Stakeholder management in recruitment – also known as the key to being a brilliant recruiter.
Relationship-building is the number one thing you need to be good at if you’re going to be successful at recruitment. You can’t source exceptional candidates, nurture them through an outstanding candidate experience and place the most desirable talent into a role, without being skilled at building great relationships.
But what about managing relationships with your hiring managers?
Recruitment is a partnership, so it’s crucial to build strong, internal engagement with your hiring managers. But that can only happen if you’ve established the foundations of healthy, open and trusting relationships from the beginning.
What’s in this #RECTIPS article?
As talent professionals, we know managing stakeholders is a crucial day-to-day activity, so we’re diving into what the role of powerful stakeholder management really looks like in recruitment.
In this #RECTIPS article, we’re sharing on-the-job recruiter insights from Harry Sansbury, Senior Principal Recruiter at Scede, on how to practice top-notch stakeholder management.
We look at:
- Why a solid relationship between talent partners & hiring managers is so important
- The impact that great stakeholder management can have on your metrics
- 7 quick tips for improving your stakeholder management skills
Harry also shares the golden piece of advice he’s been given as a recruiter on managing stakeholders, and why recruitment isn’t always a square peg and a square hole… (we promise all will be explained!).
So, what is stakeholder management in recruitment?
Stakeholder management in recruitment is the process of recruiters building and nurturing genuine, open and trusted relationships with those involved in the hiring process – such as hiring managers and senior management.
Through effective stakeholder management, recruiters can improve the engagement of hiring managers and their investment in the recruitment process, which helps the overall hiring process to run more efficiently.
Consultation and input from stakeholders during the recruitment process can have a hugely positive impact on the success of an organisation’s hiring process – so this is definitely a relationship to be invested in.
Stakeholder management as a recruiter
As recruiters, we know that a good relationship with our hiring managers can mean the difference between feeling like a job well done, and one that’s fallen a little short of everyone’s expectations. That’s why it’s a core part of our Embedded Talent, and Source services success measures and rituals.
We also know that not everything will go smoothly all of the time, and that’s ok. But understanding the core skills of how to establish and nurture key relationships during the hiring process is invaluable to learning and improving together along the way – and ultimately setting the partnership up for success.
Senior Principal Recruiter, Harry’s #RECTIP:
Communication is everything when it comes to learning how to work with different stakeholders on a project. We’re human, so everything we do and say has the possibility of being misunderstood. But with clear, effective communication we can save on time and frustrations along the way – helping you to get the job done correctly from the off and avoiding backtracks or having to revisit things.
But what does ‘good’ communication look like?
For one hiring manager, this might mean over-communicating and keeping them in the loop regularly with updates. For others, they may only want to be notified of big changes and want to receive weekly updates – it’s about finding out what works for that particular relationship.
As a recruiter, why is good stakeholder management so valuable?
Although recruiters and hiring managers share a common goal, to hire the best talent into the right roles for the business and deliver a successful hiring plan, their expertise is quite different in terms of what role they play in the hiring process.
Does the recruiter fully understand the organisation and the roles they’re hiring for?
Does the hiring manager fully understand recruitment and the candidate management process?
Good stakeholder management aligns those differences in expertise and experience, roles and responsibilities and is done through clear communication and building strong relationships. This valuable action allows a more holistic approach to recruitment where everyone has 360° visibility throughout the hiring process making it an efficient activity for all involved.
“As an embedded talent partner, great stakeholder management is pivotal to success. Recruiters and hiring managers need to work collaboratively in order to achieve the same goal, which is hiring top talent.
On many occasions, I’ve seen the power of a positive working relationship be the difference between a successful hire and an open vacancy.” – Harry Sansbury, Senior Principal Recruiter at Scede.
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Harry’s #RECTIP:
Here’s how you go about kicking off a positive relationship with your hiring managers!
