Managing the Hiring Stakeholders

Who are the Hiring Stakeholders?

Ensuring a high degree of hiring success requires a high degree stakeholder management.  Every time we need to get things done through a team of people, we will inevitably get into conflicting goals, hidden agendas and political maneuvering.  Not willing to recognize and deal  this real world phenomena have resulted in dismal hiring failures.

The term stakeholder means: “An organization, group, or individual who could impact or be impacted by your project”.  They literally “have a stake in” or are affected by an activity, decision, or outcome of the hiring project.  It’s often easy to spot key stakeholders, those who have money, resources, or veto power for the hiring.  A good hiring team-lead will be certain to identify all stakeholders for ultimate hiring success. Simply put, a stakeholder is anyone who has some interest in the hiring or will be affected who got hired and on-boarded.

So what is a Stakeholder?  Stakeholders can be:

  • The hiring manager, business owner, human resources and even the external recruiters.
  • The customer (individual or organization)
  • Suppliers of material or other resources
  • Any individual or group impacted by the hiring
  • Any individual or group in a position to support or prevent the hiring success

 

Commitment of the Hiring Stakeholder

Once we have identified the stakeholders, we need to know their commitment and involvement in the project.  One of the most critical aspects of stakeholders’ management is doing what’s necessary to develop and control relationships with all individuals that the project impacts. The 7-Habits’ guru, Stephen Covey described, “Your organization is a complex ecosystem of multiple interdependent parts both inside and outside its formal boundaries, and your stakeholders are its most important elements.”

The process of developing stakeholder commitment is definitely a challenging task. It is not uncommon for different stakeholders to keep changing their requirements without keeping the others informed.  It is difficult for any one stakeholder group, even departments within the same organization, to appreciate or understand each other’s needs and how they must all work together to maximize the long-term benefit for all.  Conflicts among stakeholders might arise if it is not properly managed.

Identifying the roles of the stakeholders

In order to get the commitment from all the stakeholders, one has to identify each role of the stakeholders so that everyone is aware of what needs to be done for the project to run smoothly. They are five key roles that a stakeholder can play and let’s take a look at what are these roles;

  1. Hiring Team Lead – he/she defines, plans, controls and leads the project
  2. Hiring Team Members – Members should produce the outputs (deliverables) for the hiring and contribute their skills and ideas.
  3. Hiring Sponsor – Major funders and decision-makers of the hiring
  4. Hiring Managers – the person or group whose needs and requirements drive the hiring project; interviews the shortlisted candidates that the hiring team produces; provides hiring requirements and funding
  5. Functional Manager – provide company policy an resources, particularly people who are involved in the project

Managing Stakeholders

Based on the roles of each stakeholders, we can see that they vary in influence, expectations, interests, and could pose a potential impact in the completion of the project. There are bound to be conflicts and one of the contributing factors is definitely ‘poor communication’. How do we manage that?

The goal of successful communications approach is having to manage expectations and minimizing the surprised.  There is the need to manage the information that people get, their perceptions, and clarify the kind of feedback that is needed in order to be effective in delivering the right hire. This is the number one role of the any hiring team lead.  The hiring team-lead must exercise flexibility in how that communication is delivered to best meet the needs of their stakeholders. This is to ensure that message in any communications are conveyed, roadblocks are removed, and most importantly each stakeholder’s behaviors, motivations, and progress are monitored.

Always stay close to your stakeholders, they are the most important people in your hiring.

Good relationships are key to successful project

When a good relationship has been established among the hiring team stakeholders, conflicts are often easier to resolve and surprises minimized.   Establishing processes and best practices to encourage good communication and relationships, and having clear expectations will provide a strong pillar for any hiring projects to be successful

Well stakeholders who get to hire who they really need can expect better business results.

This coming 1 – 3 Dec, we are to organize “Real World Strategic Hiring Workshop”.  We will share with you on how to manage the stakeholders in full recruitment cycle.  Click here to find out more on the workshophttp://www.executiveworkplace.com/project/strategic-hiring-workshop/

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