By Alison Doyle
Updated November 08, 2017
The hiring manager is usually the individual who will ultimately supervise candidates if they are hired for a particular job. As such, he or she has the most detailed knowledge of the position for which the employer is recruiting. The hiring manager will play the most influential role in the screening and selection process.
Hiring search committees, comprised of a group of individuals who are involved in the hiring process, are used to recruit, screen, and interview applicants.
What Is a Hiring Manager Responsible For?
The hiring manager creates or revises the job description for a vacancy and conveys the requirements for the job to the Human Resources office. She reviews advertisements for the job after they have been drawn up by Human Resources.
How Applicants Are Screened
In some organizations, all resumes and application materials will be forwarded to the hiring manager for initial screening. In other cases, a representative from Human Resources will review resumes to make sure candidates meet the basic job requirements and then forward a batch of resumes to the hiring manager.
Often, the hiring manager will select and assemble a search committee, which is a group of individuals with an interest in and perspective about the job to help screen and interview candidates.
For lower level positions such as secretaries, laborers, and retail sales associates, the hiring manager might conduct the process alone without a committee, or delegate the initial steps to an assistant manager.
complete articleThe Interview Process
In some cases, initial interviews will be carried out by recruiters from the Human Resources department or contract employment agencies.
In other instances, the hiring manager or her designee might conduct telephone or in-person screening interviews in order to select a few finalists for interviews with the hiring committee.
The hiring manager will collect and consider evaluations completed by individuals who have met with the finalists during the interview day at the organization’s facility. He will often lead a discussion at a meeting of the committee members in order to formulate a recommendation regarding which candidate to hire.
In other cases, the hiring manager will ask the committee members to share their individual appraisal of the candidates in writing, and will make a decision without drawing a consensus.