How to Manage Key Hiring Factors

Top talent will NEVER join a company with a mediocre recruiting process. They assume the rest of your company matches that experience. Yet most leaders treat their recruiters like transactional rubber stampers — then wonder why they can't hire A-players. The reality: how you treat your recruiters gets reflected in your recruiting process. Treat them like cogs in a machine? That's EXACTLY how they'll treat your candidates. Here are 8 ways treating recruiters as strategic partners transforms your hiring: 1. Give them a seat at leadership meetings A biz recruiter pitched "we need an implementation specialist" for months. Candidates weren’t biting. Then she learned this hire would unlock a $2M contract. Changed her pitch to "we need this role to hit Q3 revenue." Filled in 2 weeks. 2. Make recruiting metrics visible company-wide When engineering managers check recruiting dashboards daily, magic happens. One team went from "where's my hire?" to "I see 3 strong candidates entering final rounds." Transparency turns recruiting from blame game to team sport. 3. Let them push back on unrealistic demands A recruiter shared w/ me why she quit her last role: "I was tired of smiling when they wanted senior engineers for junior salaries." Smart companies empower recruiters to say, "that's unrealistic." The rest lose their best recruiters. 4. Include them in offer strategy, not delivery Watched a startup land their dream candidate in 48 hours — beating higher cash offers — because their recruiter could negotiate on the spot. Most make recruiters deliver pre-baked offers like pizza. 5. Invest in their tools like engineering Teams tracking candidates in Google Sheets wonder why they can't compete. Companies investing in real recruiting tools see 4x productivity gains. Your engineers get the latest MacBooks. Why make recruiters work in spreadsheets? 6. Give them time to build relationships One Gem customer filled 70% of roles in 3 weeks. How? They maintained relationships with past candidates for YEARS. Most measure recruiters on this month’s roles they need to fill. So they spam everyone and start from zero next quarter. 7. Empower them with data "Trust me, the market's tough" doesn't move executives. "Your salary range is 25th percentile — here's the data" does. Give recruiters access to data and industry benchmarks. Watch them become business partners overnight. 8. Celebrate their wins like revenue That top 1% engineer who chose you over FAANG only happened thanks to your recruiter — celebrate them like AEs winning deals. Ring the gong. Most companies only notice recruiters when hiring stops. TAKEAWAY In this market — 2.7x more applications, 90% unqualified — the difference isn't headcount. It's whether you treat recruiters as strategic partners or paper pushers. Your recruiters are interviewing for new jobs right now. Still think they're just order-takers?

📱 My phone’s been blowing up lately—colleagues on both sides of the hiring game are venting about the same thing. Job seekers can’t land roles, and hiring managers can’t find people who actually stay. About half of my network who were job-hunting have found something, but the other half are still stuck in the grind. Meanwhile, companies tell me that even when they do make a hire, retention is a nightmare—new employees are bouncing within six months. The disconnect is real: companies are hiring, candidates are applying, but something is clearly broken. Traditional hiring—bloated job descriptions, ATS black holes, and never-ending interview rounds—is failing everyone. So, what needs to change? 🔄 Here’s what I’ve seen work: ✅ Ditch the ATS Dependence – Get back to human recruiting instead of relying on keyword filters. ✍️ Fix Job Descriptions – Make them clear, real, and relevant—cut the jargon. 🤝 Prioritize Personal Connections – Hiring managers should actively engage instead of passively posting. 🎯 Focus on Skills, Not Just Titles – Look at what candidates can actually do, not just where they’ve been. ⏳ Speed Up the Process – The best talent won’t wait around for a four-week approval cycle. 💬 Improve the Candidate Experience – Give real feedback and make the process transparent. Here’s a real-world fix I put in place: At a previous company, the hiring pipeline was a mess—ATS filters blocked great candidates, and the process dragged on. I introduced a referral-first hiring approach, tapping employees’ networks before posting publicly. We also replaced multiple early-stage screenings with a 30-minute call with the hiring manager. 📉 Time-to-hire dropped 35% 🎯 Quality of hires improved—better fits, fewer regrets 📈 Retention rates increased—candidates knew exactly what they were signing up for 🔑 Bottom line: Hiring is broken, but it doesn’t have to be. The best hires come through real connections, not algorithms. What’s been your biggest hiring (or job search) frustration lately? Drop a comment 👇 #Hiring #Recruiting #JobSearch #TalentStrategy #HR #FutureOfWork

Every interviewer is looking for something different. One values experience. Another prioritizes culture fit. A third is focused on skills. This hidden hiring mistake is costing top talent. Most teams don’t even realize they’re making it. They think they have a solid hiring process. They screen. They interview. They discuss. But there’s one problem... No one is on the same page. Suddenly, a great candidate gets rejected, not because they weren’t the right fit, but because your team wasn’t aligned. Here is a playbook to fix it... ✅ 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱 → Define key skills and characteristics so every interviewer rates candidates on the same criteria. ✅ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 → Teach hiring managers to assess candidates consistently and avoid bias. ✅ 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 → Get aligned on what success looks like for this role before bringing in candidates. When your team is clear on what they’re looking for, decisions become faster, stronger, and more objective. The result? • Better hires • Less bias • A smoother process How aligned is your hiring team right now? Need help getting them there?

