Is Your Hiring Process a Circus? A Note from Your Recruiting Ringmaster on Establishing Order

One of the more frustrating aspects of recruiting is what I like to refer to as being the ringmaster. During the lifecycle of most requisitions, you are the one tasked with coordinating the entire recruitment process. That includes juggling schedules and mollifying concerns on both the hiring manager’s and the candidate’s side, as well as making sure that everything appears to be going as planned.

As recruiters (and ringmasters), there are quite a few things that are out of our hands — people’s availability, how candidates will react to an offer, whether they will take themselves out of process. But things can be done on the hiring manager’s end to ease the hiring process, and allow the ringmaster to focus on what is most important: finding talent.

As a hiring manager, your role in the recruitment circus is all about communication — communicating with the recruiter and the candidate; communicating with other stakeholders; communicating with the recruiter again. When there is a lack of communication things fall apart.

 

How to Organize Your Hiring Process: 3 Things that Can’t Be Left Up in the Air

In order to avoid the hiring process grinding to a halt, as the ringleader I need to know a few things at all times:

1. Where are candidates in process?
2. What are next steps?
3. What is the timeline?

The most frequent cause of the process breaking down is when I stop hearing from the hiring manager, or when there are no clear decisions and everything is in limbo.

Recruiters cannot keep candidates entertained and interested and in the role forever — at some point the hiring manager needs to take over the job of dazzling the audience in order to show a sign of good faith that they are interested. After all, the ringmaster is not the main attraction or the reason why people come to the circus — the acts are. As a stakeholder in a search, you need perform your act to keep your audience interested.

The big takeaway: As a hiring manager, be an active member of the show and you will be far less likely to miss out on top talent.