Should You Include Employees in Hiring Decisions?

It is important that new employees embrace and fit into your company culture. An organizations vision, mission, and values tend to reflect upper management’s competencies and beliefs. When workers share connections outside these parameters, they form relationships that can go a long way toward minimizing interdepartmental conflict and maximizing efficiency.

In fact, study after study indicates that the best inoculation against attrition is having new employees paired up with someone within the company that is not a direct supervisor, that they are comfortable coming to for advice, feedback, etc. With that in mind, it makes a lot of sense to include employees other than the hiring manager in the interview process.

Employee camaraderie can be significantly enriched when workers play an active role in the hiring process. It can also lead to a terrific source of internal referrals. By including them in certain aspects of adding members to your team, you can create a tremendous sense of ownership that will result in higher production, moral and ultimately profitability.

 Read on to learn a few suggestions on how to incorporate various team members into the hiring process, as well as a few words of caution.

•  Question employees on the attributes they want in their supervisor. Prior to interviewing, ask them about specific areas of support they desire; dig into the issues they see as requiring attention – morale, scheduling conflicts, scope of work, etc.
• DON’T give subordinates veto power over a hire, nor allow them to weigh in on specific candidates, but do give them a voice in the type of supervisor they believe would be successful.
• It is critically important to not invite more people in on the decision making process of individual candidates than is absolutely necessary. The biggest factor we see in situations where companies are not able to decide on a candidate and pull the trigger is because there are too many people that have the final say on hiring someone. Ideally, the direct hiring manager, and his or her supervisor should be the ONLY 2 people that have the final say on weather an offer should be forthcoming.
• The old adage that suggests that it is not wise to ask someones opinion that you are not prepared to follow holds true in this scenario. Asking an employee’s thoughts on a specific candidate is a recipe for disaster. If the final decision makers like the person, and if you ask someone outside of that circle their opinion on a specific candidate and are met with a resounding no, and go ahead with the hire, you have told that employee that their opinion does not matter, which can lead to yet another role to fill.
• By incorporating other employees into building the profile of your ideal candidate, you are investing their future colleagues in their success, because it will be a reflection on their ability to identify winning candidates. By asking peers or subordinates their opinions and thoughts on the most important traits to find in a new hire, you are getting their ‘buy-in’ and setting the stage for a warm welcome for your newest hire.

So now you know the answer to the question of whether it is smart to invite other employees in on the interview process;

DO ask for peers and subordinates help in creating a job profile and list of essential skills that the new employee will need in order to thrive in a specific role

 DO NOT ask for anyone’s opinion on a specific candidate other than the hiring manager, and his or her boss.

Ann Zaslow- Rethaber is President of International Search Consultants, a leader in Executive Search since 1999. Please reach out to ISC for any recruitment needs in the following 5 areas of focus: Sales Recruiters, Finance Recruiters, Energy Recruiters, Human Resources Search Consultants, & Construction Leadership roles.

You can reach the author directly at [email protected] or via phone at 888-866-7276.

 Kim Garrison leads ISC’s Texas Banking Recruiting Team, and can be reached at 800-270-3974 or via e-mail at [email protected]