Who is a Hiring Manager?
Hiring managers are responsible for hiring employees for open positions in the organisation. A hiring manager is an individual responsible for hiring candidates for the job.
They collaborate with the human resources team, recruiters, and HR managers. The hiring manager works in coordination with the HR team. Implementing strategies to develop and retain employees.
The hiring manager’s primary responsibility is to assess the candidate’s skills, interview performance and hire them. These help them determine whether the candidate is well suited for the job or not.
The Roles of a Hiring Manager
The hiring manager is the person who initiates the hiring process and finalises whether the candidate is hired or not. Their role is made up of the following responsibilities:
- Identifying the staffing requirement in the organisation.
- Defining the roles and responsibilities of a hiring team.
- Managing the hiring team.
- Setting ideal expectations in an interview.
- Crafting an accurate and detailed job description.
- Obtaining necessary approvals from the department and organisation heads to open a job requisition.
- Negotiating the terms of employment with the selected candidates.
- Informing HR managers if no suitable candidates have been identified, then identifying and reaching out to new candidates to conduct an interview.
- Defining candidates’ job roles, duties, and responsibilities, as well as performance expectations from the job.
While a recruiter or any HR professional finds and screens the candidates it is the hiring manager who makes the final decision on whether to hire the candidate or not.
The Responsibilities of a Hiring Manager
While the recruiter manages the hiring process. The hiring manager is the person who actually closes the deal. They are typically responsible for making decisions about which candidates to hire.
The hiring manager has to take responsibility for the outcome, a bad hire affects the organisation’s efficiency and quality of work. The HR Rep or the recruiter is also accountable and shares the responsibility of a bad hire in an organisation.
When things do not go as planned, it is about the commitment and contribution of a person to that task.
Both parties must have a strong relationship in order to find quality candidates so that both of them can be effective at their jobs. They share a common objective to bring talented and qualified candidates to the organisation.
The hiring manager can evaluate candidates and analyze their potential, then reject those candidates who lack the necessary job skills.
The Skills of a Hiring Manager
1. Communication
Communication is a major characteristic that is required for a hiring manager to convey their needs to the HR team and recruiters. They have to be proficient in communicating with the team members to get inputs about the department where the job vacancy exists.
2. Critical Thinking
It is important for the hiring manager to have critical thinking ability to make informed decisions about recruiting potential candidates for the job. Critical thinking is a way to question candidates, analyse, and evaluate information about the potential candidates. Depending upon the number of resumes, the hiring managers must be in a position to prioritise tasks, and complete them within the ideal time.
3. Time Management
A hiring manager must have the ability to manage time effectively in order to effectively collaborate with the HR team and recruiters, to make decisions on the recruitment process. Organisation ideally receives many applications for a job role, and they must be in a position to analyse and make decisions as quickly as possible.
4. Industry Expertise
The hiring manager has to be updated on the industry to select candidates based on the organisation’s needs. The hiring managers have to make an analysis of the requirements, and the number of resources needed in the organisation to meet the deadlines. Industry standards also play a major impact in these decisions.
5. Technical Skill Set
The hiring managers also have the technical knowledge to interview potential candidates who come from technical backgrounds and can hire employees per the organisation’s requirements. The hiring managers can use analytical questions to understand the candidate’s ability to fit within the organisation. A technical hiring manager has a deep understanding of a variety of technical roles and can understand what kind of candidate needs to fill those roles.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the role of hiring managers during the interview process?
The role of a hiring manager during the interview process is to take decisions on the selection process and expects the potential candidate to explain their interest in the position, and the type of work environment.
2. What is the difference between a hiring manager and an HR interview?
The HR interviews tend to be focused on the skills of the potential candidates and check whether the skill set matches the roles they applied for. An interview with a hiring manager is geared towards the experience and checks the in-depth knowledge about the roles and responsibilities.
3. Does the hiring manager decide to hire?
The hiring manager and the HR team work closely to fill the open position. The hiring manager is the direct superior. Hiring managers are given the responsibility of hiring the best candidate for the job. So, the hiring managers are the decision makers.
Closing Thoughts
Organisations’ hiring responsibilities in the recruitment process is shifted between the Human Resources team to the hiring manager. The managers make decisions on candidate sourcing, recruiting, and interviewing. However, the Human Resources team are still responsible for communicating throughout the hiring process, and they share the responsibility to understand and make other improvements to the hiring process.
Assigning responsibilities to the hiring manager is not meant to blame them, but to take necessary actions based on the outcome, and improve the results for the organisation to run efficiently and effectively.
The hiring manager plays a major role in deciding whom to hire as a new employee. The hiring manager expects their potential candidates to describe their previous positions, and educational background, as well as express their interest in the vacant position. The responsibility of a hiring manager is to dig into the candidate’s experience and identify the potential candidate who fits the open position.
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