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Articles - Working With Hiring Managers

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Your Recruiting Success Depends on How Well You Manage Managers

Lou Adler, April 25, 2008

Topics: Managing, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers

In a recent ERE article I made the case that a tipping point was close at hand for converting recruiting and sourcing into a scalable and systematic business process.

» Continue reading "Your Recruiting Success Depends on How Well You Manage Managers"

How to Control Your Hiring Manager Clients and Make More Placements

Lou Adler, October 17, 2007

Topics: Interviewing, Managing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Working With Hiring Managers

Our clients do a lot of dumb thing that cause us recruiters to work too hard. These all seem to fall into big buckets of lost opportunities. Here are the ones that head the list:

» Continue reading "How to Control Your Hiring Manager Clients and Make More Placements"

The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent

Lou Adler, September 26, 2007

Topics: Assessment, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers

Every sport has rules, even pickup games. We even have rules for our kids - when they can watch TV, play video games, go to bed, etc. Business has rules for just about everything - important things like capital expenditures, accounting, SEC reporting, and product design and testing; or less important things like how to dress, when to come to work, how to earn vacation, and how to fill in expense reports. What's surprising is there aren't any rules for what's supposedly the most important thing a company needs to do - hire and retain top talent.

» Continue reading "The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent"

Learn to Defend Your Candidate from the Competition and Dumb Decisions

Lou Adler, April 13, 2007

Topics: Negotiating, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers

The demand for top people has exploded. Part of this is due to demographics, a strong economy, and a widening gap between those with high-demand skills and available supply. Matters are made worse by the increase in workforce mobility, the blurring of the lines between active and passive candidates, and the transparency of the job market.

» Continue reading "Learn to Defend Your Candidate from the Competition and Dumb Decisions"

5 Critical Things Recruiters Need to Do to Become Partners With Their Clients

Lou Adler, September 15, 2006

Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers

Our recently completed 2006 Recruiting and Hiring Challenges survey revealed some significant conflicts between recruiters and their hiring managers that aren't abating. Between 50 and 60% of the survey respondents indicated these were significant problems at their companies:

» Continue reading "5 Critical Things Recruiters Need to Do to Become Partners With Their Clients"

The Three Critical Things Recruiters Need to Do to Become Partners with Their Clients
Or, how to stop losing good candidates for dumb reasons

Lou Adler, September 13, 2006

Topics: Newsletter, Working With Hiring Managers

Our recently completed 2006 Recruiting and Hiring Challenges survey revealed some significant conflicts between recruiters and their hiring managers that aren't abating. Between 50-60% of the survey respondents indicated these were significant problems at their companies:

» Continue reading "The Three Critical Things Recruiters Need to Do to Become Partners with Their Clients
Or, how to stop losing good candidates for dumb reasons"

The More Things Change...

Jason Weseman, August 16, 2006

Topics: Newsletter, Working With Hiring Managers

Does this sound familiar? "We are treated as short order cooks with staffing reqs when a position is vacated". Or maybe this one hits close to home for you: "Our hiring managers have unrealistic expectations, expecting above average performances and backgrounds in candidates while paying average salaries". And two comments that really crystallize the frustrations that recruiters are feeling today: "Hiring managers won't put in the time to clarify their exact needs" and "My biggest frustration is manager availability - it is very difficult to get time with managers and move candidates through the interview process in a timely manner."

» Continue reading "The More Things Change..."

The 15-Minute Hiring Manager Selection Training Course

Lou Adler, March 16, 2006

Topics: Interview Training, Recruiter Training, Working With Hiring Managers

I was recently reminded of an old story from my pre-ERE days and heavy recruiting days. You might find it useful as you attempt to train your hiring manager clients to become better at defining their real job needs and assessing candidate competency.

