Uncomfortable Conversations for Recruiters Part 1: Collaborating with Hiring Managers

Welcome to Lead With Inclusion! This weekly newsletter is a resource for EVERY professional. Whether you’re a manager ready to be a more inclusive leader, or an employee ready to be a DEI champion in your workplace, inclusive actions lead to inclusive outcomes. Leading with inclusion simply means starting with inclusive actions in everything you do. It means identifying the areas where bias is at work, and shifting mindsets to make change.?

If you’re not sure where to begin, start here.

As we close out the year (can you believe it’s already November?), I’m excited to share a new series for Lead With Inclusion about uncomfortable conversations. We’ve spoken a bit about this topic in a general sense, from gaining listening skills to using experiential data . But in this new three-part series, we’ll be getting a bit more specific - doing a deep dive into uncomfortable conversations, specifically for recruiters. I’ve been to some great events this year that focused on inclusion in talent acquisition, and the more recruitment professionals that I talk to, the more I tend to hear about certain shared challenges that recruiters are facing currently in their work.?

One of which is the relationship between recruiters and hiring managers. Great talent acquisition professionals know that finding the right candidate is not about hiring fast, it’s about hiring smart. And what does “the right candidate” actually mean anyway? For many recruiters, they may be working with hiring managers who don't have a clear idea of what they’re looking for, or even if they do, aren’t communicating it clearly. You may often hear hiring managers say that they're looking for a “rockstar,” or someone who “gets it.” But what does this mean? These criteria are meaningless without actual data to back them up. Odds are, if hiring managers don’t truly know what kinds of skills and competencies they’re looking for in a candidate, they’re likely to fall into the same patterns of hiring folks who are similar to everyone else on the team, or similar to the person who previously held the role. And you know this isn’t a great recipe for hiring in a way that is equitable or inclusive.

When it comes to inclusion, many recruiters have been working hard to push their hiring managers to become aware of the biases in their hiring process, and to encourage them to follow a process that is actually inclusive. But what happens when your hiring managers are resistant to these new processes, or are stuck in their old ways? Here are some actionable steps you can use to begin having these uncomfortable but necessary conversations with your hiring managers that can actually help move your work forward.?

Be an Inclusive Leader

First, it’s all about setting expectations. If what your hiring manager is looking for is unclear or unrealistic, your role as a talent acquisition leader is to sit down with your hiring managers and find a way to move forward. You likely already know this, but may have struggled to do it because the company systems aren’t in place to provide you with support. But it’s necessary to ask hiring managers the questions they have previously avoided answering. What metrics are they using to gauge success? What made the employee who was previously in the role successful? Are they looking for similar competencies, or something different? What are the top three qualities they need to see in a candidate in order to extend an offer??

At the end of the day, these uncomfortable conversations can’t happen if accountability isn’t happening simultaneously. Talent acquisition leaders need to hold their hiring managers accountable to actually following an inclusive process, which can be frustrating when the process is being bypassed in various ways. If you’re working with a hiring manager who is resistant to your inclusive hiring practices, you have the positional power to hold them accountable to making this work, and to help bridge that gap. THIS is where the uncomfortable conversation has to happen. You might start by working with the hiring manager to identify specific metrics that you can use to continue this accountability even after the role is filled. Sure, you know that the candidate you identified has accepted an offer. But then what? Create a process that allows for hiring managers to share more data with you to help improve your work together. When a candidate is hired, how long are they staying? 6 months? 18 months? A number of years? What kinds of support are new hires given to help them develop? How is the company culture contributing to retention, or to turnover? These are the kinds of? metrics you need. But without uncomfortable conversations that foster accountability, you’ll have a hard time getting them.

Lead With Inclusion

As a professional in the recruitment space, it’s important to be aware of what’s within your control to change, and what may be outside your sphere of influence. When entering into collaboration with a hiring manager, it can be helpful to have your own sense of what works and what doesn’t - and ideally some data to back that up. This can help you to set expectations on the front end about what they can expect and how you’ll be working together.

It can also be helpful to recognize when you’re working with someone who refuses to commit to your standards for inclusion. Not every hiring manager is going to be on board with your DEI process. While talent acquisition leaders may have the positional power to try to change that, for professionals at the individual contributor level, there’s sometimes little you can do to combat this resistance besides learning how to navigate it. If you’re working with a misogynistic hiring manager who you know won’t hire a woman for the open role on their team, don’t advocate for a woman to be placed on that team, and don’t spend time encouraging women to interview for that particular role.There are other teams, other hiring managers and other opportunities. There is no need to put yourself at odds with your own values or place a candidate in an environment that you know will not be healthy for them. Part of working toward inclusion is knowing when an environment is not inclusive, and helping people to steer clear of it.?

If any of these insights resonated with you, be sure to check back next week for the continuation of this Uncomfortable Conversations for Recruiters series. And if you’re looking for more recruiter-specific content, did you know that my Rework Workspace has an entire section dedicated to recruiters? Our Recruiter Toolbox features all kinds of resources, from courses to articles, and even past issues of Lead With Inclusion. You can join today for free to get access to these resources and many more. Click here to learn more and sign up.

About Stacey Gordon:

Stacey Gordon is Executive Advisor and Founder of Rework Work where she and her team coach and counsel executive leaders on DEI strategies for the business, while offering a no-nonsense approach to unconscious bias education for the broader employee population. As a global keynote speaker, Stacey is a Top Voice on LinkedIn and a popular LinkedIn Learning [IN]structor with nearly two million unique learners enjoying her courses.?

Want to hear Stacey live? Consider booking her for your next keynote or workshop.