Hiring managers and HR clash on candidate skills. Which side should you prioritize in recruiting?

Navigating the delicate balance between hiring managers and HR during recruitment is crucial. Prioritizing one side over the other isn't the answer. Instead, focus on collaboration and alignment. Start by understanding the core needs of the role from the hiring manager's perspective and blend this with HR’s holistic view of company culture and long-term fit. This approach ensures that you are not just filling a position but adding value to the team and the organization. By fostering open communication and mutual respect, you create a more cohesive and effective hiring process, leading to better outcomes for all parties involved.

1. Align on Job Requirements: Ensure both sides agree on the critical skills and qualifications needed for the role. 2. Focus on Organizational Fit: Consider the candidate's potential to contribute to team dynamics and company culture. 3. Evaluate Potential vs. Experience: Prioritize candidates who may have less experience but demonstrate strong potential and adaptability. 4. Data-Driven Decisions: Use assessments and metrics to objectively evaluate candidates against the agreed criteria. 5. Collaborative Communication: Foster open dialogue between hiring managers and HR to reach a consensus on the best fit for the organization.

When recruiting, hiring managers AND HR should focus on a combination of skills, attributes, and cultural fit to ensure they bring in candidates who are not only capable of performing the job but also align with the company’s values and goals.

-Discuss Candidate's Job Transitions. -Propose Practical Candidate Assessments. -Use Data-Driven Candidate Assessments. -Implement Structured Interview Techniques. -Align Evaluation with Core Values. -Recommend Additional Evaluation Steps.

When hiring managers and HR clash on candidate skills, prioritize a balanced approach. Hiring managers offer crucial insights on technical skills needed for job performance, while HR focuses on cultural fit, diversity, and long-term potential. Facilitate open communication to align both perspectives, develop a comprehensive job description and use data-driven decisions. Ultimately, aim to satisfy immediate technical requirements while ensuring candidates align with company values and have growth potential. This balanced strategy leads to more successful and sustainable hires which end up with organizational growth.

Prioritizing one side over the other isn't the answer. Instead, focus on collaboration and alignment. Start by understanding the core needs of the role from the hiring manager's perspective and blend this with HR's holistic view of company culture and long-term fit.

Hiring manager perspective often could be shortsighted based on the immediate deliverables and tasks at hand. They know the skills and experiences required to get the job done. If these skills are objectively evaluated by the hiring managers during interview, as a people leader, I have often relied on their instincts to make the decisions on who must be on the team

Hiring managers often focus on acquiring resources that will immediately add value to current projects or the team's circumstances, typically emphasizing job-specific skillsets and experience. However, broader elements often get overlooked, such as cultural and structural fit, the values different candidates bring, potential career progression, and other aspects beyond specific skills. These are crucial considerations that hiring managers should hear from hiring experts, the HR. The last thing HR wants is for someone who seems perfect for the role to leave the organization shortly due to a misfit in other important areas.

On the other hand, I understand the hiring managers' emphasis on job-specific skills and experience. Their need for new hires to hit the ground running and contribute immediately is crucial for maintaining team performance. For example, in a fast-paced start-up company I was supporting, hiring managers prioritised candidates with specific technical expertise to ensure quick integration and productivity. This approach minimises the learning curve and meets immediate project demands. Balancing the hiring manager's practical needs with HR's focus on cultural fit and potential growth creates a well-rounded hiring strategy that benefits the organisation in both the short and long term.

Finding the right balance in recruiting means weighing the immediate skills needed by hiring managers for team productivity against HR's focus on long-term organizational fit and potential. Hiring managers prioritize job-specific expertise to ensure quick contributions, while HR considers diversity, cultural alignment, and future growth. Striking this balance ensures that new hires not only meet current demands but also contribute to the company's strategic goals and cohesive workplace culture.

Its always the best option for the Hiring manager and HR manager to sit across the table and agree on what are the essential skills for this role- both soft skills and technical skills. Rating candidates on must have parameters can bring more objectivity into the hiring process. In most roles today, as any hiring manager would agree, a mix of soft skills and technical skills are important traits of a top performer, therefore striking a balance would be the optimum approach.

Do not pick sides! This isn’t us v them! This is about achieving an outcome of a great hire. 1) define what success looks like 2) define obstacles and opportunities 3) determine what the vision of the hiring leader is and seek HRs perspective 4) get them in a room (virtual or in person) and allow them to gain alignment. You may need to facilitate a bit. Be about getting everyone back to a growth mindset and not digging in their heels.

A good strategy for balancing these perspectives is to use a hybrid interview approach. This could include technical assessments or practical tests to evaluate job-specific skills, followed by behavioral interviews to gauge soft skills and cultural fit. Combining different evaluation methods ensures a comprehensive assessment of candidates, allowing recruiters to make more balanced and informed hiring decisions that satisfy both HR and hiring managers.

Open communication and mutual respect between hiring managers and HR will significantly enhance the recruitment process, ensuring the best fit for the role and the organization’s culture. Achieving this requires both parties to be open to and respectful of each other's opinions, working together to develop a realistic hiring plan that benefits both sides.

I've found that balancing HR and hiring managers' perspectives is crucial for successful recruiting. Recognising the importance of both cultural fit and specific skill sets is key. For instance, in my experience, combining the focus on technical abilities with the evaluation of soft skills like adaptability and teamwork led to more cohesive and high-performing teams. By aiming to find candidates who can excel immediately and grow with the company, we create a dynamic workforce that's well-suited for both present challenges and future developments, ensuring long-term organisational success.

I think one should focus on the candidate and their soft skills as well there may be a condition when the hiring manager likes someone's technical skills but an HR can maybe identify there soft skills which not be a fit for the company as you can make someone learn the technical skills but not the basic soft skills so the decision of both of them should equally be important.

