While this isn’t a problem unique to recruitment, it certainly is common. Stakeholder management to a point where everyone leaves a meeting knowing it was valuable is a learned skill, but the other factor is usually that everyone usually feels as though the onus is on the other to ensure they derive value. So, in recruitment, whose “job” is it? Well, it’s both.
To make recruitment updates most effective, both parties need to bring something to the table. As a hiring manager it's important that you set clear expectations on the information that's most valuable to the recruitment campaign. It's then the responsibility of your recruitment team to ensure that touchpoints are the most effective as possible, and result in the fastest possible time to hire. Whether you’re the hiring manager or recruitment partner, here’s how you should structure your expectations and what you should be prepared to give.
What the hiring team should expect from their recruitment team
Your recruitment partner should regularly provide you with the latest metrics related to the search, including key information such as:
- Outreach activity – a commentary on how the market is responding to the vacancy and any recurring themes that should be discussed to ensure that you have a competitive offering.
- Recruitment efficiency metrics - this should cover ratios such as submission conversion to interview, interview to hire, offer acceptance and overall time to hire. This information can show you at what stage your current hiring process is breaking down and give clues as to what can be done to get things moving again.
- Relevant insights such as skills shortages or salary misalignment, based on the role profile and your target accessible market. This can create meaningful dialogue that, when viewed alongside recruitment metrics, can lead to impactful solution that will positively affect the search.
What should the recruitment partner own?
Stakeholder meetings are an essential part of your journey to building real credibility with your hiring teams, and ultimately the successful delivery of any recruitment campaign. You must be able to plan and execute an effective meeting, and these are some of the steps that you can take to set yourself up for success:
- Think carefully about the desired outcomes of the meeting (both for yourself and your hiring stakeholder).
- Use this to prepare a clear agenda highlighting the key topics and data to be covered. Share this and any pre-reads with attendees ahead of the meeting.
- Collate the relevant data points to support the conversation, and make sure that you are clear on the story that the data is telling.
- Be solutions-focused - prepare viable solutions to any challenges that you are facing, ready for discussion in the meeting.
- During the meeting, stick to your agenda and make sure that your discussion is based on facts and data. Avoid going off-topic unnecessarily and always keep your focus on the intended outcomes.
- At the end of the meeting, summarise the discussion and clear document any action items and next steps to keep things moving. Follow up via email if needed.
Most importantly, and this applies to both parties, ensure expectations are clear and laid out in the first meeting. Without ensuring both parties are aligned on what you expect to achieve from the outset, this can filter down throughout the entire recruitment campaign. The key is keeping meetings focused on the end goal, and recruiters can facilitate this by using data and remaining solutions orientated. This increases the likelihood of achieving the desired outcome of that important hire or hires, as well as creating highly effective long-term partnerships between hiring teams and recruitment partners.