4 Steps to Seamless Collaboration

The Hiring Manager

Collaboration
Playbook
When it comes to hiring, there’s nothing more important
than collaboration and streamlined feedback. After all, it’s
a scarce talent market and you need to move fast to win the
best candidates. So why does it continue to be so hard to
orchestrate collaboration for recruiting teams?

We’ve created this cheatsheet to make seamless collaboration

across recruiting teams and hiring managers even easier.

IN THIS EBOOK

01 Kicking Off the Job

03

02 Maintaining Ongoing
07

Collaboration

03 Achieving an All-Star Candidate

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Experience to Close Top Candidates

04 Creating a Memorable
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Onboarding Experience

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Hiring Manager Collaboration Playbook

01 Kicking Off the Job

Aligning people at the beginning and throughout the process on what

you’re looking for is key to calibrating and getting everyone on the same
page — even when expectations can change throughout the process.

Conceptualize the Role

Before a role is opened, it’s critical to map out what success looks like and
reach alignment across key stakeholders before beginning the interview
process. Kickoff and collaboration meetings up front can help pave the
way for successful hiring and vetting in the future, and give others vested
interest in the hire and how it will help their function.

Role Kickoff Collaboration Tips for Success

Collaboration Tips:
Come prepared with your pitch for why this is a phenomenal and
needed role
Identify what team or company gap the role will fill
Align on ideal profiles for top-of-funnel sourcing activity
Identify key qualities and skills this person should have
Source together and discuss relevant candidates on LinkedIn,
Github, etc.
Put together a short list of companies to source from
Gather ideas for interview panel structures and interview focus
areas for each interviewer
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01 Kicking Off the Job

Creative Tips:
Conduct a must-have / nice-to-have calibration meeting with key
stakeholders
List out the qualities of the best people you’ve worked with in
these roles
Identify which intangibles you want to capture and how to suss
out this information in interviews

Pro Tip:
Craft an impact description.

Impact descriptions are a great way to outline the road map and what you
expect someone in the role to achieve in their first 1/3/6/12 months. This
is a great living tool for both the employee and their manager to use as
the employee ramps and begins contributing. Last, but not least, tie up
any loose ends in these meetings: compensation, leveling, and title for
the role that will encourage the best candidates to apply.

Post the Role

Two important questions to ask before posting a role:

1 What custom questions should be incorporated in the job posting

to help you understand qualifications and motivations?

2 How can employer branding support efforts to hire for this role?

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Template: Quick Requisition Guide
Overview

What team:

Requisition name:

Should this role be opened up to the internal talent pool: Yes No

Is this role a backfill? Yes No

If yes, why did the employee leave? Should there be a postmortem?

How does the role fit into the larger team?

Why is this an important role to have filled?

Timeline/Logistics

Ideal start date:

Compensation range:

Equity range (if applicable):

What metrics will be used to measure success for the role?

Why should a candidate be excited about this role? What’s the pitch?

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Template: Quick Requisition Guide
Candidate Profile

Desired level (mid, senior, etc.):

Desired years of experience:

Are there skill sets/backgrounds/soft skills on the team

we are trying to replicate? Yes No

If so, what are they?

What additional skill sets would the team benefit from?

Sourcing Profiles

Please gather five example profiles:

1. Example:
2. Example:
3. Example:
4. Example:
5. Example:

Service Level Agreements

Hiring manager expectations:

Recruiter expectations:

Interviewer expectations:

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Hiring Manager Collaboration Playbook

02 Maintaining Ongoing
Collaboration

We’re all guilty of letting our inbox get the best of us and ignoring
reminders set for ongoing collaboration. But have no fear! This section is
all about quick tips for ensuring collaboration when it comes to recruiting
the very best talent for your company.

Recruiting Commitments:
Maintaining on-time hiring
Project management of the hiring process
Assessing the best support to help teams thrive and complement
the team in place today

Hiring Manager Commitments:

Set Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for timely feedback
after interviews
Your recruiting software should integrate with systems like Slack and Easy Book to
ensure that feedback forms are in multiple places and reminders get sent to ensure
timely feedback. Your ATS should send automated reminders, feedback forms
should have standardized questions, and feedback from other interviewers should
be hidden to reduce unconscious bias.

