.

Do your job

Despite everything that might be happening and regardless of how poorly you feel (emotionally or mentally), you must focus on your job. Step up and try to go above and beyond. Let your manager and co-workers see your effort. Always show a positive attitude and don't play the victim. 

Do not work to get them fired

This is very important. For legal reasons do not put up efforts to jeopardize the job security of the person you are having conflict with. It may be seen as vindictive and unprofessional. Your manager may see it as cancerous and would rather let you go instead of risking this behavior and attitude spreading to others in the team.

Help them do better

Be the bigger person. Help them improve in the work performance and show interest in what they do. This may end up being the most effective solution.

Accepting the right offer

Accepting the right offer

 

You are sitting at home, looking at three offer letters on the table, and you are struggling to pick just one.  What to do? It’s a great problem to have but the wrong decision could be the worst decision of your life.

The key to making the right decision is preparation and that begins the very moment you start your search. Let’s take a look at a few simple steps that will allow you to make the right choice for yourself.

 

Why are you looking?

Whether you are unemployed, unhappily employed or blissfully employed the reasons that motivate you to find the right job should depend on what you want in your next job. In your current or last role, you will need to identify what you liked and disliked about your position. Make a list and order them from the most important to the least. When listing your dislikes, you will also wish to state how would like that particular part of your job to improve. You may have a long commute now and wish to have a shorter one in your next job. You may be working with limited resources and may want to make sure that your next employer invests in resources and technologies that will allow to be successful in your next role. You might like the mentorship you are receiving now and want to ensure that your next opportunity offers a similar learning/development environment. Essentially, what you are looking to achieve, is a short list of three of the most important things you would like to see in your ideal job. This short list will be critical in determining what job is best for you. This is your “top three”.

Money should never be a reason

This may seem backwards but it is not. Money should never be a motivating factor during your job search.  (That being said, when comparing multiple offers, each promising your “top three”, then money does become an important differentiator.) Many have the made the mistake of taking a higher offer whilst convincing themselves that they can live without one of their “top three”. Remember the old adage,” Money can’t buy you happiness”? It could not have a stronger meaning in the professional world.

 

Pros and Cons list

 

For each position you interview, build a Pros and Cons list as you go through the interview process. This will allow you to do a number of things. Firstly, it is a simple way of checking whether or not the opportunity matches your “top three”, secondly, it allows you to ask the right questions during the process so that you have a better understanding of the position and what it would mean to you and, lastly, when you are comparing, similar opportunities, this may be the only way you may be able to separate them.

 

Talk to Family and Friends

 

Now I say this with caution. At the end of the day, you have to pick what is best for your situation and the input of others may not always be in that interest. Be sensible about whom you approach and from whom you seek counsel.  When making a decision about your search, or even when accepting an offer, you must speak to those who will be most affected by such a decision. Your next job could affect the dynamics of your personal relationship, it could mean relocating or it could mean more or less time with those who mean the most to you.  Don’t leave this discussion to the eleventh hour because it will give those that matter little time to really absorb the impact of your choice. As a result their response may be a knee-jerk reaction based on emotion and not rationale.

 

Ask for another conversation

 

So you liked many of the people you had met with during the interview process but for some reason you didn’t understand what the main stakeholder really expected from the person who would step into this role. Here is when you ask for another conversation. It is important to understand the relationship you will have with the new employers. You will need to have a good understanding of their expectations and you must feel like there is some working chemistry. If the employer is not open to you having an additional conversation, whether it is in person or over the phone, then that is not the place for you. Just remember that as much as you’re interviewing for a role at their organization you are also vetting them for your services.

 

Research

 

This is entirely your responsibility. You must research as much as you can about the company you are considering and that should start prior to you submitting your application. The internet is a wonderful  thing and you can discover almost anything about a company. You can use tools like linkedin.com , zoominfo.com, press releases and publicly available financials to gather sense of the company’s profitability, sustainability, stability and culture. Using certain sites you can get a sense of what the turnover at the organization is like. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a former employee of that organization to learn a bit more.

Before the final interview

 

At this point you should know that you are ready to take the job. You should know what compensation will be acceptable to you. You should know when you will be ready to start. Based on what you have learned thus far from previous interviews and the research that you have done, you should be confident that this position is the right one for you. Go in with the mindset that you want this job and that you will be successful in this role. A strong final interview will make your future employer confident that they are making the right choice and they, in turn, and will give you a stronger offer.

 

Finding a new job is a stressful experience but, with preparation, accepting the right offer may turn out to be less daunting.