Top 5 Tips for Hiring Managers

Episode #11 Transcript

PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Welcome to Onward Search Career Cast, the podcast that brings you the latest insight and career advice from experts within the internet marketing and creative space. Onward Search is a leading nationwide provider of web-based talent and offers a full range of recruitment and staffing solutions. If you’re looking for a career in search engine optimization, interactive design or emerging technologies, you should apply online at OnwardSearch.com or call 1-800-829-0072 and speak with an experienced recruiter today.

Peter Clayton: Welcome to episode 11 on the Onward Search Career Cast. This is Peter Clayton reporting from the headquarters of Onward Search in Wilton, Connecticut and today we’re going to take a 180 degree turn and talk about the hiring process from the point of view of the hiring manager in the internal HR department conducting an executive level job search.

Joining me today are two members of the Onward Search Executive Search Team, Executive Recruiter Jamie Young, and Vice President of Executive Search, Tom Hull. Drawing from their extensive combined backgrounds in recruitment, Tom and Jamie put together a list of the top five tips that every hiring manager needs to know about to ensure they’re able to attract the top talent they’re looking for. Given that Jamie and Tom work on the executive search team, they handle search assignments for full-time permanent employees making six figures.

Tip #1 that they’ve come up with for us; have clearly defined objectives. Jamie, what’s involved in this step and what are the types of goals that should be considered by a hiring manager?

Jamie Young: Sure, absolutely. This is actually one of the most important steps in initiating a search. What we definitely recommend is to have realistic expectations for the search and role, so the hiring manager should clearly define what they want out of this individual in this position. Along with that, make sure that salary range has been approved by all parties, make sure everyone is on the same page for what you can afford to offer when you get to that stage and ultimately, what we see as being very important is communication between a hiring manager and the HR department. These are both two really important parties, so we want to make sure that they are both relaying the same message with each other and with the candidate that is being considered for the role.

Peter Clayton: Well, sort of along with that, your second tip is to have a game plan. Tom, this can mean a lot of different things; so how do you define a proper game plan?

Tom Hull: Peter, what we found is that a common mistake that clients make is to make a decision too quickly on a candidate being a match or not generally within the first couple of minutes of an interview. An effective game plan is really going to be objective about it and have the company strategize prior to the interview what needs to be covered, from a technical skill set, from an interpersonal skill set.

For instance, if you have five people that are part of your interview process, you want to have each of them at least cover one main point that you have defined as a key part of the process for the new hire. I had a client that would do real-time feedback before each interview. So after the interview with the first person, if there was a concern, there would be an email or an IM sent to the next interviewer to say, “You may want to probe on this because it may be a concern.” If it was a consistency throughout the process, then they would identify and try to alleviate it or it would be too big to counteract. Having a game plan, understanding what you need to cover, and then have each person on the same page, so everyone is on having an effective game plan for your new hire.

Peter Clayton: Make a good impression is your third tip. Tom, are you saying that clients should be worried about impressing the candidates as well, especially considering the job market we’ve been faced for the last couple of years?

Tom: Yes, I think it’s very important. The way I like to think about it is, think of it like you’re having your future in-laws over to your house for the first time. You’re going to cook a great meal, you’re going to clean the house, you want to make sure that your future father or mother-in-law is going to have their son or daughter in good hands. Well, it’s the same thing for a client.

The first impression is critical and setting a tone for future partnership. We have to think about the candidates that we want to be able to get for these executive level searches. They’re not looking, they’re passive candidates, the first time they’ve heard about the opportunity is when they get contacted. So to attract these hard to find passive candidates, a company needs to make the best impression possible. Clients can make the mistake of not trying to sell the opportunity and having the candidate try and sell themselves on the role but it can cause them to lose candidate.

Peter Clayton: Tip #4, be decisive offer clear feedback. Is this more than just responding in a timely fashion?

Jamie: Well actually yes, because a lot of more goes into it. We want our clients to be able to manage the expectations of the candidate from the very beginning. So if it’s going to be a long process with this interviewing, it is fine, but let the candidate know. Without this type of understanding, the whole process can go through and you lose a candidate that way because they’ve lost interest because they were not aware from the beginning that it was going to take this long.

Another thing to think about is if you are using a third party, be sure to offer this clear and constructive feedback, because offering this feedback allows the third party to gauge their search a better way and find those appropriate candidates for what you’re looking for.

When it comes down to being decisive, ideally a company would like to see anywhere from three to five great candidates, but if that first one walks through the door and is “the one,” you can’t be afraid to pull the trigger. If they’re matching up with all those objectives that you define first thing in the process, it’s okay that you want to be ready to make the decision for the right person.

Peter Clayton: Tip #5, be straightforward from the beginning. Tom, I understand you have a phrase related to how a hiring manager should present the company to a prospective candidate?

Tom: I do have a term that I like to use and I tell clients all the time, you want to be able to show exactly what the position is about and what the company is about, “warts and all” and what I mean by that is transparency is the key.

Just as there’s no such thing as a perfect person, no company, no job is perfect, so be prepared to discuss the challenges that the candidate will face so they fully understand what they’re walking into. The worse case scenario is having a new hire transition into an organization and the expectations are not met by what the reality is in the situation. So by being upfront with the pain points, your new hire can be prepared to start by offering solutions.

Peter Clayton: I think that’s so important – on-boarding today is so important because when you pull that trigger, you want to make sure you’re bringing in the right candidate into that position. We always wrap these things up by talking whatever hot jobs and hot positions you currently are looking to fill; can you give us some tips on what’s going on here?

Tom: Sure, love to. Some of the things that we do as an internet marketing recruiting firm is we work nationally out of our corporate headquarters in Wilton, Connecticut. We have competencies within internet marketing, and specifically with internet retailers, with agencies, as well as clients and companies for search marketing, as well as creative. We’re working with many premiere multi-channel retailers for a Director and VP of online marketing Pacific Northwest, as well as California and Texas, and we’re working with an up and coming search marketing agency looking for very strong strategic paid search professionals.

Peter Clayton: Are these positions for organizations that are trying to fill them before the holidays?

Tom: They would love to have them transition into the company prior to 12/31/2010.

Peter Clayton: Great. Thanks so much for taking time to speak with us on Onward Search Career Cast. We’ve been speaking with the Executive Recruiter Jamie Young and Vice President of Executive Search Tom Hall.

Thank you for tuning in to Onward Search Career Cast. For more information on the career opportunities available through Onward Search, you should visit us online at onwardsearch.com or call 1-800-829-0072 and speak with an experienced recruiter, and you should also follow Onward Search on Twitter at Twitter.com/onwardsearch.