Pair recruiting – How it works

How can we use this approach in hiring? Goncharova Natalia, Recruitment Team Lead, shares her thoughts on how pair recruiting can speed up the selection process, reduce the likelihood of errors and increase the chances of finding the right candidate.

Pair Recruiting: Finding Your Dream Team Together

Pair recruiting offers benefits similar to pair programming: faster hiring, fewer errors, and mutual learning. Recruiters work together to source candidates, conduct interviews, and share knowledge. It’s collaborative, efficient, and keeps things fun.

Many have heard of pair programming – besides being a source of many memes, it is also an effective method of collaboration between two developers, where they combine their minds to work on shared code. One is coding, while the other comments, finds errors, and suggests better solutions. This promotes mutual learning and increases productivity. At Cubic Games Studio, part of GDEV, we are aiming to be efficient and creative at the same time.

Pair recruiting offers similar benefits to pair programming. When several recruiters work on the same vacancy simultaneously, it helps speed up the selection process, reduce the likelihood of errors, and increase the chances of finding a suitable candidate. Like pair programming, pair recruiting also promotes mutual learning and increases team efficiency.

It is worth noting that this is not about training a junior recruiter or working in a “recruiter + sourcer” pair, where tasks are clearly divided. Pair recruiting is effective in the collaboration of more experienced professionals who can share their expertise.

Often recruiters say that they achieve better results working alone. Since personal results and recognition of achievements are important to them, some have individual KPIs that determine the bonus part of their salary. There are many great examples where collaboration has led to great results: Belka and Strelka flew to space together,  Jobs and Wozniak created Apple and thanks to collective participation we have Wikipedia.

What tasks can recruiters solve together?

• Collaborative sourcing: recruiters negotiate and share sourcing channels and platforms for posting job vacancies, allowing them to increase their hiring funnel and reach more candidates.
• Joint interviews: recruiters conduct interviews together, allowing them to provide a more comprehensive and objective assessment of a candidate’s skills. One can ask questions while the other takes notes and analyzes answers.
• Division of responsibilities: one sources, the other communicates with candidates, and they conduct interviews together.

Advantages of pair recruiting

• Double the Energy: Pair recruiting fosters a collaborative environment where recruiters support and motivate each other, keeping the hiring process energized and fresh.
• Backed up: vacation or sick leave is not a problem, the teammate will always cover and quickly pick up the work.
• Smarter Together: working in tandem reduces the number of errors, improves the accuracy of assessments, and boosts the quality of candidate selection. When communicating with hiring managers, the opinion of two recruiters will be more clear and confident.
• Knowledge sharing: working in pairs promotes the exchange of experiences and mutual learning, helping to grow professionally.
• Laughter and fun: Don’t forget about fun! Working in pairs motivates to show the best results, adds dynamics and drive, helping to avoid monotony. Plus, you can always send funny memes to each other or have a glass of wine, when the vacancy is closed..
• Shared responsibility: triggering and dividing responsibilities reduces pressure on individual recruiters, making the work process less stressful and more manageable. This provides resistance to stress and helps prevent burnout, maintaining a high level of performance.
• Team focus: pair recruiting allows focusing on the quality of hiring and the fit of candidates for the company, rather than achieving personal KPIs. This contributes to the overall success of the company and more targeted teamwork.
• Enhanced cooperation: working in pairs helps recruiters build relationships with each other, develop teamwork skills, and leads to a more pleasant and productive interaction.
• Job portfolio: no need to worry about getting stuck with similar positions, there will be an opportunity to expand the pool with new vacancies.
• Brainstorming: working in pairs encourages idea exchange and creative solutions, adding a creative touch to the recruitment process.
• Impress with Speed & Selection: Pair recruiting accelerates the hiring process – this helps to identify a wider pool of qualified candidates in a shorter amount of time, leaving a strong impression on leads.

Disadvantages of pair recruiting

• Compensation: Sharing credit and bonuses can be tricky, especially if based on individual performance metrics.
• Managerial Overload: Hiring Managers might struggle to efficiently review a higher volume of candidates.
• Wasted Effort: A robust recruiting system with a shared database is crucial to avoid wasted effort.
• Accountability: Assigning clear ownership of each vacancy is essential to prevent confusion in case of any misunderstandings the senior recruiter will be held responsible.
• Strange pair: Personalities and hiring styles should complement each other for successful collaboration. Imagine, what would happen, if Simba and Scar were hiring together?
• Communication Breakdown: Disagreements and unclear goals can create conflict and hinder results.
• Micromanagement Concerns: Recruiters might feel distrusted if the value of pair recruiting isn’t effectively communicated.
• Scheduling Conflicts: Time zone differences between team members can be a logistical hurdle.

Conclusion

Recruiters may experience friction in pair recruiting if they have different work styles, priorities, or if they compete with each other. However, with focus on teamwork, open communication, and understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, these problems disappear. It is important to find a balance that suits both.

By reducing the time needed for the hiring process and the risk of choosing an unsuitable candidate, pair recruiting contributes to cost savings in the long term. This approach is more suitable for companies where the hiring process can be flexible and will be interesting to recruiters who want to expand their pool of vacancies or quickly improve their skills.

Pair recruiting can be a fun and beneficial experience for recruiters: they will learn to communicate better and work in a team, increasing efficiency and speed of work. And do not forget about the emotional bonus: after all, a recruiter is not just about closing vacancies and meeting KPIs. It is an exciting feeling of being able to help people find their dream job. And such a mission is always achievable if a strong and efficient team works on it.