12 Important Responsibilities For Recruiting Managers

Updated 29 September 2022

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Recruitment professionals search for job prospects and interview candidates to ensure that their company has the staff to operate and expand. Managers of these teams perform basic recruitment duties, but they also perform strategic leadership tasks to make sure the team is able to attract quality candidates. If you are interested in becoming a recruiting manager, learning more about what these professionals do can help you decide whether this career path fits your skills and abilities.

In this article, we describe 12 common responsibilities for recruiting managers so you can learn more about this career path.

12 Recruiting Manager Responsibilities

A recruiting manager's responsibilities might depend on the size of the company they support or their industry, but these professionals share some common tasks. Here are 12 common responsibilities for these professionals:

1. Setting recruitment goals

By meeting with department heads, these professionals can learn how much they plan to expand their teams during the next fiscal year. They can also learn about any planned retirements or other long absences that might require the company to replace employees. This information can help them set recruitment goals for their team. For example, if a manager learns that the sales director has the budget to add two new representatives to open a market in a different city, they might set a recruitment goal to find 10 promising candidates for the position in the city within a month.

2. Establishing a recruitment brand

A company's recruitment brand is the set of values and traits that they show to job candidates. It tells them what it might be like to work for the company. Having a recruitment brand that accurately reflects the company's work environment can help the recruiting team attract candidates who might thrive in this environment. For example, a technology company might have a casual, innovative culture. The hiring team's manager might create brochures, blog posts and videos where real employees describe their experience at the company. This content might attract candidates who want to work in this type of environment.

3. Selecting job application programmes

Many companies use automated application portals, where candidates can apply for their chosen jobs, upload resumes and other documentation, schedule phone screenings and check the status of their applications. These programmes make the application process easier for the recruitment team by organising candidate materials and alerting them when the system detects missing documentation. As the head of the recruiting team, the manager might research different programs and choose the one that fits the company's needs and budget. They might also perform regular audits of the program to ensure that it still fits the needs of the recruitment team.

4. Choosing job boards

While most companies list job openings on the company's official website, an organisation's recruiting team might also list open positions on third-party job board websites. These websites often get lots of web traffic from people who are looking for a job, so they allow the recruitment team to reach a wider audience of qualified candidates. Because there are many job board websites, the recruiting manager might choose which websites the team uses to post job openings. For example, they might choose a few general job boards, along with several websites dedicated to the company's industry.

5. Standardising job postings

At some companies, department managers or team leads draft job postings for open positions on their team. To make sure that each job posting lists all the information a jobseeker might need, the manager of the recruitment team might create a standardised template for job postings. This template might include language about the company's mission or values, which can help candidates decide whether the company fits their own values. It might also prompt writers of job listings to include key information, like salary, benefits and start date. The manager might store this template on the company wiki or intranet.

6. Managing recruitment staff

At some companies, these professionals might be the only recruitment employee, but at others, they might lead a team of recruiters who perform various tasks, like finding and contacting prospects, scheduling interviews and reviewing applications. If they manage a team, these professionals might monitor junior recruiters in their daily work and audit their completed files. They might also conduct regular performance reviews, where they evaluate recruitment staff based on their recruitment targets and their success in finding qualified employees. Team managers might also take part in the company's leadership board, where they advocate for the recruitment staff.

7. Attending hiring events

Companies often send these employees to hiring events, which take place at universities or in hotels and conference centres. These events give recruitment staff an opportunity to meet people who are interested in working for the company or in the industry. They might speak with candidates, answer questions about the company and hand out branded items like pens and notepads. If they meet people who want to apply to work for the company, they might give the candidates paper applications or ask them to provide contact information so a recruiter can call or email them later.

8. Developing interview protocols

Having a standardised interview process ensures that every candidate receives the same treatment and allows hiring managers and team leads to evaluate candidates fairly. As the lead recruitment employee, a manager might speak with department directors to compile a list of key questions they want recruiters to ask candidates. These questions might concern company culture, values and work habits. Along with these shared questions, these professionals might ask specific team leads to draft questions for positions in their department, like sales or IT. These questions can help the manager create a standard process for interviewing candidates.

9. Interviewing candidates

At companies with smaller recruitment teams, these professionals might lead the majority of job interviews for candidates. If they manage a team of other recruiters, they may only lead interviews for leadership positions or substitute for a recruiter who is absent from work. By leading interviews, they can evaluate candidates and decide if they might be a good fit for the position. In some cases, they may decide that the candidate is a better fit for another open position at the company, so they might talk to the candidate about that opening to see if they are interested.

10. Evaluating recruitment procedures

These professionals might audit the company's recruitment methods once or twice a year. They may also perform an evaluation if the recruitment team is struggling to meet their goals. Their evaluation methods might include reviewing interview notes, reading candidate files or sending surveys to former candidates. They might pose different questions to candidates who accepted or declined job offers, along with those who did not receive offers. By understanding why candidates chose to accept or decline the offers, they can identify areas where the company can improve its recruitment policies to be more appealing to strong candidates.

11. Predicting hiring needs

These professionals might use their experience in recruitment and their specific industry to predict how many positions they might fill during certain times of the year. This responsibility is particularly important in industries with seasonal peaks, like retail or tutoring. For example, the manager of a recruiting team at a tutoring company might know from experience that the company sells more tutoring services at the beginning of the school year. They might perform an audit of current tutoring contractors to identify how many can work with new students and then engage more contractors for the predicted increase.

12. Forecasting recruitment trends

Along with predicting the company's needs, these professionals use their experience to anticipate trends in the economy that might affect their ability to find qualified candidates. A variety of factors can influence the job market, including economic forces and demographic changes. By understanding what motivates jobseekers, the manager can recommend changes to the company's operating processes to make the jobs more appealing. For example, if the average hourly rate in the food services industry goes up, the manager of the recruiting team at a restaurant chain might recommend an increase in starting base pay to remain competitive.