Open conversations from the very beginning are a must. Show them you’re human. Get time in the diary as soon as possible to have a coffee and begin the dialogue of how you’re going to work as a team. Talk together about previous relationships with talent partners, perhaps things they value in a partnership, to get a feel for how they like to work.
Create expectations early around your ways of working too and how this can be adapted to best suit their needs. I try to book in time to review the hiring plan with my hiring manager early on so we can best plan how to tackle it together.
You could ask questions around what their best-fit candidates would look like. Discuss any diversity hiring strategies (DE&I) or initiatives they’re running, company culture, their brand story and anything else they feel would help you better understand their organisation like what their remote hiring process looks like, for example. A hiring manager will be able to give you valuable insights into how you might shape your recruitment activities.
For me, empathy is such an important trait as a recruiter, it’s important to me that my hiring managers know that I have their best interests at heart.
Strong stakeholder management can positively impact your metrics
Metrics might not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think about relationship-building, but definitely one of the most valuable aspects to discuss when it comes to stakeholder management.
Keeping candidate engagement high
A strong working relationship with stakeholders means you’ll be more effective in understanding what your hiring manager is looking for right from the beginning – meaning you can get down to work sooner.
If you’re communicating well, downtime between interviews can be significantly reduced because stakeholders recognise they can trust your opinion and expertise.
Decision-making then becomes easier and the length of the recruitment process becomes shorter – a key metric in keeping candidate engagement high.
Improved offer & acceptance rates
Offer rates and offer acceptance rates can improve with effective stakeholder management too. The recruiter-candidate relationship is up there with the most important (and personal) relationships you build during the hiring process – one that takes a lot of work and nurture but arguably, the most rewarding in terms of job satisfaction.
Talent professionals are the experts in delivering offers to candidates and they’ve worked substantially on building that relationship. It’s vital that hiring managers learn to put their trust in their recruiter’s expertise to take the right steps in achieving successful and accepted offers. This will only happen if healthy working relationships are in place.
Harry’s #RECTIP:
Here’s an example:
If an ideal candidate for a role was looking for a 45k salary but would consider taking 42k for that particular role at your company, what’s the best way to handle that situation and relay it to a hiring manager?
First, notice the flexibility and negotiation on the candidate’s part, it shows they’re willing to work with you to achieve a positive outcome. You must have created a valuable, trusting relationship with them for this to happen. Nice!
Secondly, and more importantly, it suggests that the candidate is invested in your brand and potentially has other drivers to want to work for your company aside from the salary. Your EVP has obviously shone through during the hiring process and research done by the candidate. Good job!
If this candidate is the one, personally, I would advise the hiring manager to offer 45k if they can pay that for the role – here’s why.
The beginning of the candidate’s working relationship as a new employee is crucial, after all, successful candidate engagement should turn into healthy employee engagement if the relationship is managed properly. So, if the company was prepared to pay 45k for the role, then this is the offer that should be made to the right candidate.
Don’t worry, this suggestion won’t come across as patronising, instead, hiring managers will be grateful for your guidance as some only have minimal exposure to delivering offers and therefore trust your expertise as the recruitment professional.
Ultimately, if you’ve invested in practising good stakeholder management and have great relationships with your hiring managers when it comes to relaying information around salary expectations and offers, your expertise will be welcomed – as will your talent for building exceptional candidate relationships.
The role of data in stakeholder management
Using data to reinforce and support your decisions is also an important criteria in managing stakeholders. Many recruiters use the term data-driven, but perhaps the phrase ‘data-informed’ works a little better in this context – meaning we’re using data alongside our interactions and insights to make decisions.
It’s sometimes easy to get bogged down in the numbers and lose focus of the bigger picture, so by working alongside your data, you can continuously improve your services while remembering that recruiting is also a people-focused role.
Although key goals are shared, talent partners and hiring managers aren’t always going to agree (and sometimes that’s the way to reach a great solution!), so it’s crucial that communication channels are kept open, and data and metrics are up to date so you can remain agile and adjust where needed.
