Imagine the scene. Interview scenario; “Tell me about a time when you truly took one of your hiring community on a learning journey and explained what a new piece of recruiting technology actually delivers?”
How many of us would pass or fail this question? How many of us take the time to thoroughly inform and educate our hiring managers on what talent pipeline software does or how programmatic advertising works? Or even a step further, do we sit down and sell the benefits of using that new assessment tool that will cut down on time and potentially improve quality of hire?
I discussed last year the importance of solid hiring manager relationships and in this age of HR Technology taking more and more of the agenda, it is critical that we take them on our own journey as it is their hires that will be affected…hopefully for the better. Why you might ask? Buy-in, advocacy, and responsibility. Plain and simple.
Buy-in. BREAKING NEWS; hiring manager rejects new piece of HR tech due to not being consulted, not asked for an opinion or actually advised on whether it will improve quality of hire. Not rocket science, is it? They might only have 10% involvement but a noisy 10% rejection will massively affect a positive outcome.
Advocacy. In the same way that a candidate or an employee might sing the praises of your organisation, it works the exact same way if you have the support of your hiring community. Why would you not invite them to a demo of a new piece of HR Technology? Involve them, ask their opinion, build their trust in what we do. If the solution promises on what it can deliver and brings the benefits they require, they will promote and endorse…so all of a sudden when creating a business case or gaining executive agreement you have not only HR team support but a loyal and highly bought in hiring community. Win.
Responsibility. A very simple one. Hiring managers are responsible for hiring, we own and manage the machine that makes hiring possible. If they put more effort into hiring, they get better people. They get better people their team performs better. Their team performs better and it makes them look good. Not a difficult sell, is it? Hiring is not transactional it is strategic and critical to any business. It needs 101% participation from both sides of the table with a very open and transparent operating model.
So, the next time XXX is demoing, don’t make it a HR team event only. Invite everyone to the party.
BG
