Should HR do all the hiring?
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Getting Personal About Business, the blog of Zahn Consulting, LLC.
"If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries."
That famous quote from the legendary football coach, Bill Parcells, speaks to his feelings that a coach should be responsible for drafting his players. It's also largely the view of the majority of executives and managers around the hiring process.
Managers also often want to spread the risk by having applicants undergo numerous interviews with department members to gauge the fit culturally. Additionally, the urge is to see more and more candidates in the fear that the company may miss the special one "hiding in the weeds."
All of which leads to greater time devoted to an effort that still leaves something to be desired.
An Australian airfare company, Flight Centre, turns the entire process upside down. They eliminated the hiring manager's role in the selection of new hires and placed that responsibility on the shoulders of recruiters (or internal HR personal) from start to finish. Instead of providing a list of potential applicants for the hiring manager to further narrow down before selecting, the recruiter is empowered to make the decision and deliver the candidate for the position.
An article on ERE summarized the results:
- Turnover has remained at the same level, allaying fears that the lack of involvement of hiring managers would lead to too many poor hiring decisions;
- Hiring managers have been able to re-allocate their time away from "unproductive activities" to more mission-critical efforts;
- Applicant wait time has been reduced from 40 days to 15 from the time of interview through the selection process, including securing an offer and starting.
Naturally, there was initially resistance to the effort, but after the preliminary results were collected, there was widespread acceptance and support, Carole Cooper, an executive general manager at Flight Centre, told ERE.
Writing for Hire-Intelligence, Ryder Cullison, a recruiter, said that besides the time savings, using recruiters should lead to more diversity in hiring since managers tend to hire people like them. Mr. Cullison also believes turnover should not increase because HR personal "should know the company culture and qualifications for the position as well as or more so than the hiring manager."