By: Jim D’Amico, ATAP President
I have to admit I’m still on a high from Global TA Day! What a wonderful event, over 35 hours of content over 14 hours. 2,000 TA pros virtually gathering on 6 continents to learn, celebrate and network, what a milestone for our industry!
I, personally, learned a great deal, and appreciate each and every speaker who took the time and effort to put together these presentations.
Right out of the gate at 3:30 am Dallas time I had a great take away from Anna Stenbeck’s presentation about strategic partnerships between Recruiters and Hiring Managers. My key learning from her presentation was that Hiring Managers don’t show up to intakes engaged.
I suggest you let that one marinate.
How often do we show up for an intake fired up, it’s a new job a new challenge, we are excited; and we assume the hiring manager is fired up too! In reality, if we are honest with ourselves, how often is that the case? How often do they see an intake as a hoop they have to jump through administratively to get their job filled?
It’s wrong to assume that because we are excited or see value in something, that others automatically do as well. It’s the same when we approach a candidate, we cannot assume that because we are excited about their background and experience that they are excited about the job we have open. Part of what we do everyday is find the keys to excite them, and it’s no different with a hiring manager.
How do you approach an intake? How do you sell the value to the hiring manager?
I have found the key to be unlocking the “why” with them. Most of the time we focus on the “what.” What will the person do? What keywords should we use for our search? We often omit the critical “why” questions.
- Why does the role exist? Is it to make money, save money or improve a process?
- Why would someone want this role?
- Why do you value this position?
These questions will engage the Hiring Manager in active thinking and help to remind them of the value of the role and why they should be engaged. The one “what” question you can ask is “What happens if the role remains opened or is filled with a lesser candidate?”
This was a great reminder to me that hiring managers will only be as engaged in intake and search as I can convince them to be.
Anna’s presentation as well as all the others will be available to ATAP Members on the ATAP website.