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Permalink Reply by Peter Ceccarelli on January 27, 2010 at 7:23pm

As an internal recruiter you have to drive the hiring manager like a drill sargent drives troops in training in order to keep the flow and process moving or it won't happen. I've been on the corporate side for 2 decades and have worked for small to large fortune 500 companies and it's the same. Hiring managers don't make hiring a priority and unless we drive it and really drive it, you lose momentum and then when it's time to point fingers, it's usually always pointed at the recruiter.

Now when I say drive the hiring managers like a drill sargent, I'm only saying that in kind. After all, they are our internal customers and in order to have credibility and a good working relationship, we have to play well in the sand box. Right? However.............you can drive with a sense of directness that lets them know you mean business and you're the driver of the car and will lose candidates if there is a lag in the process. I've walked into roles where there was never before a recruiting manager, and hiring managers relied only on the "other" HR people to help them with hiring. Since it wasn't part of their core compentancy AND the "others" don't typically enjoy the recruiting function, they would take all the time in the world to fill a job in order to avoid doing it. As the newbie, when you walk in with a different set of expectations, they're not quite sure how to deal with you. It's like being the new and rare animal in the zoo. They just stand and stare at you. Not sure what to make of you. We then have to show them what we do. But if you command with a friendly and kind touch, but are rather directive like your life depends on it, and you get great results, I have found that they fall into line rather quickly and then can't live without you and move like lightening each time they have an opening.

Do you have a defined process outlined? If so, meet with them and guide by that. If you don't have a process defined which literally shows them how A moves to B which then moves to C and so on, then make one and live by it. People get processess. After all, hiring is one of the most important functions of a company.

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Permalink Reply by Denise Morales on January 28, 2010 at 11:52am

Peter, thank you for your comments. First and foremost, we don't have a recruitment strategy and I am becoming disheartened at the lack of importance that is given to recruitment within our company. We are a young company and recruitment is not tied in to HR. Our higher ups would like to keep the two separate. Needless to say, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Ceccarelli on January 28, 2010 at 12:23pm

Yikes! The best of luck to you. Persistence does pay off. Being bossy but nice while doing so also pays off! It works for me. And it's worked for a very long time. Other's might call it "directive", but to me, I'm just being bossy and I get results and still have friends at the end of the day. Finese? I don't know. Whatever works for you......right!

Denise Morales said:

Peter, thank you for your comments. First and foremost, we don't have a recruitment strategy and I am becoming disheartened at the lack of importance that is given to recruitment within our company. We are a young company and recruitment is not tied in to HR. Our higher ups would like to keep the two separate. Needless to say, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome.

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Summerland on January 29, 2010 at 5:17pm

Hi Denise,

This could be a great way to set yourself apart in your company. While working at a staffing agency the way to set yourself apart was to make closes and like you said quickly. In the corporate world to set yourself apart as a recruiter you need to make suggestions on your internal processes and develop cost savings.

Last month I helped several individuals in a Talent Acquisition departments put together proposals for their senior management on why they need to improve their department and more importantly how. The key area you need to focus on when speaking to upper management is numbers.

If your not currently using metrics to measure your department I first recommend keeping an excel spread sheet of each candidate and time related metrics i.e (time resume spent in recruiting, time spent in the hands of manager, time to interview, time to hire). Not only will this help you back your claim up it will help cover you in the event a candidate was lost due to time.

Fear will also help get your point across to your senior management and by this I mean – not getting access to the top talent and teams suffering due to lack of resources. Fear backed up with proof in numbers may help light the fire you are looking for.

I have seen this same situation in several organizations that range in size and no matter how large organizations seem to get internal recruitment always runs into your problem. Sending upper management a strongly written proposal could be a great way to turn a negative situation into a positive one. Even if they sit on it for a while they at least see you as someone who has strong initiative and someone who wants to help the organization.

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