Your slow hiring process could be costing you the best candidates, think sprint vs marathon. (Okay let’s make it 800 meters because it’s not quite a sprint.) "You want quality? Then take your time!" Not Exactly.. Honestly....the leaders I've worked with both as internal HR and 3rd party recruiter don't "take their time" thinking it will increase quality. Here's what I've learned on my own and from leaders I've worked with.. 1. It's not about just moving faster - it's about doing the work before and having a system in place. 2. Get your team on the Same Page Before you start interviewing...this is possibly the biggest issue I see. ➡️ Hiring leader wants this… ➡️ the Hiring Leader Manager thinks X… ➡️ Each party interviews candidate, 'calibrate' to find out they are not calibrated on what they are looking for.. The job description is a laundry list of requirements sometimes from old JD's and now from AI If you list out the real requirements showing which ones are priorities and have that as part of selection process, it will save you a lot of time.  Yes...priorities may change as you get going but you have a foundation to work from. Here's what you can do..it's not easy I get it but if you take an hour upfront..you'll get hours if not days back in time.. 1. Get Ruthless with Your "Must-Haves" 🎯 Take a good look at your team. What skills do you actually need? I mean REALLY need. 🎯 Stop copying old job descriptions and get real. 🎯 Trust me - you don't need 15 requirements. Pick 3-6 that actually matter. Game changer! 2. Get Your Team on the Same Page - 🎯 If your team isn't aligned on what you're looking for... you're gonna waste time. 🎯 Nothing kills hiring speed like five different people wanting five different things. Hash it out first! 3. Create a Simple Rating System Look, we all have biases (yep, me too!). 🎯 Having a clear way to evaluate candidates keeps everyone honest and moving quick. 🎯 No more "gut feeling" hires that we regret later... I’ve seen leaders take months finding the right candidates. With some preparation you can get it to several weeks, spend less time and higher quality. What's the biggest factor impacting the speed/quality of hire? #Hiring #RealTalk #Leadership #Recruitment

I recently stumbled upon Geoff Smart and Randy Street's hiring methodology… Here’s what I learned: The true cost of a hiring mistake? 15x the person's salary. Yet most managers: • Rush the process • Rely on gut feeling • Ask ineffective questions • Skip thorough reference checks The "A Method" that transformed our hiring process: 1. Create a scorecard first Don't just list requirements - define the exact outcomes this person needs to deliver. 2. Source strategically The best candidates come through referrals. Incentivize your team to connect you with top talent. 3. Conduct four progressive interviews Dig deeper with each conversation. Push for detailed examples, not hypothetical answers. 4. Check references properly Have candidates notify their references in advance. Listen for what isn't said - lukewarm praise speaks volumes. Remember: A-players deliver exponentially better results than B-players. Hiring isn't about filling seats… It's about finding people who can drive real outcomes.

We’ve all been here. You ask the hiring manager, “How much of a priority is this role?” They say, “Top priority. We needed them yesterday.” You’re feeling good. You get to work. Fast forward 80 days… still no hire. The hiring manager is canceling meetings. And suddenly you’re being told: “TA isn’t moving fast enough.” Now it looks like you’re the problem. But that’s not the full story. Here’s what I’ve learned: Ask a better follow-up question. After they say it’s a top priority, ask: “Is it on your OKRs?” Most of the time, it’s not. That’s when you say: “Let’s both add it to our OKRs. That way we can track the outcome and show what success looks like, together.” This changes everything. Now it’s not just your responsibility. It’s shared ownership. Put it in writing. Ask them to send that shared goal to their manager. You do the same with yours. This creates visibility and accountability on both sides. And check in mid-quarter and end-of-quarter to review progress. Together. This doesn’t guarantee the role gets filled fast. But it does guarantee one thing: The hiring manager won’t disappear. And if things stall, the whole org knows it’s a shared issue, not a recruiting problem. Recruiting works best when we’re partners. Not order takers.

Most hiring decisions happen in the first 10 minutes after an interview. That's the problem. Just watched a strong candidate get rejected. Not because of skills. Not because of experience. But because the hiring manager "had a feeling." Feelings don't build great teams. Structure does. Last week, I ran a debrief for a VP search. The loudest voice started with "I just didn't click with her." I stopped him. Made everyone score the candidate against our predetermined criteria. Made everyone share concrete examples from the interview. Made everyone justify their ratings with evidence. The "gut feeling" disappeared. The candidate moved forward. Unstructured debriefs create chaos: 📛 The loudest voices dominate  📛 Recent interviews get inflated ratings  📛 Bias creeps in through "culture fit" comments  📛 First impressions override actual qualifications Strong recruiters control this process. They don't just schedule interviews.  They don't just collect feedback.  They drive structured decision-making. No feelings. No vibes. No guesswork. Just clear criteria and evidence-based discussions. Your hiring success isn't determined in the interview. It's determined in the debrief. And if you're not controlling that conversation, someone's bias is. #Recruiting #ExecutiveSearch #Hiring #Leadership