How to Build A Killer Hiring Team
In Hiring Software & Tools — by Noel Diem
Are you looking to build a killer hiring team? Right now, finding top talent is difficult, so you need to have the best people surrounding you to get the job done. When you build a hiring team, you need to consider all the different types of people this position will impact.
Remember that SHRM estimates the cost of a bad hire to be about 5x their annual salary – that’s a lot of money and a big mistake for some companies. This number grows the more senior the person gets – so there is very little room for big mistakes or, even worse, repeated mistakes.
What can you do about it? Assemble a magic hiring team to review, interview, score, and pick your next great hire.
Do You Need A Hiring Team?
Many people will question whether or not they really need a hiring team. You might not need a huge hiring team if your business only has a few employees. However, it would be best if you had a few people in place to do hiring when you need it. If you only do a couple of hires a year, you want those to be exceptional hires. You don’t want to hire someone who doesn’t fit into your company’s culture, nor someone who will negatively impact your workforce. So you should still build a team.
For larger companies with hundreds or thousands of employees, you can designate people or roles as part of the hiring process and then delegate from there based on the specific role needs.
Hiring Team Drivers
If you are building a hiring team, there are a few people to consider as the “drivers” of that team. These people will do most of the work behind the scenes to create the job description, post the job opening to various boards, and then monitor submissions.
Recruiter(s) or Sourcers
Recruiters are often hiring team drivers because they are crucial at almost every step of the initial hiring process. If you have a recruiter on staff or work with an outside agency, they will help manage the initial candidate experience. Recruiters can help organize job openings, send the opening to talent pools, pre-screening them, and ask follow-up questions. In Trakstar Hire, recruiters get their own log-in information and can see what they need to see, but nothing more.
Hiring Manager
Hiring managers are probably the most significant driver of the hiring team. They are involved in almost every aspect of hiring, they make the ultimate decision (usually), and they are the ones that keep everything moving and delegate the process. Often, they are also the person building the hiring team. Hiring managers are essential parts of the candidate experience and serve as the “face” of the organization.
Hiring managers are usually, but not always, HR leaders and professionals.
Head of Human Resources/HR Leaders
Often, HR leaders are also going to be hiring managers and recruiters, but not always. This is a behind-the-scenes role for a lot of the process, but HR leaders do some of the most critical work.
HR leaders help facilitate the hiring process by:
- Helping to craft job descriptions and post them to various job boards and sites
- Organizing materials and documents before, during, and after hiring
- Discussing salary and benefits with the team
- Formally extending the offer to candidates
- Ensuring the process is moving smoothly
- Monitoring speed-to-hire and efficiency
HR leaders can look at the situation differently and understand the intricacies that some other roles might not consider, like fit with the team, expenses, training requirements, and more. They are the most crucial part of the hiring team, but they cannot work alone.
Hiring Team Players
To build a good hiring team, you need it to be well-rounded. You want to include people with different ideas, stakes, and perspectives on the workforce. Try to change up who is a part of your team whenever you can to build a team that represents everyone’s ideas.
Senior Team Members
Who will your new hire work with once they settle into the job? You can divide this among several senior team members who will work closely with that person, train them, and eventually hand over some responsibilities.
Someone who is going to be close with the employee needs to have their opinion heard, particularly if no one else on the hiring team will be working directly with them.
Your senior team members should particularly look for:
- Attitude and “fit” within the team
- How the hire would fill in gaps on the team
- Skills that will translate to success
- Areas where skills may overlap
- Skill gaps that would still exist on the team
- Places where their talents exceed the job description
Your senior team members should have a reasonably large say in who is hired, though they should not be the ones making the ultimate decision. They work within the company and, daily, see who they need and what they need.
It’s best to rotate these senior team members based on who will be most impacted by the new hire and get differing perspectives.
New Hire Manager/Direct Supervisor
Of course, the new hire’s direct supervisor or manager must also be involved in the hiring team. Even if they are not the ones who asked for the position to be filled or they don’t really work with that person, they will still be impacted by this new hire. They need to have a say.
A manager gives good insight into what it takes to make a position impactful on the company, what skills the team is missing, and finding the right fit for the culture. They are also tenured and experienced enough to interview candidates to get a better feel for who they are.
The manager can take on a “boots on the ground” role on the team or could be someone who offers insights. It all depends on the position, company, and dynamic of your teams.
CEO
The CEO doesn’t always get to be a part of the hiring team, but sometimes they like to be hands-on with a specific role or team. The CEO can help to sway candidates who you really want, so bringing them in at the end is always an option. CEOs can have other important roles as well, including:
- Talking about the company’s mission, goals, and culture
- Presenting as a positive face of the company
- Guiding hiring and recruitment back to business goals
- Staying in the loop and learning more about their workforce
For new hires, getting facetime with the CEO is a huge advantage. They feel like they “understand” the company so much more when they talk to the COE than they do talking to almost anyone else. If you can’t get the CEO to be a part of the hiring team, try to get another member of the C-Suite.
How to Document Interview Feedback for Your Hiring Team
With so many people on the hiring team, it can be hard to document feedback and find a good fit – but not with Trakstar Hire. Trakstar Hire makes it easier to source the types of applicants you want, synchronize calendars to keep everyone organized and collaborate on your hiring efforts.
It’s easy to build hiring pathways, limit what someone can or cannot see, and encourage more people to invest in new hires with Trakstar Hire.
Use Trakstar Hire for Team Hiring (And More)
It doesn’t just stop at building a recruiting team. Does your ATS help you prepare your new hire for the onboarding process? Does it set your talent up for success at your company when you’ve done so much work to get them there? With Trakstar Hire, you can gather information about skills, talents, experience, and more to enroll your new hires in the best possible training courses, so they make the most impact from day one.
Hire also helps streamline the hiring process and automate workflows so that your hiring team can do their jobs while still finding the right person.
Hiring is difficult, but we help simplify the process by streamlining your tasks, identifying the best performing job boards and descriptions, and providing you with meaningful insights you can use to take action. For more information about applicant tracking, hiring team collaboration, and more, you can contact Trakstar today for a personalized demo to see what this would all look like for you.
Trakstar Hire is considered the most user friendly hiring software on the market. If you’re ready to take your recruiting and hiring to the next level, request a Trakstar Hire demo today.
