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The real reasons why the hiring manager-recruiter relationship often sucks

Posted on by Ted Bauer

A list:

  1. The hiring manager probably doesn’t respect the recruiter inherently, because the recruiter is probably based in HR — that’s a department that does not face revenue — and the hiring manager probably does face at least a slice of revenue, and may even own P&L.
  2. The recruiter probably has no idea of what the hiring manager does and why his/her silo is so important (in their eyes).
  3. They are speaking different languages, essentially.
  4. The hiring manager thinks of hiring as “another thing to manage” and just wants 3-4 highly-qualified people placed in front of him yesterday. 
  5. The hiring manager has been burned by lack of recruiter knowledge about his/her space before and has guard up.
  6. We supposedly live in this data-driven time and that’s what hiring managers are being told to focus on and report up the chain, but the recruitment process seems to remain as highly-subjective bullshit.
  7. The recruiter supposedly has “the functional knowledge” and the hiring manager cannot be bothered.
  8. There’s a brawl about “the skills gap.” The hiring manager thinks the recruiter isn’t doing his job, and/or the market is weak. The recruiter thinks, “Uh, can’t we raise the salary for this role?”
  9. They only meet in rushed, disjointed 15-minute increments where nothing really seems to get done.
  10. The hiring manager is really thinking more about how to automate some of these roles.

Anything sound familiar on there?

Ted Bauer

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2 Comments

  1. I’m a sales recruiter and bonused on the performance of sales hires. That helps a little with the respect thing. It also helps to know your shit and not let hiring managers get away with theirs. If I don’t command and demand respect for my work and time I will not get it.

    2, 3, 5 scream for recruiter specialization or at least spending lots of time learning about the job.

    I’ve been addressing several of your points for YEARS internally, and I’ve resolved those issues via a very detailed intake meeting that require a focus on must dos not must haves. We focus on what activities and deliverables the new hire will be responsible for. If we don’t do this our hiring managers will simply say “find me someone like Frank it maybe just hire an athlete.” Because apparently, they teach complex sales at every college football practice session.

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