This post was written from SHRM Talent where I had the opportunity to speak on the most critical variable for your AI aspirations: your job data. In every talk, there was one big BUT to overhauling job posts: hiring managers.
I literally got a round of applause when I told the audience:
“This job audit means we stop getting to the final round of interviews only to have a manager ask to ‘see more resumes’ then blame us for the process taking forever.”
I’m talking amen, hands up like we were in a Pentecostal service to free some demons. The demons we were freeing? The ones fueling the battle between hiring managers and recruiters.
The story is just too common when I’m on the road. I’m usually talking to a recruiter (or a whole team of them) that wants to make recruiting more human. They want to change up the interview process and rewrite job posts to create a better candidate experience. But every time they bring up a change or idea, one of the primary hiring managers shuts it down for whatever reason.
This isn’t new either. Over the last 8 years, I’ve trained literally thousands of people on how to rewrite job posts. Before that, I was writing job posts for Fortune 500s. It’s not the rewrite that they have any issues with. It’s that the hiring managers don’t want hiring to change at all. Not the best place to start when you are, in fact, trying to change the way hiring works - even something as simple as rewriting a job post.
Why I See Hiring Managers Resist Change
There are two big forces working against these teams. The first is a challenge as old as job posts themselves - it's the way it's always been done. I grew up in a southern military family that loved one-liners like 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it.' Hiring managers are no different - the job post isn't broken to them because they've never even considered it could be different, even though you know the job post is, in fact, broken.
Alternatively, I think AI is working against your ability to change now, too. If you scroll enough on LinkedIn or read the AI headlines, they make everything seem so easy. Everything should be done with AI. Why wouldn’t we just ask AI to write a job post and send you on your way?
When I talk to teams where this is happening, it’s often because there’s a lot of assumptions happening on both sides. Recruiters assume hiring managers know why they want to overhaul the job posts. I mean, they can read, right? Rarely have those recruiters explained the hidden costs of not changing - job posts or really anything in recruiting. For example, if you’re suffering from high turnover in the first 90 days? The job post might be part of the reason. 48% of people said they have quit a job because the requirements did not align with their expectations.
Focus Groups For Change Management In Recruiting
It takes more than “here’s the data” to get a stubborn hiring manager to change. I’ve tried a lot of different approaches to change management while helping recruiters with their job posts including one-hour lunch and learn sessions, traditional communications, and on-demand micro learning for hiring managers. All of those work - but there’s one thing you HAVE to do first: a simple focus group to create a compelling job post template. Here’s how I run these sessions.
In a job post focus group, I gather 3 to 5 job post examples. Remove all identifying features. The majority will be bad examples. One is the example of the ideal job post. When I host these sessions as the positive outside influence, I show each posting and ask questions like:
- What do you like about this?
- What do you dislike?
- Why do you like/dislike that element?
I like this approach because it allows you to get buy-in early and understand how they would push back later. That’s also the benefit of having an external consultant like me run these vs you: they will be a little more blunt. Book a meeting to talk to me about hosting a focus group with your managers here.
It also helps with a positive transition. When you start the new job posts, I often hear focus group members saying things like “I helped design this.” That buy-in helps get buy-in from others and is often the first big step to convince hiring managers to change the job postings.
