Collaborative hiring is a strategic hiring practice that engages team members from relevant departments and job functions to collaborate in the hiring process. Depending on the job role, HR persons or hiring managers may choose to include existing employees and/or business leaders during the interview or selection processes for new hires in order to identify an ideal fit.
Here are five benefits that can be gained from exercising collaborative hiring:
Benefits of Collaborative Hiring
1. Increasing employee engagement and buy-in
Including current employees in the recruiting and selection process helps to reinforce the idea that their input is valued and meaningful, improving engagement with their own jobs. Being a part of candidate review can create a better understanding of the selection process, and increase buy-in with newly-hired employees.
2. Leverage diverse perspectives
Involving a variety of people in the selection process gives the team access to diverse points of view, with each person bringing their unique perspective to the table. This helps tackle candidate evaluation from a variety of viewpoints, fine-tuning the recruitment and selection process to ensure candidates meet specific qualifications.
Learn More: Employing a Diverse Workforce to Reach Your Company’s Goals
3. Minimize bias
42% of traditional interviews1 fail due to unconscious bias which can have a significant impact on the workforce when decision-making is left to a single person. To diffuse the effect of bias, involving several people in the hiring process improves fairness throughout recruiting and selection.
4. Leverage the expertise of different employee skill sets
When evaluating a candidate’s technical knowledge, HR persons or hiring managers may not always have the expertise necessary to properly evaluate candidates. By leveraging team members with relevant knowledge of the job role, companies can better qualify candidates.
5. Improve cultural fit
In a collaborative recruiting process, team members and potential candidates can gain an impression of whether they will work well together. Candidates can evaluate the existing company culture prior to an offer being extended or accepted while current employees can see if they can gauge whether or not they feel the candidate will be a good fit.
The potential benefits of a collaborative hiring strategy can significantly impact the quality of new hires, engagement of current employees, and even improve employee retention rates for long-term growth. However, breaking from traditional hiring processes may require substantial effort to implement, as it represents an entirely new way of structuring the interviewing and hiring processes. Employees throughout the company must buy into the new process and difficulties with scheduling may arise.
If you are considering a strategic shift in your hiring process to engage professional talent, a staffing partner can help you to implement large-scale shifts and fill in potential gaps.
For example, when hiring an executive-level employee or for new positions, company’s may not have an existing employee that is qualified to evaluate candidate expertise. A staffing agency with specialized divisions, like Sparks Group, can offer their variety of expertise to properly assess a candidate’s technical qualifications.
Sparks Group is a nationally-awarded agency with in-depth experience across industries and local markets. Connect with our dedicated recruiting experts to streamline your recruiting process and access top-quality candidates.
