What is a hiring team?

Your company’s hiring team is responsible for the recruiting and hiring process for a vacancy. It includes all the current employees who take part in any step of the process, including recruiting, screening, interviewing and choosing candidates for roles. Your hiring and recruitment team might include members of the HR team, the hiring manager, the leadership team and members of the team that has the vacancy.

Responsibilities of the hiring and recruitment team

What exactly does the recruitment team do? It handles the entire process, from identifying the vacancy to onboarding new employees. Individual team members typically handle specific duties rather than the entire team doing everything together. Some tasks might involve multiple people. For instance, large companies might have multiple recruiters, and many organizations have multiple interviewers. Common responsibilities of hiring team members include:

• Identifying the need to fill a role
• Establishing the job requirements
• Writing or updating the job description
• Posting a job ad
• Screening applicants
• Interviewing applicants
• Choosing one candidate
• Extending a job offer and negotiating the terms
• Onboarding the new employee

Benefits of using a team approach

Involving multiple employees in the hiring process might seem like more work, and it does require coordination and communication. But it may also improve your hiring process. Some benefits of using a hiring team include:

• Reduced bias: Anyone can have an unconscious bias that can affect the hiring process. You might unintentionally show a preference for a candidate with something in common with you, or you might make assumptions about a candidate based on their age or gender. Taking a team approach can reduce bias in the interview process to help you choose someone who has the right qualifications.
• Increased diversity: At the same time, having a diverse hiring team can encourage more diverse hiring practices. You get varying opinions, including those from underrepresented groups.
• Varied expertise: Delegating different parts of the hiring process to experts in those areas can speed up the process and produce better results. A dedicated recruiter knows how to attract applicants effectively, whereas the hiring manager might be better suited to ask relevant interview questions and choose a good fit for the role.
• Reduced burnout : If one person handles the entire process, they might become overwhelmed or experience workplace burnout. Spreading out the duties makes it a team effort and can create a more positive, collaborative process.
• Faster hiring: With multiple people working together and handling different parts of the process, you might be able to hire new employees faster. This can minimize the impact on productivity.
• Consistency: A team approach can improve consistency in how you hire. Your recruiters and HR representatives can help establish and enforce standard practices since they’re involved in hiring for all positions.
• Culture add: When you involve team members who will work with the person, they can help select a candidate that will add to the team and company culture . The diversity of the participants and their understanding of what the team needs can help with this.

Members of a hiring team

Your hiring team can consist of different roles based on your organization’s size, its hiring needs and your preferences. Some common hiring team members include:

• Recruiter: Your recruiters help source and attract candidates who meet the job requirements. They also typically have a large role in communicating with applicants and can help manage your recruiting process from start to finish.
• Hiring manager: This person is often the head of the department that’s hiring. They might be responsible for initiating the hire by submitting a request to fill the position. Hiring managers often work closely with recruiters to ensure they know what requirements the candidates need.
• Interview team: If you’re using a panel interview process, you’ll need interviewers to help. It’s common to choose team members who willwork with the selected candidate. This could include a team lead, supervisor or colleagues.
• HR team member: While recruiters are part of the HR department, your hiring team might haveat least one other HR member on it. This person can handle documentation, salaries, benefits, job offers and other administrative tasks.

How to choose your hiring team members

Assigning the right people to your hiring team can help them be successful in their roles. Hiring teams are often slightly different for each new hire. The recruiters and HR team members might remain the same, but the hiring manager and team members who serve as interviewers will change based on where the opening is.

Since the makeup of a team can vary based on your needs, your process might be slightly different. However, the following steps give you a general framework for putting together an effective hiring team.

1. Establishthe roles within the team

Decide who you want and need for this hiring process. If you’re hiring a large number of people for the same role or you’re hiring for a highly competitive or technical role, you might need more people on the recruiting and sourcing end. HR and the hiring manager might collaborate on this decision based on what type of help they’ll need.

2.Outline the skills you need

Break down each of the roles to identify the skills that will make the selected employee successful. Maybe you need a recruiter with experience in hiring a specific type of role, or you need an HR representative with extensive knowledge of the regulatory guidelines for the position. Having an idea of the skills you need can help you spot employees who offer the appropriate experience.

3. Identify employees who can fulfill the roles

To identify candidates, compare the desired skills to what your employees offer. You don’t have to choose people with previous hiring experience. You might have a team member who’ll work closely with the new hire and knows the job expectations well. Even if that person has never interviewed anyone, they might make a solid addition to the interviewing team. You get their expert insight and they learn new skills to keep their jobs interesting and challenging.

When choosing your team, look for diversity, which comes in many forms. You might look for ethnic diversity, differences in experience levels and different work styles. When your hiring team is diverse, you get the benefit of more perspectives, which helps make your company’s hiring practices well-rounded and fair.

4. Train the hiring team members

Employees who are new to a recruitment team benefit from training to help them understand their roles. They also need training on compliance to help avoid discrimination during the hiring process. Include details about the hiring process, the timeline and individual roles within the process. Role-specific training can also be helpful. For instance, you might give your interview team a crash course in interviewing strategies.

5. Distribute expectations and assign specific tasks

When your team is ready to start, make sure every member is aware of their role and specific duties. Establish your expectations, and include timelines for different duties. Having communication practices in place ensures the team stays on the same page throughout the process. You might have a kick-off meeting with the full team before breaking off and working on individual duties. Using communication or project management software can provide a central location for information.

FAQs about hiring teams

How many people should be on a hiring team?

The ideal number of hiring team members can vary based on your situation. Smaller companies that don’t have dedicated HR departments and have very few vacancies each year typically have much smaller teams than larger companies with lots of vacancies. Small companies might have only one or two people on the hiring team. Larger companies might have three to five members or more depending on the assigned roles and workload.

What makes a successful recruitment team?

To be successful, a recruitment team needs to collaborate well. Strong communication is key to making sure everyone has the necessary information. Sharing common hiring goals and working together to achieve them can also help the team create an effective hiring process.

Should HR be involved in interviews?

HR’s involvement in the interview process can vary, from conducting initial screening interviews to sitting in on full interviews. If your hiring managers conduct the interviews, it can be helpful to have HR go over the dos and don’ts of interviewing with them. This can help the interviewers avoid asking illegal interview questions and can improve their interviewing skills.