Responsibility to make the hiring decision (no flip-flopping or

fence sitting)
Setting expectations with interviewers about focus areas and
driving alignment
The right recruiting software can help schedule complex interviews and
provide a standardized interview kit.

Timeliness for all meetings and interviews

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02 Maintaining Ongoing Collaboration

5 Tips to Run a Successful Post-Interview Huddle

Ultimately, it is up to the hiring manager whom to hire. This means
that hiring managers own the final hire or no-hire decision. However,
there should be substantial and sufficient evidence to back up the
decision they make. The recruiter has likely spent the most time with
the candidate, and should surface concerns or highlight strengths to
the hiring manager.

Quick Tips for Success:

Ensure all team members submit thoughtful, detailed, and

concise feedback

Stay up to date on the status of roles

Maintain a holistic and thorough history of each candidate

and conversation and document in your ATS

Record any hallway conversations and Slack messages in

your ATS

If you have a more sensitive concern, encourage interviewers

to add a secret note and @mention the recruiter!

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02 Maintaining Ongoing Collaboration

Working Together to Nurture Top Candidates

With the right system in place, collaboration and hiring become more
streamlined. As recruiting teams, it’s important to vet solutions that
accelerate hiring and educate hiring managers across the company on
how to use that system for success.

Top 5 Capabilities to Look for in Your Recruiting System:

1 Encourage hiring managers to submit candidates into the

recruiting system through other portals, like LinkedIn

2 Send emails on behalf of hiring managers

For example, look for a recruiting system that allows you to send emails on behalf
of any member at your company, which means responses go straight to the hiring
manager to follow up in a timely manner and save them time upfront in the process.

3 Easily post to job sites, like Angelist and Glassdoor

4 See where you are getting the most traction on hiring through
strong reporting and analyzing the best hiring sources

5 Ensure your pre-hire recruiting system integrates with post-hire

systems, like Docusign and your HRIS

If hiring managers "have a feeling" that you’re bringing in too many

unqualified candidates for onsites, they can ask you to pull a report to
back up their hunch with data. Follow your candidates and drill into roles
that are taking too long to fill.

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Hiring Manager Collaboration Playbook

03 Achieving an All-Star
Candidate Experience to
Close Top Candidates

No matter where a candidate is at in the process, it’s important to leverage

a system that keeps all important information stored to individual
candidate profiles. Rediscovery is key to moving quickly as roles become
available. For instance, are there silver medalist candidates that might be
worth re-engaging this time around? Are there any candidates that have
declined similar roles in the past, but might be ready for a change now?

18 Pre-Screen Interview Questions to Help

You Move Beyond “Gut Feeling Hiring” and
Screen for Skill and Motivation
1. What about your current and past work experience make you a great
fit for our role?

2. What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your current or previous

role? How did you overcome this challenge? What was the outcome?

3. What are your goals for professional development? How will getting this
job help you advance toward your professional development goals?

4. What does your perfect manager look like? Have you ever had a
manager who was close to this ideal or fit it exactly?

5. What type of work environment do you prefer? Management style?

6. What are some characteristics of a company culture that help you do

your best work and help you enjoy your time at work? Which company’s
culture has been the most supportive of you and your work?
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03 Achieving an All-Star Candidate Experience to Close Top Candidates

7. Tell me about a project you managed and how you prioritized tasks
to get it done.

8. Have you ever had to manage multiple deadlines set for the same day or
week? How did you do it?

9. Have there ever been situations where you failed to meet a deadline?
What happened? What would you do differently if given the chance?

10. W hat was the most frustrating part of your current role? Have you ever
taken steps to try and make this part of your role less frustrating?

11. What does your typical work week look like in terms of responsibilities?
How have these responsibilities changed over time?

