Optimizing the recruiter-recruiting coordinator relationship

5 mins, 44 secs read time

I interviewed for a Recruiting Coordinator position at Greenhouse, one year out of college, with no experience in HR or recruiting. I knew that in order to land the job, I had to understand not only a Recruiting Coordinator’s responsibilities, but also the relationship dynamic between myself and the Recruiters I’d support.

Most online resources have the following definitions:

• Recruiter: Someone who works to fill job openings within organizations.
• Recruiting coordinator: Someone who works closely with candidates and HR professionals to support an organization’s hiring needs.

However, starting from the day of my onsite interview at Greenhouse, I realized these definitions didn’t fully capture the day-to-day and goals of the Talent Acquisition team I’m now a part of here at Greenhouse. In our organization, there’s much more to a recruiter and coordinator relationship than filling job openings and working closely with candidates to support hiring plans.

Here’s a look at behind the scenes in our own talent acquisition team.

What is a recruiter?

Recruiters at Greenhouse own candidate relationships from beginning to end by running a timely and data-driven recruiting process.

Our recruiters put thought and effort into our sourcing strategies and interview designs, and develop strong relationships with hiring managers, interviewers, and stakeholders. They empower the hiring team to make informed, unbiased decisions in order convert the best candidates into Greenhouse employees.

What is a recruiting coordinator?

While recruiters own the interview process, coordinators take care of the details and tackle any road bumps that may pop up along the way.

Whether this means scheduling interviews across different departments during various stages of the interview process, dealing with last-minute schedule changes, managing quick and accurate communication with candidates and the hiring team, or just greeting candidates with a smile – coordinators have a range of responsibilities that help recruiters do the best work they can do.

How recruiters effectively work with recruiting coordinators

A lot goes into play when optimizing the relationship between a recruiter and recruiting coordinator. Here are some key components that allow the two to be successful when working together:

Communication

When a recruiter and coordinator are paired to work on a role, it’s essential to sync on what needs to be prioritized before any scheduling or interviewing occurs. Syncs can be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or whatever works best for the pair depending on what needs to be discussed.

Communication with candidates is our top priority! There are a ton of topics that require alignment, such as interviewing priorities, candidate information, timing expectations, deadlines, and so on. Projects and less time sensitive work can be prioritized later.

Syncs also offer the opportunity for feedback and iteration. For example, when working on a high-volume sales role this past fall, our team reached a point where we had at least 5 candidates coming onsite per week - just for that one role! The team had to move quickly to be effective; however, the interview plan required two members of the hiring team to grade take-home assignments before pushing additional candidates through to the onsite stage. This process had worked in the past, but given the significant increase in interviewing activity, we had to realign on who would grade the tests, who would be a second set of eyes if needed, and even carve out time during our weekly syncs to grade assignments. Even though this was a very minor change in the process, it made a huge difference.

Trust

This may seem like a no-brainer, but trust and communication are critical as recruiters and coordinators are not only communicating with each other, but also with candidates, hiring managers, stakeholders, and often even executives.

When working with people, odd and sensitive situations may arise. Maybe a role is randomly put on hold, or a candidate isn’t taking rejection well – no matter the scenario, it is important that both the coordinator and recruiter trust each other and are aligned on what communication should be sent to who and when.

When we were hiring additional Recruiting Coordinators, I had the opportunity to be more involved in the interview process as I had a good idea of what the role entailed - and because our team was really busy with a ton of new roles to fill on our hiring plan! Even though I was only a few months into my role, I had the opportunity to grade take-home assignments, send out and respond to rejection emails, and even review applications. These tasks aren’t typical of recruiting coordinators at Greenhouse, but I constantly asked questions and proactively sought out feedback throughout the process. The result? My manager trusted me whenever she needed an extra hand, and I expanded my recruiting and interview skills.

However, it’s important to note that mistakes happen. Maybe a confirmation email didn’t get sent out, or a candidate was never pushed through to the next stage. It is crucial for both the coordinator and recruiter to learn from these mistakes, and see how their communication with each other can improve, to not only benefit the candidate experience, but to also build and improve trust between each other.

Growth

One of my favorite parts about being a coordinator at Greenhouse is having the opportunity to learn and grow from my recruiters.

Whether that means calibrating on the recruiter’s preferred interviewing times, learning sourcing best practices, or even shadowing phone screens to learn how to “speak tech” – there is an unlimited amount of knowledge to be shared and absorbed.

I have recently had the opportunity to coordinate engineering roles with our newest recruiter. This has been a really cool opportunity where we’ve learned from each other; I’ve been able to share knowledge with him on how Greenhouse recruiters and coordinators can best work together, while he’s allowed me to sit in on phone screens with candidates to learn about what our Engineering team is looking for. By sitting in on a few calls, I have already learned about the QA process at Greenhouse and even about the different suites of Selenium, a software-testing framework for web apps.

Being open to learning and having recruiters who are open to sharing is one of the many reasons why Greenhouse is such an awesome place to work as a recruiting coordinator – and is also one of the many reasons why our recruiter-coordinator relationship is so great in our Talent Acquisition team!

I hope the experiences I’ve shared here shine a light on what truly goes into a recruiter <> coordinator relationship. Recruiters are so much more than the managers of an interview process, and coordinators are so much more than just support systems.

Here’s my key for success in your recruiter <> coordinator relationships: Have alignment meetings, prioritize constant communication, work to build trust, and make the most of opportunities to learn together. Then, watch your recruiting team relationships flourish.

Want more information on how to optimize cross-team roles within your company? Check out this blog post for best practices between hiring managers and recruiters.