“When do you need this person to start?” you ask the hiring manager.
“Yesterday,” the manager replies.
Does this sound familiar? Recruiters hear this hear this every day.
Hiring is based on factors like sales, product demand, growth, or attrition. It’s dependent on budgets, demands of the investors, stockholders, and the board of directors Decisions then come down from the CEO, the VPs, senior management, and the managers themselves. Recruiting has its highs and lows. One minute it’s hot, the next minute it’s not. There are hiring peaks, hiring slowdowns, and even hiring freezes. During hiring peaks, recruiters and managers are extremely busy.
There are some things to consider during a hiring “season”. Managers are often anxious to get people hired and in the door because they do not want to lose their headcount. This is completely understandable. Recruiters are hired to handle stressful situations. They must be able to multitask and deliver candidates in a timely fashion. With all of this being said, there are some real dangers to consider.
Here are five things to consider when companies are in a hiring mode:
- Processes Have to Be Followed in Order For Timely Delivery of Candidates. All companies have processes. Love them or hate them, they are there to ensure that the person gets hired correctly. Everyone has someone to answer to. Recruiting has to ensure that all the approvals are there, jobs get posted and all candidates get consideration for the role. Getting this done right the first time can make things go a lot smoother than trying to correct it on the backend.
- Meetings Need to Regularly Occur. Recruiters are working multiple positions at once. Regularly occurring meetings are imperative to determine where recruiting is in the process. Recruiters are allies of the managers. They want the positions filled as badly as the manager. This needs to be clearly understood. Regular 1×1’s need to happen weekly or more. Both of you are investing a lot of time in getting the right people to come and work for the company.
- Managers Have Deadlines to Meet Without Interviewing. Projects have to be delivered. Their time is very valuable. Recruiters must prioritize with managers. More times than not, managers are going to bring on multiple individuals in a hiring peak. Who is most important to hire today? Who can wait? Who can help with the interviewing? Managers can end up without hires, with wasted time interviewing, with increased stress, and with supervisors who will be unhappy.
- On-boarding Too Many People at Once Could Be an Issue. Paperwork, laptops, training, and desk space … they take serious time. Bringing on too many people at once could really hurt the flow of the way the business is being run. Do yourself a favor and stagger your hires. You want the recruit to have a great first impression. The last thing you want to do is bring someone on board only to have to start the recruitment process again because they left the company prematurely. If it was you that was getting hired, wouldn’t you want the red carpet also?
- Always OVER COMMUNICATE. If you feel like you have said it, but it may be forgotten, say it again. This is for both parties. Things get overlooked. Things slip. Things get forgotten. When in doubt, say it again. We are all busy. We sometimes just need reminders.
