For Hiring Managers

Thoughts on hiring in this competitive market:

• Spend sufficient time thinking and planning before starting the hiring process.
• Write a thorough job description and make that available to your recruiter.
• Recruit only after you know exactly the skills, values, background and education you need for your open position.
• Although there is a tendency to try and fit a find a candidate that meets all of your criteria, understand that no candidate is going to fit a job description perfectly, so be prepared to flex a job description to suit a candidate. Do this by identifying the ideal candidate "must have's" but also recognizing skills that you could live without.
• Provide more than a "yes" or "no" for feedback on each candidate's resume you review. It is through this detailed feedback that a recruiter can understand better what you are looking for.
• If you are interviewing a candidate from out of town, be sure to invite them to stay long enough to visit the area. A good way to do this is to interview out of town candidates on Friday, and allow them to spend the day Saturday touring.
• Timing is everything. Make a decision on a candidate in a timely manner. Multiple companies usually court excellent candidates. Don't lose a candidate because it took you too long to make up your mind or assemble your offer.
• Keep in contact with your recruiter throughout the entire process. He/She is the closest person to the candidate you are trying to attract and the recruiter will have key information about that candidate's mindset/interest.
• If you are moving toward making an offer, always run the offer by the recruiter first. This will allow the recruiter to find out before final signatures if an offer is going to work.