It’s Not Up to HR to Hire Engineers
Companies that are bad at hiring often follow the common flawed philosophy which says that the HR department is primarily responsible for hiring.
In these organizations the CTO essentially “places an order” for a certain number of engineers and HR frantically goes off trying to fulfill the need.
If the company is lucky perhaps the technology teams will conduct candidate interviews and maybe even provide some useful feedback to HR, but to be sure, this is a transactional relationship between the two sides (HR and Tech).
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On the other hand, businesses that are consistently successful with technology hiring understand that the Product & Engineering (P&E) Team is the primary owner of technology hiring, and HR is a supporting partner instead of the other way around.
In these organizations P&E gives a lot of thought to their hiring needs and gets very precise about the types of candidates they are looking for, when they should be hired, and why. Of course, they still make use of HRs expert knowledge of market conditions in their resource planning efforts.
In this model, the Product & Engineering Team ensures they have things buttoned up before going to HR with their hiring needs.
Here’s what the P&E Team should have in place:
A Resource Plan
A timeline for when the roles should be hired, the projected start dates, and the total headcount in the organization month-to-month. The timing of hire should be negotiated with HR based on their available bandwidth.
JDs & Profiles
Well written job descriptions / hiring profiles are a must. These should come from the P&E Team at least in their initial form; HR can supply the right format.
Must Haves & Nice to Haves
It’s useful to write up a list of must-haves and nice-to-have’s in addition to the JDs. This is a very simple tool of 5 to 7 must-have’s and 3 to 5 nice-to-have’s. It creates a lot of clarity. The HR teams can use this to stay aligned as candidates are being filtered.
Location & Work Model
For all roles P&E Leadership should clarify whether the role is onsite, hybrid or fully remote. They should also articulate expectations of schedules and attendance at company onsite events and so forth.
Comp & Bonus
The P&E Team should know market comp for all roles and nail down the expected compensation for any new hires based on their knowledge of that data plus the internal budget; then provide this to HR and revise as needed. Not the other way around.
Org Charts
To give context to HR, P&E leadership should provide an Org Chart that shows the projected team composition and structure. This will allow HR to see reporting relationships and build out the team appropriately.
Closing Thoughts
Hiring for product and engineering roles is a partnership. P&E shouldn’t expect that HR knows the nuances of what different roles entail. By the same token, HR shouldn’t expect P&E to be experts in market conditions and sourcing candidates. To get roles filled quickly with the best possible candidates, both sides need to work together as partners.
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