4 Common Challenges While Dealing with Hiring Managers

In our previous article, “How to Deal with Hiring Managers to Drive Recruitment Results” we delved into practical strategies for collaborating with hiring managers, emphasizing the importance of communication and alignment. 

Now, let's delve deeper into the challenges that can arise when working with hiring managers during the hiring process.

As recruiters, adeptly navigating these challenges is vital to ensuring the attainment of hiring goals.

Let's explore four of them 👇

Common Challenges and How to Address Them

1. Unrealistic Expectations

Hiring managers may occasionally have expectations that are too high or provide unrealistic deadlines to find the candidate. For example, they may expect to fill a highly specialized role within a week while ignoring the shortage of suitable candidates in the market.

Solution: To manage this challenge, initiate regular alignment meetings. Educate the hiring manager about current market conditions and provide data-driven insights that set realistic expectations. For example, we can conduct research on LinkedIn to show them the number of qualified candidates available in the market, how many people accepted to talk to us about the job opportunity, how many of them are willing to change jobs, and the number of qualified inbounds we received in our pipeline. 

2. Unsatisfactory Candidate Pipeline

They may express dissatisfaction with the pipeline's quality or quantity of candidates.

Solution: Review the sourcing strategy based on feedback, refining candidates' criteria to meet our needs: What skills are we looking for? Should we change the pre-screening questions? Is there any specific question to ask during the first interview? 

Another suggestion is to review the job description to ensure it accurately represents the role and its needs. Also, schedule check-in meetings with the hiring manager for continuous improvement.

3. Slow Feedback and Decision-Making

Delays in providing feedback after candidate interviews can be a roadblock. Prolonged decision-making leads to extended recruitment timelines, potentially causing the loss of promising candidates to other opportunities.

Solution: To expedite decision-making, provide feedback templates or guidelines to hiring managers that might help them to streamline the process. Ask for follow-up and define a deadline to ensure that feedback is provided promptly. If it takes a bit longer than it should, inform the candidate that we need additional time to take the decision. 

4. Changing Priorities

The dynamic nature of the recruitment process can change priorities. Hiring managers may introduce new requirements, such as requesting new language skills or additional market knowledge, or even implement changes in the recruitment flow.

Solution: Maintain open communication, regularly assess the impact of these shifts on the recruitment strategy, and adjust the strategy accordingly. Flexibility is the key to ensuring the recruitment process remains adaptable to evolving needs.

Understanding the Hiring Manager's Perspective

It is essential to see things from the point of view of the hiring manager. I find it very useful to start the hiring process with a kick-off meeting to set up all our hiring needs and be aligned. 

Another suggestion is to look at their Job Postings because they are a treasure trove of information. This is where the hiring manager tells us what our priorities are. They offer insights into the skills they emphasize, how they describe responsibilities and even indicators of how they measure success.

Conclusion

We should consider the hiring manager as our partner with whom we work to achieve a shared goal: to hire the person who aligns with both the needs of the role and the values of the company. Remember that challenges are also opportunities for growth. When faced with a solution-oriented mindset, these obstacles can be overcome, leading to better collaboration, simplified processes, and ultimately successful hiring results.

Have you encountered similar challenges on your recruitment journey? How did you address them? Reach out to me through a direct message on LinkedIn and share your experiences.

Your Friendly TA Ivana