Could a direct link to the hiring manager be the key to a successful candidate placement?

I find the art of recruitment a fascinating process. People are the single most important investment a business makes, irrespective of the size of the organisation.

Here at Zenopa, we have very good relationships with a large number of our clients and are part of their PSL. We know the ins and outs of their organisation and we understand what they need in terms of calibre and skills, as well as the company’s ethos. All of these aspects help us to present the right candidates with the best chance of being successful.

However, when recruiting from a PSL, there is an added nuance: the team within the business to which an individual is being recruited will often have its own dynamics. This is why it is critical, in my opinion, to speak with the hiring manager as well as the HR manager.

For example, I recently took a brief for a business manager role who will be leading a team of 40. We were asked to deal directly with the HR department, which we did, but in addition, I picked up the phone to the sales director.

I spent a good 30 minutes on the phone to him discussing the background of the role and the kind of person he was looking for culturally, as well as in terms of skill set. Through this process I was able to find out exactly the kind of personality traits my candidate would need in order to succeed and successfully run the team at hand; especially as this role had been advertised internally first which can sometimes present some challenges. 

The sales director also told me that nobody else had given him a call to talk it through and that they had all worked directly from the HR brief. This baffled me as I think it is not always possible to dig down to all the relevant detail without this one on one conversation. My candidate is now at final stages and I completely believe that this is due to the initial investment of time spent asking the RIGHT questions with the sales director.

In these scenarios, it is paramount that recruiters build relationships with the direct hiring managers in order to really add value to the process. Relationships with clients shouldn’t be transactional; they need to be about giving and sharing advice on who will be right for the role in question. For me, it is the key to a successful candidate placement!