HR and Recruiter tips for working together Posted on August 2, 2012 by Chloe

Recruitment is a team effort.  It requires a certain level of commitment from three parties: the recruiters, the candidates and the hiring manager. If any of the three underperform, the recruiting process suffers. It sounds simple enough, but many in the business world agree that it’s actually a complex process that can cause a lot of headaches. Let me explain.
Recruiting entails that candidates know a minimum about the companies they are interviewing at, the hiring managers know the job specs of the vacancy they are recruiting for, and the recruiters are on top of any problems that could arise between the two. The performance of each individual,  and the success of the recruitment process, relies on the fact that people do their job properly.

In some cases, the process proves to be quite smooth and fuss-free. A job is posted, recruiters work on it, correspond with the employer accordingly, submit CVs, go through the interviewing process and a lucky recruiter will make a placement.

But in most cases, the process is more complicated. The tos and fros of correspondences between the recruiter and the employer can be tiresome. Frustrations can arise and the submissions of CVs can come to a standstill. This can be due to a number of reasons; job being put on hold, found a candidate directly, recruiter not finding suitable candidates, or vacancy being scrapped. Sometimes, there is no wrong doer or wrongdoing. Recruiting is simply tough. What’s likely to have happened is that someone in the process was not doing, or not given the opportunity to do their job properly.

Fixing this is nearly always possible. But prevention is better than cure and starting off on the right foot is always a plus. So here are a few pointers on how the recruiting team can ensure harmonious performance:

1. Recruiters should know about the job as soon as HR Managers are aware of a vacancy that needs to be filled. A job done under pressure will not necessarily be a job well done so recruiters need to be given appropriate time to find suitable candidates and be set realistic expectations of when a candidate should be placed.

2. Feedback can give people an idea on how they have performed and where to improve their work. When recruiters ask for feedback, HR managers who don’t tend to be responsive find that those recruiters don’t perform well. Informing your engaged agencies on your thoughts about CV quality, candidate fit and interview behaviours can shape the type of candidates they put forward to you at a later stage. Recruiters should also respond accordingly, and try to improve the quality  of their work where necessary.

3. Hiring managers need to be responsive to candidates CVs. Good candidates have a short shelf life, and it is really hard to find top talent. If you fail to follow up and reiterate interest in a candidate that you’d like to see in for a future interview, the candidate won’t wait. Good practice implies recruiters are informed of how their candidate faired during the process. If the process is taking a bit longer than expected, get the recruiters to keep the candidates warm. If the fit isn’t right let them know so they can focus on other endeavours.

4. Interview well. Although you might interview several groups of candidates before finding your rockstar talent, you do need to treat every single interviewee as if they were your one and only focus. This applies to both the hiring manager at the actual job interview, and to the recruiter during the initial assessment interview. Candidates of today are prospective clients of tomorrow so if an interview is misconducted in any way there will be bad blood in respect of the company you are representing.

5. Remember, the candidate is also interviewing you. If you think you’ve just landed on a good candidate, chances are others will have thought the same too, and your ideal candidate will have multiple job offers. The offer he decides to take will depend on a number of factors -one of which will include how you conveyed the company culture and message during the interview and how suitable he feels he would fit within it.