Intake Meeting

Intake meetings: the facts

At the beginning of your hiring process, recruiters should meet with hiring managers to clarify job titles and duties, set candidate criteria and agree on the hiring structure. 

These meetings are super helpful to: 

• Get clear on your outcomes and processes
• Establish role requirements
• Get hiring managers involved in the process
• Establish good working relationships between recruiters and hiring managers

What to do before your intake meeting

This is how a streamlined intake meeting should roll: 

• Before meeting with hiring managers, save time by researching salary benchmark data, typical skills required for this type of role and info on previous employees in this role. 
• Set a timeframe for each hiring stage based on recruiting metrics like yield ratios and time-to-fill.
• Gather basic info about the role like the budget, reasons for the role, and employment duration.

Intake meeting questions

• Why do you need to hire for this role?
• How does your department fit into the company?
• What’s your current team structure and who will your new hire report to?
• Will anyone report to your new hire?
• What are their main responsibilities?
• What are the top 3 things your new hire will contribute in the first 3-4 months? 
• How does this role fit into the wider organization?
• Do they need any specific qualifications or licenses?
• What are your top 1-2 nice-to-have skills?
• Do they need industry experience for this role?
• What tech skills do they need?
• What are your deal breakers and why?
• What’s the salary range for this position?
• Are there any additional perks and benefits related to this position? 
• What’s the working schedule for this position? What does a day in the life look like?
• When do you ideally want them to start?
• Do they need to complete a written assignment or project?
• What’s the career path for this position?

How to ace an intake meeting

• Help hiring managers prioritize: Your job here is to help hiring managers figure out what they need from what they want. 
• Prepare the job ad: Work with your hiring manager to bring all of their needs into an awesome job ad. 
• Follow up: Stay in touch with hiring managers through the entire process. Let them know how many interviews were held, how many candidates qualified and why candidates were rejected.
• Provide assistance: Some hiring managers might suck at interviewing. Help them out by offering tips on how to evaluate candidates’ answers and highlight legalities they need to follow.