Building Your Bench - Chapter 1 - Part 1

Too many managers rely on HR to bring them candidates for their hiring needs. HR is a necessary part of sourcing candidates, and it's important to work with them. But there is often a disconnect, because they don't know your work or needs as well as you do. Effective managers build a bench of possible candidates, and hire from their own bench whenever they can.

We've all been through it. We get the authority to hire, and we wait for HR to send us resumes we can scan to see whom we might interview. This is such a standard process, new managers often just assume "this is how it's done." In fact, it's such a standard thing, far too many new managers learn an incorrect principle from this: HR is in charge of hiring.

But you the manager are always in charge of your hiring, because hiring is the single most strategic contribution each manager makes to their organization.