In the corporate world, titles are often rigid. In a startup, roles are fluid. You might be the CEO, but on Tuesday afternoon, you are acting as a product designer, and on Wednesday morning, you are a Hiring Manager. This specific term often causes confusion because it is not a job title you put on a business card. It is a temporary role you assume during a specific process.
A Hiring Manager is the person who requests a job position to be filled and who will usually be the new employee’s direct supervisor.
They are the owner of the vacancy. They are the one feeling the pain of the empty seat, and they are the one who will have to live with the consequences of filling it. Understanding this role is critical because in a small business, hiring cannot be outsourced completely to a recruiting agency or an HR department.
Hiring Manager vs. Recruiter
#The most common point of confusion is the difference between a hiring manager and a recruiter. They are partners, but they have distinct responsibilities.
The Recruiter is responsible for the logistics and the top of the funnel. They write the job posting based on your notes. They source candidates on LinkedIn. They screen resumes and conduct the initial phone screens to weed out the unqualified.
The Hiring Manager is responsible for the quality and the decision. You define what “good” looks like. You conduct the deep dive interviews. You assess the technical skills and the culture fit. Most importantly, you make the final call.
If a new hire fails, it is not the recruiter’s fault. It is the hiring manager’s fault. The recruiter brings you ingredients. You are the chef who decides if the meal is worth serving.
Defining Success Before Searching
#The primary failure mode for hiring managers is starting the search without a clear definition of the role. You might think you need a “marketing person.” That is too vague.
An effective hiring manager creates a scorecard before interviewing a single candidate. This scorecard answers three questions:
- What is the mission of this role?
- What are the specific outcomes this person must achieve in the first 12 months?
- What specific competencies must they possess to achieve those outcomes?
If you skip this step, you will end up hiring the person you like the most rather than the person who can do the job best. You will rely on “gut feeling” which is often just a mask for unconscious bias.
The Founder’s Transition
#When you first start, you are the hiring manager for every single role. As you scale, you must delegate this authority to your VPs and team leads.
This is a dangerous transition point. If you hire a VP of Sales, they become the hiring manager for their sales reps. If they have low standards, your sales team will degrade in quality.
Founders must train their leaders on how to be hiring managers. You cannot assume they know how to interview or how to assess talent. You have to audit their process. You have to sit in on their interviews. You have to veto their bad decisions until they learn to recognize the company standard.
Owning the Onboarding
#The job of the hiring manager does not end when the offer letter is signed. It ends when the new employee is fully productive.
HR can handle the paperwork and the laptop setup. The hiring manager must handle the context. You are responsible for the 30 60 90 day plan. You are responsible for introducing them to the key stakeholders. If a new hire feels lost in their first week, it is because the hiring manager failed to integrate them.