Hiring Managers versus Candidates: The Two Perspectives.

What is the difference between what candidates want and what hiring managers want?

Money? You’re probably thinking the answer is money. Or that the candidate wants to be selected and the hiring manager has a large number of candidates to choose from. Possibly the timing of the interview process? While all those things may be true, that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

There are many differences in the desires of the hiring manager and the candidate.

Have you ever had the daunting task of applying and interviewing for a position? If you’ve ever had a job, it’s safe to say that you have. The process can be terrible; casting a net of 100+ applications, random questions that have nothing to do with the job (how many marbles can fit into a 4-door sedan?), being ghosted by recruiters, weeks before hearing back, the company going in a “different direction.” The pain points on interviewing are endless.

Have you ever had the equally daunting task of hiring for a role in a company? While some professionals find it exciting, others find it dreadful and painstaking.

In recruiting, the main goal is to find a candidate that matches the job you are looking to fill; the requirements, the education experience, the skills, the cultural fit, the team fit, etc. The job profile is typically created by the hiring manager in partnership with an HR partner. The position’s direct manager typically decides what that the profile looks like. 

Depending on the role and the manager, recruiters can find that their hiring managers want EXTREMELY specific skills or experiences for someone to take on the role. In recruiting, we call these “unicorns.” These are profiles that are extremely difficult and specific; i.e. a retail store manager with 10 years’ experience leading exempt teams, working in a complex environment, is strategic but also isnt’ afraid to spend 10 hours a day pushing freight, is a cultural fit, has accounting experience, works only nights and weekends, must have experience in women’s apparel retail, will be ready in 12 months to be a district manager, and the job pays $20 per hour.

That is an extremely specific profile that probably would be difficult to find, yet it’s common for recruiters to see this level of specificity in the jobs they recruit for.

For another example, let’s take the position of hiring for an HRIS (HR Information Systems) Manager for a family owned trucking company. The HR Director (or hiring manager) decides that it will be hiring for this role and they would like the candidates to have the following experiences:

·      At minimum, 10 years of experience with Workday

·      Experience in the trucking industry

·      Experience in a family owned business

·      Is a cultural fit into the company

·      Has experience rolling out new processes and tools to the organization

This set of requirements is exactly where the path of candidate desire and hiring manager desire separate. The hiring manager wants experiences that directly correlate to the job they have open. Why wouldn’t they?

However, the candidates most likely want to build a career that is eclectic and can allow them to take on similar roles in different industries, different companies, and with slightly different job profiles; no one wants to pigeonhole themselves into a specific job function.

With the economy turning faster than ever, the working class needs to be more adaptable to the changes that come their way. This includes an economy that may not have a vast market for 10+ year Workday managers with a family owned business in the trucking industry. One of the hallmark traits of younger generations is the desire to do and experience different paths in their career.

Regardless of generation, professionals want to build careers that are rich with experiences and learning; not ones that are stuck in a small subset of skills. As more generations enter the workforce, it is being shown that the reality pendulum of this issue is swinging even farther to one side. Newer generations entering the workforce do not see themselves spending a large amount of time on one given program, task, or responsibility. Variety is key to this growing population.

If we look back at our HRIS manager example, how can that profile be edited to target a more realistic population? To start- I would ask the following questions:

·      Does the candidate absolutely need trucking industry experience? What attributes are we looking for that would be exclusive to the trucking industry?

·      Is experience in a family owned business an attribute that is necessary?

·      Can the candidate have fewer years of experience? Maybe 2-4?

·      Instead of a cultural fit, can we look for someone who would be a cultural addition to the team?

Changing the profile to be more inclusive of other experiences could yield a better, stronger candidate pool.

So, what should managers do? Throw the towel in on what they want for their team? Of course not. Hiring managers need to understand that there are qualities that are far more important than the direct experience they are looking for. With the world moving as fast as it does, professionals are gaining a wide set of skills at a rapid pace. 

The following list is a great set of competencies to look for in a candidate.

1.      Learning Agility

2.      Communication Ability

3.      Values Alignment with the organization

4.      Problem Solving

5.      Change Agility

6.      Passion and experience for the topic associated with the position

Is this a catch-all set of competencies for all jobs? Of course not, but strong proficiency in these six competencies can tell you a lot about one’s expected performance in a given role. It is likely that the payoff of having candidates with these strong skills outweighs direct experience in one area of the function. Having professionals with the ability to be agile far outweighs that of deep, specific technical experience.

Hire for will, not skill.

When industry professionals look to the workforce of the future, the skills that will be relied upon are around intellectual agility, change, transformation, and problem solving. To build capabilities of the future we need individuals with these skills.

So - think twice before searching for “the unicorn”; you may let a good candidate slip by.