Why Recruiters Shouldn't Fly Solo: The Argument For Collaborative Recruiting

While recruiting is typically relegated to an afterthought, because it is considered to be a non-revenue-generating function within a company, this is typically where lost revenues can be recaptured at an astonishing rate. 

Bad hires and employee churn cost companies a staggering amount of money and time:

Better hiring practices can alleviate many of these costs, ensuring that new hires are well suited for the role, complement and supplement the company culture, add value in the form of skills and trainability for internal promotion, and are poised for long-term retention. Collaborative recruiting is one of the best ways to achieve these goals.

What Is Collaborative Recruiting?

Traditional recruiting is a highly siloed process. Typically, the entire process is handed off to one or more hiring managers, who may bring in outside recruiters or firms. No attention is paid to how the new hires may overlap or be expected to interact once onboarded, and unconscious bias can run rampant since there are only one or two points of contact between recruitment and candidates.

In contrast, collaborative recruitment draws in members of every team, department, and level within a company, making them part of the process. Instead of leaving hiring decisions in the hands of the hiring manager(s), the collaborative recruiting approach includes a range of team members across all stages of hiring, including:

• Sourcing
• Outreach
• Screening
• Evaluation
• Interviewing
• Decision-making
• Onboarding

This centers the act of recruiting as a business priority and puts responsibility for making the best hires possible on everyone involved. Collaborative hiring engages and involves:

• Founders and C-levels
• Department heads and managers 
• Prospective supervisors and cross-collaborators 
• The candidates themselves

Collaborative hiring is based on the theory that success is determined by the strength of an organization’s internal relationships. A collaborative approach allows for input from multiple stakeholders and allows the candidate to get a better feel for the company culture and organizational ecosystem.

This drive wins on every level: for the employer, who increases their chances of making a good hire, for the manager, who can confidently add a new member to an existing team, and for the candidate, who is empowered to make better-informed career decisions.

Why Solo Recruiters Fail

Recruiters have a single purpose: to fill empty seats. There are so many factors involved in hiring that if the seat vacates again swiftly, the recruiter is unlikely to be held accountable. Additionally, recruiters can easily be undersupported by hiring managers.

Recruiters aren’t necessarily experts in what an organization needs in an ideal candidate. Likewise, they may not be clear on what the ideal candidate is looking for in a best-match job. These failures in communications combined with pressure to hire quickly can lead to poor hiring decisions.

Recruiters need more input than they currently receive in typical hiring situations. Better communication between the organization and the recruiter will lead to improved hiring stats. By broadening who has input into the recruitment process, companies can build a clearer picture of their ideal candidate, arming recruiters with the information they need to truly succeed.

In addition, when hiring is left solely to recruiters (with minimal involvement from the company aside from the hiring manager), there are only two points of direct contact with candidates - creating a situation ripe for unconscious bias to rear its head.

Recruiters can be affected by unconscious bias as much as anyone else. This bias can affect who gets passed through the funnel to the interview stage with the hiring manager. At this stage, that individual’s bias comes into play in turn, compounding the issue.

Collaborative hiring helps flatten the sharp curve of unconscious bias, especially when combined with tools designed to reduce bias and increase diversity and inclusivity. This provides a more holistic path to hiring and improves the chances of long-term employee retention.

[See 8 Rules for Hiring the Right Candidate]

Why New Hires Leave

One in three respondents to a BambooHR survey said they had quit a job within six months of starting it, and half of those left between the first week and the third month of starting their new job. Why new hires leave is intrinsically tied to poor hiring and onboarding practices. 

Of new employees who left within the first six months respondents were clear that issues with the new job started immediately:

From job description to training to company culture, these employees felt let down and unsupported in the new job they agreed to take. Around 30% of the new hires who quit said they’d received little or no onboarding, and 15% said that the lack of effective onboarding was a major contributor to their decision to leave the company.

Benefits of Collaborative Recruiting

Collaborative recruiting supports the needs of the recruiter, the organization, and the candidate. The collaborative approach means teams can welcome in hires they already know are a values-fit, and who they can picture themselves working with.  

Broadened ownership of recruiting

Disrupting the traditional hiring manager-dominated model allows organizations to spread out ownership of recruitment. This promotes a hiring culture that leverages employee advocacy, developing brand ambassadors who deliver high-quality referrals.

Everyone involved with the recruiting process is invested in new hires’ success. The recruiting function itself isn’t weakened; to the contrary, talent acquisition becomes more visible, recruiters are more accountable, and stakeholders from the C-level down are more involved.  

Minimized bias

According to a LinkedIn survey, 42% of recruiting professionals say that traditional interviews fail due to unconscious bias on the part of interviewers. A collaborative hiring process powers a safety net of checks and balances, reducing the impact of individual biases and preventing unbalanced disqualifications from the pipeline. 

Better communication

Collaborative hiring focuses on making the process more interactive and keeping all members engaged. 

• Hiring managers benefit from team member input about candidate attributes.  
• Recruiters benefit from better information about what to look for in the talent pool.
• Candidates benefit from the attention paid not just by a just recruiter but a team. 

Only 31% of hiring managers understand the vision their business leader has for their team.

Collaborative hiring also supports the hiring manager by giving them clarity on what the company needs from new hires to achieve business goals.

Faster hiring and onboarding

Speed of hire is critical, due to the fact that top candidates often stay on the market for only 10 days or less. However, rushing to hire leads to exactly the type of bad hire most companies want to avoid. 

Collaborative hiring can help weed out unworthy candidates and identify good prospects more swiftly, leading to a fast consensus and hiring decision and smoother onboarding from employees and mentors excited to help the new employee make a strong start.

Team-building potential

Giving existing employees a voice in the hiring process is empowering, reinforcing their values and assuring them that their opinions are important. Team-based hiring builds a sense of community and makes it easier for the chosen candidate to settle in since they were chosen rather than assigned. 

How Crosschq Can Help

The key to collaborative hiring is tools that support collaboration, communication, and accountability. Crosschq TalentWall™ is the ideal tool for integrating into your existing hiring process to make it more collaborative. Crosschq TalentWall™:

• Sits on top of an existing ATS, providing a birds-eye view of the talent pipeline health
• Allows unlimited seats for team members at all levels for collaborative recruiting
• Delivers robust support for DEIB initiatives at each stage of the hiring process
• Drives better communication and accountability between hiring managers and recruiters

To get a Crosschq demonstration and learn how to make a start with collaborative recruiting, contact us today.