How to Overcome Leaders Doubt About New Hiring Trends and Tools

How to Overcome Leaders Doubt About New Hiring Trends and ToolsAs a talent acquisition professional, you are probably a bit of a hiring trends nerd. When you hear about a new tool or trick, you immediately want to know more in hopes it helps yur company find talent more efficiently. You research, and if its a good fit, approach your company leaders with a new hiring action plan.And, if youre like most hiring professionals, you get shot down.Its unfortunate, but leaders often stand in the way of hiring progress. In fact, our recent report, How to Make the Most of Your Hiring Budget, revealed for 27 percent of hiring professionals, a lack of leadership buy-in is one of the biggest obstacles keeping companies from using the best trends and tools.Your leaders absolutely do not want your team to fail. But given the demands of their responsibilities, they dont always have time to understand the intricacies of the recruiting and hiring process and, therefore, dont know what you need to be m ore successful. Its up to you to change their minds.Here are four ways to get your company executives to believe in the latest hiring trends and tools Track the data to back your caseHiring data helps you make better decisions about your talent acquisition processes. Knowing the ROI of your tools and your cost-per-hire shows how your company would benefit from new resources.Yet, many talent acquisition pros dont track this data or have access to this information if their company does track hiring budget metrics. Remarkably, in our previously mentioned report, 14 percent of respondents said they didnt know the ROI of their hiring tools and 24 percent said they didnt track cost-per-hire. Without that data, its difficult to make a case for new hiring trends and tools.If youre already tracking hiring metrics, make sure you break the data down to see hidden trends. Overall, your cost-per-hire might be good, but that may be because one departments hiring managers are spending drastically less than another department. With this information, you can find what those hiring managers are doing differently and then propose a company-wide change. Break down your hiring metrics in the following waysBy departmentsMonthlyTop hires and schwimmbad hiresBy the positions hierarchy in the organizationTracking different hiring metrics enables you to prove whether making the change welches the right decision as well as see when its time to move on to bigger and better tools. With data to back your hiring teams progress, over time, your leaders will see definite improvements across the organization and trust your suggestions in the future. 24% of hiring professionals dont track cost-per-hire. Without those metrics, you cant expect leaders to agree to better tools.Click To TweetShow the inefficienciesOften, the biggest problem is company leaders dont see where there are inefficiencies with the current process. Stephen Hart, CEO of Cardswitcher, admits when his HR manager first suggest ed they start using inbound recruiting, he was skeptical. I think I was hesitant, initially, because I wasnt completely convinced of the benefits of the process change, he says. But after sitting down with his HR manager, he realized the current methods werent as effective as he thought. The HR manager had identified a lot of areas where there were significant inefficiencies, Hart explains. They also showed me several academic journal articles and studies comparing the two approaches and their respective benefits and drawbacks. After thinking carefully about the evidence my employees provided, I decided to go for the change. When you approach company executives, show them the cracks in the system so they understand why you are missing out on great talent. Then, explain how the new hiring trend or tool would address those specific issues without compromising other parts of the hiring process. Explain the effects on moraleWhen you talk to leaders about hiring trends and tools, their f ocus is on potential employees. They dont always think about how not having the right resources is negatively impacting the team they already have. But many hiring teams are struggling and its hurting overall morale. In our previously mentioned report, 21 percent of talent acquisition professionals said if they received an increase to their hiring budget, theyd use it to hire someone else to help with hiring and recruiting responsibilities. Furthermore, 28 percent of respondents said their satisfaction with their hiring budget was tied to their stress levels and 25 percent said it was linked to how overwhelmed the rest of the team felt.Your leaders care about the emotional state of their employees. But its not always clear how hiring trends and tools impact morale. Be sure to explain the ways in which the new resource or process will create positive change for current employees.Company leaders care about employees. Ask for new hiring tools that would help your HR team.Click To Tweet Tie the trend to company goalsMost leaders are goal-oriented. Before making any decisions, they need to know how a change will contribute to forward growth. For example, when Nate Masterson, the HR Manager for Maple Holistics, and his team of employees were looking to hire brand ambassadors, he didnt understand why they wanted to advertise the positions in Facebook groups for distant cities.I was hesitant about recruiting from these locations because I felt if people had to travel so far, they might not be as reliable or accessible, he says. The team explained that the best way to get a diverse pool of applicants was to expand our search.Once the decision was tied to their diversity and inclusion goals he understood the value it had. Make sure your leaders also see how a new strategy or tool will help accomplish a specific goal. This will open their minds and earn their support.