» Continue reading "The 15-Minute Hiring Manager Selection Training Course"

The Essential Elements of Every Great Hire

Lou Adler, September 16, 2005

Topics: Sourcing, Sourcing, Working With Hiring Managers

As I get ready for another great ER Expo in Boston (September 28-29, 2005) and a chance to meet old friends and make new ones, some big recruiting questions come to mind. Here's probably the biggest

» Continue reading "The Essential Elements of Every Great Hire"

How to Deal With Technical Managers and Other (Too) Bright People

Lou Adler, August 19, 2005

Topics: Working With Hiring Managers

Engineers and software development managers are the toughest hiring managers in the world to deal with. But that's only if you exclude sales managers, marketing managers, company executives, operations people, customer service managers, functional VPs, and of course, financial people at all levels.

» Continue reading "How to Deal With Technical Managers and Other (Too) Bright People"

iPods and the Weakest Link in the Hiring Chain

Lou Adler, July 29, 2005

Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers

I've been advocating the use of the iPod as a metaphor for better hiring practices. If you have an iPod, you know that it's much more than a music player. It's a complete, integrated music system. You can quickly download music and podcasts, burn CDs, and plug it into your car, home music system or Bose speaker set. You don't even have to read the instructions to do any of this stuff and get great music anytime, anywhere.

» Continue reading "iPods and the Weakest Link in the Hiring Chain"

Managing Hiring Managers

Lou Adler, June 24, 2005

Topics: Working With Hiring Managers

If it wasn't for hiring managers, recruiting would be so easy.

This is one of the conclusions drawn from my annual Recruiting and Hiring Challenges Survey 2005. Here are some other preliminary conclusions from the survey results:

» Continue reading "Managing Hiring Managers"

Handling the Problems with Passive Candidates and Hiring Managers

Lou Adler, April 15, 2005

Topics: Sourcing, Working With Hiring Managers

There are more name-generating tools becoming available everyday. My favorites include Jobster, SearchExpo, Broadlook, ZoomInfo, AIRS Oxygen, and LinkedIn. These and the other networking tools should be checked out and used.

But there's more to recruiting and hiring passive candidates than generating a list of names. Success with these tools depends on how well you convert these cold names into hot candidates.

Here are some other factors that need to be considered when hiring passive candidates:

» Continue reading "Handling the Problems with Passive Candidates and Hiring Managers"

The Science of Recruiting - Part 8: Influencing Hiring Managers - The Hiring Decision

Lou Adler, February 20, 2004

Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers

You can't afford to do searches over again. After you've presented 3-5 solid, maybe even superior candidates, the worst thing a manager can say is, "Do you have any more candidates?" Preventing this is one of the reasons why you must be able to influence hiring managers at every step in the hiring process.

» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 8: Influencing Hiring Managers - The Hiring Decision"

The Science of Recruiting - Part 7: Influencing Hiring Managers: How You Present Candidates Matters

Lou Adler, February 13, 2004

Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers

Recruiters must be able to influence hiring managers at every step in the hiring process. It starts when the job description is put together, it continues with the presentation of candidates, and ends with leading the candidate selection process. In the previous segment of this series the concept of taking performance-based job descriptions was presented. These differ from traditional job descriptions in that they describe what the person taking the job must do, or achieve, to be considered a successful hire. This allows for more accurate assessments and the ability to create a superior job match, a core principle involved in hiring top talent. In this edition of the Science of Recruiting, techniques will be described on how to use the candidate presentation to describe this critical job match. This is a big step in a recruiter's evolution in becoming a true partner with their hiring manager clients. It also sets the stage for leading the debriefing session, the subject of the next article in this series.

» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 7: Influencing Hiring Managers: How You Present Candidates Matters"

The Science of Recruiting - Part 6: Influencing Hiring Managers - Taking the Assignment

Lou Adler, February 6, 2004

Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Taking the Assignment, Working With Hiring Managers

Influencing hiring managers is as important as influencing candidates. If hiring managers won't take your advice you shouldn't be a recruiter. The interviewing and assessment process is not a perfect science. So recruiters need to guide managers along, insuring that the best available candidate gets hired. You can't afford to spend your time showing hiring managers an endless stream of candidates until the perfect one magically appears. Or, until they're so worn down they can't tell the difference.

» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 6: Influencing Hiring Managers - Taking the Assignment"