In short, presenting and sharing insightful, relevant data helps hiring managers to understand the bigger picture like what’s happening when, who’s responsible for what, and proposed timelines for each stage of the hiring process.
Harry’s #RECTIP:
One tip for giving stakeholders instant visibility is using snapshots of the recruitment pipeline to provide quickfire updates on who’s in the process!
7 quick tips for successful stakeholder management
1. Be a human, you’re not a robot – It’s often easy to become caught up in technology (especially if you’re working remotely) and forget there’s another human being on the other side of the screen. Bringing your own personal touch to your approach with stakeholders is really important to building strong relationships. Take time to speak to your stakeholders about non-work related matters too, this will build rapport and help develop mutual trust.
2. Effective communication – The recruitment process is an ever-changing environment, so focus on keeping everyone involved in the process updated and informed to make sure any speed bumps don’t turn into roadblocks. Be clear, be concise and if needed, over-communicate in the beginning – you’ll soon learn whether it’s welcomed or not!
3. Be confident to give feedback – As a skilled recruiter, you should feel comfortable in delivering constructive feedback to your stakeholders to ensure best practices are being followed – the same goes for receiving feedback and being agile and proactive in your response.
4. Top-notch time management – A hiring manager’s time is often limited so you need to use the time you have together wisely. This could be a weekly sync to discuss the current candidate pipeline or a simple update email with last week’s activity and the number of outreach or screening calls. Find out what works best, what data is required and set clear frameworks for working – make your time with your stakeholders count.
It’s super important that you set time aside to keep your hiring managers updated. Block out 15 minutes in your own diary once or twice a week as a prompt to make sure to send that email or book in a call!
5. Be comfortable having to say no – This may sound a little harsh, but it’s valuable – here’s why. Honest and transparent time management is essential when you’re working with stakeholders, so try to manage expectations properly with them when it comes to your bandwidth. Give them clear visibility across your workload so they can better understand your capacity. If something isn’t possible in the desired timeline, work together to create realistic timelines for deliverables.
6. One size rarely fits all – Often on projects, you’ll be working with multiple stakeholders so it’s super important that each of those relationships is treated individually. You don’t have the same relationship with each of your friends or colleagues, so why would you with your hiring managers? Don’t be afraid to adjust your approach to accommodate challenging stakeholders either, that’s all part and parcel of being skilled at stakeholder management and managing relationships.
7. Develop excellent planning & problem-solving skills – Often as recruiters, we’re presented with a hiring plan for the next 3/6/9 months. Speak to your stakeholders and prioritise your vacancies so you know which to focus on first. For example, if you’re dealing with multiple stakeholders who all view their vacancies as a priority, speak to the business about identifying an overriding decision-maker.
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The golden piece of advice ⭐
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received on good stakeholder management?
‘Be willing and open to compromise’
Recruitment isn’t always a square peg and a square hole. When you’re working with people, like we do every day as recruiters, unpredictable things can happen so flexibility is absolutely key.
Often throughout the hiring process the criteria can change along with the job responsibilities, so being agile and ready to adjust what you’re doing helps prevent roadblocks.
Key takeaway
Good stakeholder management in recruitment is pivotal to a successful hiring process. It’s clear that talent partners and hiring managers need to be working collaboratively in order to achieve the same goal, which is hiring top talent for the business. So, as a recruiter, it’s definitely a valuable skill to master (and continuously improve on!).
Recruitment is an art, not just a transactional process. Empowering stakeholders to proactively engage with the recruitment process means it can be a beautiful, successful partnership, as long as you’re practising first-class stakeholder management.
Who knew it was possible to get the warm fuzzies about recruitment, huh? 😊
* (All of our #RECTIPS are fuelled by our talented recruiters at Scede. There’s no stone unturned when it comes to sharing recruitment knowledge here at Scede so we decided we’d share it with you too!).
Click on Harry to connect with him on LinkedIn! Ask him more about stakeholder management!