Out of the plethora of studies conducted in regards to success in management, the most commonly stated character trait of successful managers is decisiveness. This is especially true in the hiring process as vacillation often results in missed opportunities and inferior talent acquisition. Top talent doesn’t wait long, and every effort should be made to ensure that quick decisions are made in the event that a company comes across an ideal candidate.

Be Decisive & Trust Instincts

The ability to be decisive comes from confidence in one’s own abilities and having a firm understanding of the precise needs of a position. Most often it is the hiring manager’s “gut feeling” that is the correct option and great managers learn to rely on that instinctual perception of who they want to hire. There are, of course, situations where the hiring manager enlists the help of a recruitment firm, in which case it is important for both sides to trust one another.

Trusting Your Recruitment Firm

All managers have strengths and weaknesses, and it is important to understand which areas they may be more or less proficient. The less adept a hiring manager is in a particular area in which they will evaluate a candidate the more trust is needed from the recruitment firm they partner with.  The trust that a hiring manager shows when working with a recruitment firm to locate talent is of paramount importance and it is equally important for the hiring manager to trust their instincts. While it is important to trust the recruitment firm’s feedback in regards to the timeline and the window of opportunity for a candidate.

Be Ready to Make a Quick Decision

Employers often underestimate the difference between their own perception of the hiring process timeline and the candidate’s perception. At the same time, the hiring process can drag on due to un-decisiveness while filling a core role within the company. A position can remain unnecessarily vacant for days, weeks, or months, and by that time the recruiting team’s resources are exhausted.

Recently there has been a large pool of highly educated candidates who face unemployment because they are taking the risk to leave their jobs to seek higher placements and opportunities. Hiring managers need to take advantage of this premium and ensure they are acting FAST and hiring top-notch candidates for the job.

Hiring managers often find a candidate who has the required skills and fits the values of the company but ends up losing the candidate because they take too long to close. Managers and current employees cannot afford to be short-handed at work for a long period of time.

As to not expend the team’s resources, these are important tips for managers on how to access the talent they need NOW and avoid losing candidates in the hiring process.

Identify the breakdowns in the hiring process

For example, it is hard to make quality placements when a company is searching for applicants and coming up short. If the company’s website is receiving little to no resumes from qualified applicants, the job description might need to be more informative or insightful as to what the job entails. It is far more complicated to modify parameters and descriptions mid-search.

• The position should be described properly and the core values and culture of the company should be clear.
• The description needs to fit the desired target audience and speak directly to them.
• It is important to distinguish between “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves”.

If a manager is unable to decide on a candidate, they might have to make the job offer more appealing without compromising the brand.

Practice flexibility

Employers ideally want to hire someone who meets every need and qualification for the position, has years of experience, and can contribute value and culture to the company with their advanced degree and skills. However, it’s important for hiring managers to remember that if a candidate has determination, talent, and willingness to succeed, they are teachable. It can lengthen the hiring process when a hiring manager closes the door on a professional who exudes potential but may not have all the experience the manager is looking for.

Be Decisive

According to a recent study published in Harvard Business Review, the ability to make accelerated and convicting decisions is one of the four main things that sets apart successful CEOs (Myers 2017). The end decision is sometimes of less importance than the decision-making process itself. It is a lot better to trust an initial judgment and place someone, rather than risk letting all the good people go and find other job offers. Again, regarding “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves,” go in with a plan and rank these requirements in order of importance for success in the position.

• Hiring managers should reflect on the needs and resources of the ENTIRE team.
• Managers need to act fast or else end up with the leftovers.
• Managers should be willing to pivot if the candidate has a particular skill set that was not a priority, yet not detrimental, and could be valuable for the company.
• The hiring manager has the ability to create a role around a candidate’s skill sets and talent.

Partner with a Recruiting Firm

While thousands of dollars are being spent on the recruitment process, money is being lost simultaneously in revenue and productivity. The average time-to-hire for jobs is currently sitting at 68 days (Maurer, 2016). Recruiters possess knowledge in an array of verticals and offer proactive sourcing before roles are even open. The partnership between a recruitment firm and hiring managers is a mutually beneficial, properly functioning symbiotic relationship. Recruitment firms can consult with the hiring manager to establish the priorities and resources of the company in order to find the best candidates for the position with speed and persistence.

https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0616/pages/why-hiring-is-taking-so-long-and-what-hr-can-do-about-it.aspx

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrismyers/2017/04/28/how-to-become-a-more-decisive-leader/#18bb659c7433