12. What makes a job fun and motivating for you?

13. What can your current/previous employer do to keep you from leaving
your role?

14. W hat salary range do you expect from your next role?

15. What career accomplishments will help you to perform well in this job?

16. What career challenges have prepared you for the challenges you
would face in this job?

17. What work sample can you provide that most clearly demonstrates your
qualifications for this job?

18. W hen can you start if you’re hired?

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03 Achieving an All-Star Candidate Experience to Close Top Candidates

How to Think About D&I from the Recruiting Lens

With the right system in place, collaboration and hiring become more
streamlined. As recruiting teams, it’s important to vet solutions that
accelerate hiring and educate hiring managers across the company on
how to use that system for success.

There are opportunities to focus on diversity & inclusion at every stage:

Through proactive sourcing

Writing inclusive job (or impact) descriptions (e.g. being

conscious of masculine vocabulary and hiring for potential over
skills when needed)

Providing unconscious bias training for every recruiter and

interviewer

Naming bias when you see it come out during the hiring process

Measuring how you’re doing

Using demographic data and diversity metrics to adjust your

strategy moving forward

Resource:
Refer to Lever’s Diversity & Inclusion Scorecard for insights on which
metrics to measure when furthering these efforts for your company.

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Hiring Manager Collaboration Playbook

04 Creating a Memorable
Onboarding Experience

After you’ve made a stellar hire, the key to retention and long-term
success is in what happens next. An employee experience team should
be equipped to advise on onboarding, including documents to complete,
what to bring on their first day, and what time to arrive. Prioritize
messaging to your new hire’s inbox to make them feel welcome and set
up for success from day one.

New Hire Onboarding Checklist:

Small gift sent by mail before your new hire starts

Congrats emails sent by you and your team to your new hire

Follow-up call with their potential new manager

Schedule lunch with a team member and/or their new manager

on their first day

Phone calls with an executive (make sure to clear this with

your executive first)

Invitation to an upcoming team event (make sure they’ve

signed an NDA and you’ve cleared this with the executive in
charge of the event)

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04 Creating a Memorable Onboarding Experience

Pro Tip:
Ensure recruiting data integrates with your HRIS for
a smooth onboarding experience!

Your next step is to ensure they have a solid onboarding plan built for
success. This can look different from team to team, but referencing the
job (or impact) description that you created is a great place to start. The
onboarding plan is something the hiring manager should review with
any new hire when they begin in order to track ongoing success within
your HRIS system.

Important Items to Monitor:

Internal mobility has become a vital way to retain and boost top talent.
Ensure open dialogues around the items below for hiring success.

A hiring manager wants to hire someone from their previous

company

There’s a candidate a hiring manager wants to backchannel

A team wants to consider someone internally for a role that’s

opening

A hiring manager voices concern about pipeline or a req that

is at risk to go unfilled

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Conclusion
True partnership and collaboration are key to placing the right hire in
the right role for the long run. Ensure that you are hosting trainings,
continually setting expectations across teams, and have an ironed-out
process for pre- and post-hire. As a new HBR study shows, only 16% of
the workforce is engaged, leading to a huge opportunity for recruiters
and HR to enable their workforce to work together to hire the best for their
company. To learn how Lever can help by streamlining your hiring and
collaboration, attend our next monthly demo.

Lever’s mission is to help the

world hire with conviction.
Our Talent Acquisition Suite draws the entire team together to efficiently
source, nurture, interview, and hire top talent through effortless
collaboration. Incorporating best-of-breed automation, intelligence and
design, Lever helps employers develop stronger candidate relationships
in fewer clicks, by combining powerful ATS and CRM functionality in
one modern platform—and measure the results with confidence.

Lever was founded in 2012 and supports the hiring needs of over 1,500
leading companies around the globe, including the teams at Netflix,
KPMG NZ, Hot Topic, and Cirque du Soleil. With an overall gender ratio
of 50:50, Lever is also fiercely committed to building a team culture that
celebrates diversity and inclusion.

For more information, visit [Link] LeverApp Lever @lever

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