Good hiring starts at the top

It’s everyone’s job

Believe it or not, hiring isn’t a train wreck everywhere. We just remember the bad experiences more, from our time as job seekers. They stick out in our minds more. (Plus they get echoed around on social media ad nauseam.)

Recruiting is often a thankless job. You don’t get a lot of high fives for treating people with respect, following up with them appropriately, and injecting a little joy in the process…because that’s what you’re supposed to do.

And the orgs that do? It’s not by accident. It’s a top down mandate. This is how we operate. These are the expectations we have.

It’s easy as an organization to fall off track without even realizing it. If the expectation is just “get butts in seats” and that’s happening, why is there a reason to believe things are going well? From leadership’s perspective, it is.

But the results shield the inefficiencies. Bad experiences lead to lower hiring conversion rates and poor hiring reputation. Full stop. Your recruiters are swimming upstream to make those hires.

“Fixing it” is a top-down mandate. If the expectation goes from “butts in seats” to that plus…

👉Interview process completed within X days.

👉Debriefs & decisions within Y days.

👉High candidate NPS feedback stores.

👉Interview teams complete/refresh interview training.

👉Leadership involvement in interviews.

Or whatever style points you feel best get you there. And notice, these things involved the entire team. Not just your recruiters.

Make those things the measurables, up and down the entire org. Then they’ll happen. Magic.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.