How To Improve How Recruiters & Managers Hire Together

How? One word everyone is asking when it comes to hiring right now — and rightfully so. How effectively recruiters and hiring managers work together can make or break a company's success acquiring the right people for continued growth and success.

But with massive shifts in expectations, dwindling talent availability, and high-demand hiring needs, productive collaboration between these key stakeholders can be increasingly challenging. Gaps during any part of the process can lead to ineffective communication, missed opportunities, and increased time and cost per hire (something no company can afford today...or ever, really).

Phenom’s 2021 State of Recruiter & Hiring Manager Collaboration report with Talent Board illuminates the major challenges between these vital stakeholders, and provides practical opportunities to improve their relationship with AI and automation that simplifies and streamlines key parts of the process.

Key Stats

We surveyed over 250 recruiters and talent acquisition professionals to nail down what critical challenges recruiters experience when working with hiring managers.

Here's what they had to say:

Unrealistic Expectations: 56% report unrealistic expectations as a roadblock when syncing with hiring managers.
Prolonged Resume Reviews: 67% claim it takes hiring managers at least two working days to provide feedback after receiving a resume.
Feedback Delays: 59% disclose it takes two or more working days for hiring managers to debrief after a candidate interview.
Unclear Candidate Criteria: 46% cite difficulty distinguishing essential skills and experience from non-critical criteria when working with hiring managers.

Despite these pain points, 45% of recruiters still depend solely on basic email/messaging software to communicate with hiring managers — and only 13% are considering more advanced technologies to streamline the exchange of real-time feedback.

So, what aspects of the relationship can be improved? The overwhelming majority of responses fall into the following buckets:

Faster Communication: 50% report faster communication would improve their relationship with hiring managers.
Increased Communication: 39% cite more frequent communication as being one of the best ways to reduce roadblocks while hiring.
More Collaboration: 38% claim more collaboration would be beneficial to the recruiting process.
Actionable Feedback: 30% stated that actionable feedback from hiring managers would be valuable.

For more trends, download the full report here!

Optimizing with Technology

Notice a common theme? The more communication, the better.

In today’s intense labor market, candidates are at higher risk of being poached before they even receive an offer. Routinely delaying feedback and poorly communicating expectations can extend the hiring process by weeks, putting companies at a competitive disadvantage.

While some simple tips like optimizing intake calls to address "must-haves," establishing preferred methods of communication, and implementing feedback mechanisms can help, it’s not enough in today’s cut-throat hiring environment.

Resource: 5 Ways to Improve Virtual Collaboration Between Recruiters and Hiring Managers

The only way organizations can really reduce the time and cost to hire is by embracing a holistic approach to the talent experience fueled by AI and automation. It's also the key to...wait for it...better collaboration.

Chatbots and conversational AI, CRMs and candidate databases, virtual interviewing services, mobile applications, and text-based apps are just a few of the useful tech solutions TA teams should consider to boost their collaborative efficiency.

Another solution? Phenom Hiring Manager — an AI-powered set of tools that unites candidate discovery, interview scheduling, video assessments, and evaluation tools into an accessible, centralized, intuitive user experience. Not only does it bring greater visibility into the hiring process, it also enables hiring managers to discover top talent, better collaborate with recruiters, and facilitate decision-making to move hiring forward.

The companies that prioritize this critical relationship and empower both groups with tools to improve their dynamics will undoubtedly dominate in this highly competitive talent market. The best part — they'll also enhance their candidate and employee experiences at the same time. How is that for multi-tasking?