Expectations vs Performance; A Perspective of Managers and Recruiters

The tiff between hiring managers and recruiters is a never ending saga. Every employee of any organisation undergoes this inherent feeling of dissonance among their colleagues, and more often with their managers. Similarly, in the recruitment industry, recruiters often complain about their managers not understanding the current job market, which often leads to challenges during the recruitment process. At times such a situation can even lead recruiters to take drastic decisions such as a job or career change.

On a daily basis, hiring managers, recruiters, clients and candidates are involved in multiple level of business communications and relevant interactions through emails, phone calls, meetings and even informal conversations. Few of these are documented, some are assumed and many are taken for granted. As hiring managers and recruiters work in unison, these assumptions can lead to gaps in executing the desired activities. This also affects the outcomes which is to identify and place the right candidate.

Here are some common scenarios that occur between any manager and recruiter. If these situations are dealt with professionally; it would create a perfectly harmonious work atmosphere for both the managers and recruiters:

CASE 1: PERCEPTION CLASHES

When a hiring manager receives a requirement from business for a niche skill, the first thing they expect recruiters to do is source quality profiles. This is where most of the problem stems up. While hiring for niche skills, a recruiter often finds it difficult to search profiles.

Even if the recruiter manages to find a suitable profile, it falls short of the business expectations. At this juncture, the manager perceives the recruiter as an impediment who is unable to understand the business and client requirements. They assume recruiters do not understand client expectations.

In the same way, recruiters hold the same belief about their managers, who are stubborn and lack basic understanding about their day-to-day pain points. These perception clashes between the manager and recruiter can create a rift in the office work culture thereby affecting productivity.

SOLUTION

Managers should encourage recruiters to look at job descriptions beyond key skills. They must explain what each skills stands for and their importance while sourcing profiles. On the contrary, a recruiter is expected to comply with the instructions given by their recruiting manager. A recruiter should have the ability to perceive, understand, and judge business requirements that are shared by their recruitment manager. 

A recruiter must not view the JD as a tool to source keyword through common job portals, instead they must take into consideration other factors that contribute in generating the best results.

CASE 2: INARTICULATE INFORMATION

There are times when a recruiter never understands the requirements of their managers. For instance, when a manager expresses their ideas, there are chances a recruiter may or may not pick up the essentials details which can, in response to affect the sourcing and screening of profiles.

Similarly, when a manager conveys information, there are chances of it being inarticulate and faltering. As a consequence, recruiters aren’t able to comprehend what was said and thus, can create dissension at work between both the parties. However, inarticulate information not only underlines the intonation of speech but also facts conveyed to which recruiters might not always comply.

For instance, when a manager expects recruiters to understand a job description; a recruiter might question the objective of their manager. This can inadvertently lead to an unhealthy work atmosphere.

SOLUTION

Firstly, a recruiter should know that each and every role has different expectations. Be it keywords or skills, every role is significant and requires individual attention. Moreover, a recruiter must make an attempt to delve deeper into candidate profiles and evaluate candidates on the basis of their ability, education, soft skills, and other factors that suit the requirement of the client, even when the information isn’t conveyed to them.

On the contrary, managers must break down information and offer well-researched content to the recruiters to foster better understanding of the requirement. When a recruiter fails to comprehend what has been said, a manager should reiterate the same through different mediums.

CASE 3: THE PROBLEM OF RECIPROCATION

Reciprocation in the recruitment process is of immense importance because without it a recruiter or manager cannot proceed further with any other activity efficiently. Due to the superior-subordinate gap that is prevalent in many organisations, recruiters aren’t in a position to clarify queries with their managers, which results in passive animosity between the recruiter and manager.

For instance, when a recruitment manager isn’t happy with the profiles screened, the blame falls on the recruiter. The manager expects the recruiter to screen profiles before submission. On the contrary, the recruiter demands feedback to every resume screened before submission. When both parties are complying, the activity is prolonged which is a loss not only to the employees but also to the company.

SOLUTION

The success of a manager is generated from the success of recruiters. This achievement is derived from mutual interactions between both the manager and recruiters. Thus, a recruiter must never hesitate to approach their recruitment manager when in need. This helps to clarify doubts and other hindrances that might affect the sourcing of profiles.

A manager must ensure to follow a decentralisation approach while executing tasks. They must chair meeting more often to understand the current status of a requirement given to recruiters. Besides, a manager must interact with recruiters on an individual basis to guide their endeavours and the get the best out of their abilities.

CASE 4: COMMUNICATION GAPS

Once any resume is processed, many levels of interactions and follow-ups happen between the candidate, client and recruiter. It is expected of a recruiter to manage each and every stage and update all relevant parties involved including the recruitment manager. Here the recruitment manager comes with a notion that a recruiter knows their duties. The recruiter on the contrary waits for instructions from the recruitment manager. When both parties aren’t informed about their current roles, it can lead to recruitment errors putting both of them at fault.

SOLUTION

The basis of recruitment is communication and without it no activity can be implemented nor can any business objective be achieved.

When there is a lack of communication between the manager and recruiters, they must overcome this lag by arriving at a mutual consensus. A manager must understand that they were recruiters in the past and perhaps should not rely on their past to take managerial decisions. They must understand, each recruiter is unique and so is their working style.

Similarly, a recruiter must remain flexible and incorporate new suggestions given to them by the manager.

In conclusion, every recruitment team follows their own distinct method of screening, sourcing and hiring people. The prime reason for maintaining a flexible process is to meet client expectations and business objectives. In the absence of a rigid internal process, the binding factor is a fully-fledged transactional interaction between a recruiter and manager. Thus, a recruiter and manager can only bring out the best when work is carried through a mutual consensus.