Being on the corporate side I have both enjoyed the benefits and suffered the frustrations of working directly with hiring managers. I find that the two are very closely related, though, and I have the ability to impact some the of trouble areas. In fact, I feel it is my responsibility in order to be productive and effective in my job.

I speak of the responsibility to educate hiring managers as to what the heck I actually do as a recruiter. Even though the managers and I are on the same team and share the same end goal, it is amazing how many misconceptions there are and how little they know about what a recruiter does to fill a position. As the title suggests, though, I won't blame them for this ignorance. They are not recruiters so I can't assume they have any knowledge of the work that is done to produce a candidate and fill a position.

This means if I want managers who are more engaged, easier to work with, and more understanding of the process I must educate them. My role as a recruiter should not be to simply deliver a candidate, but to ensure the management team understands what I do and how their actions play a role in the successful completion of the hiring process. They need to know why I ask questions that seem totally unrelated to the job requirements and why I care how many people they will interact with daily. They should understand why I press for specific feedback rather than settling for "I'm going to pass on this one."

I'm currently in the process of developing training materials for our management team to educate and engage them in the recruitment function and would like to know what misconceptions and misunderstandings you've overcome with hiring managers.