When identifying talent, it's crucial to understand that there may be varying interpretations within the business of what the ideal candidate looks like. HR will target an option with evident soft skills that align with their preferences and enthusiasm for upskilling and learning. Hiring Managers will often look past the character fit - to some extent - and focus more on their ability to 'hit the ground running' and deliver technical skills. It's a challenge to find candidates with both soft and technical skills. However, it's essential to always aim for options that combine characteristics appealing to both sides of the decision-making process. This underscores the importance of considering both types of skills in the hiring process.

Candidate experience bridges the gap between HR and hiring managers. Prioritize role-specific skills, but with HR's help, consider transferable skills and streamline the process. Happy candidates, even if not chosen, become brand advocates. Focus on collaboration and balance - find the best candidate with relevant skills, not a rigid checklist. This candidate-centric approach attracts top talent and strengthens your employer brand.

Evaluate both technical abilities and work experience, but also give weight to soft skills and cultural fit. Technical skills can often be taught, but soft skills and alignment with company values are crucial and harder to develop. By taking a holistic view of a candidate's capabilities, you can make more informed decisions that bridge the gap between HR and hiring managers, ensuring the best fit for the team and the organization.

Never settle for a candidate who fulfills 100% of the job requirements but compromises on team dynamics and cultural fit. Balance job-specific requirements with HR considerations, prioritizing job-specific skills in this instance. It's preferable to hire someone who performs well and reasonably aligns with HR aspects than a perfect candidate who might cause issues later, such as career progression and cultural misfit. The time and cost invested in rehiring and retraining are often overlooked.

The best decisions are often made when hiring managers and HR collaborate effectively, clearly communicating their expectations and negotiable areas. While the choice of which side to prioritize should be made on a case-by-case basis, fostering a long-term, cohesive partnership between HR and line managers is essential.

A good way to think about this is developing a decision matrix that incorporates both HR and hiring managers' criteria. Assign weights to different attributes based on the specific role requirements, allowing a more quantifiable comparison of candidates. This collaborative tool can facilitate open discussions and ensure that both perspectives are fairly considered, leading to a consensus on the best candidate for the job.

Our partner Kurt Pichler @ Viewpoint AI developed a tool for this very issue. Decision making is becoming a major problem with too many cooks in the kitchen, which muddles and bottlenecks your process. The tool determines where the priority lies, and what you should be grading on for success. If you bottleneck your departments too much because you can't make decisions, you're going to lose candidates. Time is of the essence on this!

The decision to prioritize technical expertise or soft skills should be based on the specific requirements of each position. Certain roles may need immediate technical proficiency, while others could benefit from candidates with strong soft skills who can develop technical abilities over time. Open communication between HR and hiring managers is crucial to define these needs and agree on the ideal candidate profile for each role. This approach ensures that hires contribute effectively to the team and align with the organization's strategic goals.

More and more companies today are seeking candidates who have strong growth potential. In our rapidly evolving world, evaluating a candidate’s adaptability, eagerness to learn, learning speed, and ability to leverage AI tools is crucial. Assessing the development of parallel skills and the breadth of a candidate's knowledge is very important. This includes whether they have skills in related fields, experience working in different industries, in companies of varying sizes, and with different business models. Such shifts in a career path often indicate a candidate's flexibility and capacity for learning. These traits can indicate how quickly a candidate can adapt to our environment, even if they don’t fully meet the position's requirements.

As industries evolve, the skills needed today may not be as relevant tomorrow. Future-focused recruiting should prioritize adaptability, continuous learning, and innovation over just current technical skills. This means considering candidates who show potential for growth and who can thrive in dynamic environments. By forecasting trends and hiring accordingly, companies can build teams that are resilient and capable of driving long-term success.

Set up meetings to discuss what skills are critical for the role. Develop a shared set of evaluation criteria that encompasses both technical skills and culture fit

There isn't a hard "either/or" answer here. Both HR and hiring managers play crucial roles, and ideally, you want to find a balance between their priorities. Finding common ground is key. Open communication between HR and the hiring manager throughout the process is essential. Discuss priorities, concerns, and ideal candidate profiles. Focus on the goal; which is to find the best person for the job, not just someone who checks all the boxes on paper. By working together, HR and hiring managers can achieve this by focusing on complementary aspects of the candidate.

Ultimately, the decision should not be about choosing one side over the other but rather about integrating both perspectives to make a holistic and informed hiring decision. By understanding both viewpoints, aligning with business goals, fostering collaboration, and making data-driven decisions, you can prioritize the right aspects of candidate skills for the benefit of the organization.

This needs to be ironed out before kick-off with mock profiles including compensation data. The search should be in the hands of a professional who is independent and serves the company and is senior enough to be able to mediate the process and present pros/cons and walk away from that intake with a clear guideline that will please both parties or enough data points to make the case to HR that they need to make changes to budget/title or that timeline needs to be adjusted to handle a tougher requirement where the business expects X but the market is currently Y (time to fill, sector expertise, comp etc.). The recruiting process itself also needs to be very sophisticated or it’s all for nothing. The process of finding people is the art.

Two points to consider here, in my opinion: The hiring manager is the person who's ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the individual they hire. As such, the hiring manager should be prioritized in the hiring process. HR's job is to ensure that the company wins in the market. HR typically has greater exposure, more interview experience, and a broader overview of the organization. As such, they may need to provide context, guidance, and insights to the hiring manager. My greatest suggestion comes from an agreement I have with my business partner: if one of us can't convince the other of our idea, we do nothing until one of us has convinced the other.