The Biggest Risk in Hiring? It’s Not Your Recruiters…

We obsess over building talent pipelines. We upskill recruiters within an inch of their lives. We A/B test job descriptions, build sleek careers pages, and optimize for drop-off rates like our lives depend on it. And then?

We hand the entire hiring process over to a hiring manager who hasn’t conducted an interview in 18 months – and cross our fingers.

It’s madness!

Every week, I speak with talent acquisition leaders across industries, and I hear the same thing:

“Our hiring managers are killing us.”

They’re not doing it intentionally. But the result is the same. Because many hiring managers are:

• Untrained – asking illegal or inappropriate questions that introduce legal risk.
• Unprepared – delivering a poor candidate experience.
• Unskilled – making hiring decisions based on gut instinct or shallow answers.

Why Hiring Manager Training Has Become Mission-Critical

The hiring landscape has changed – permanently. Candidates now record interviews. AI helps them craft perfect responses. And regulators are increasingly vigilant about compliance and fairness.

Meanwhile, many hiring managers are stuck in the past, winging interviews like it’s still 2017. That’s no longer acceptable.

Let’s break down where the risk lies – and what TA leaders need to do about it.

Learn more: Discover how SocialTalent can up-skill your Hiring Managers

Risk #1: Interview Compliance Isn’t Optional

You’d be shocked by the things hiring managers still say in interviews. We’re not talking edge cases. We’re talking:

“Oh, I see you have two kids.”
“Are you just back from maternity leave?”
“Do you live alone?”

These kinds of questions aren’t just inappropriate – they’re illegal in many jurisdictions. And today, they’re more likely than ever to be recorded.

With AI-powered transcription and analysis tools, candidates are documenting interviews in real-time. That means if your hiring manager says the wrong thing, you’ve got a compliance risk – with actual evidence.

Governments are also stepping up their audits of large employers. In the U.S., we’ve heard of CEOs being contacted directly. And regulators aren’t just reviewing your DEI statements – they’re checking if your hiring process is fair, consistent, and provable.

If your hiring managers are going off-book, untrained, or asking non-compliant questions, you’ve got a serious business risk.

Risk #2: The Interview Experience Is Killing Your Employer Brand

Even when legal risks aren’t in play, brand damage often is.

Candidates don’t just evaluate the role. They evaluate the person interviewing them. If that person is late, distracted, or rehashing questions already asked by the recruiter, the candidate disengages.

In interviews, the manager is the brand.

Especially with high-demand talent, where you’re selling the opportunity as much as assessing fit, a poor interview can tank the process instantly.

One TA leader recently told me that 90% of their hiring managers only make one or two hires per year. Think about that. If someone only does something twice a year, are they going to be any good at it?

They forget best practices. They don’t modernize. And they treat hiring a data analyst in 2025 the same as hiring a sales rep in 2022 – wondering why nothing sticks.

Learn more: SocialTalent’s Ultimate Guide to Interviewing

Risk #3: Bad Hiring Decisions Happen All the Time

Let’s say a candidate makes it through and gets the offer. Great. But what if it’s the wrong hire?

In the rush to tick the box, hiring managers often accept vague, confident-sounding answers like:

“Oh yeah, I’ve done that before and got great results.”

Sounds okay. But there’s no detail. No proof. No timeline. No decision-making evidence. And in today’s world, tools like ChatGPT can generate flawless answers to behavioral interview questions. That doesn’t mean the candidate can actually do the job.

Hiring managers need to know how to probe deeper, spot coached responses, and differentiate AI-generated fluff from real experience.

Even after conducting hundreds of interviews, I didn’t realize how much I was missing until I watched training on the SocialTalent platform back in the day. It changed how I approached interviews completely!

So What Can You Do About It?

1. Invest in Interview Training for Hiring Managers

Not just once. Not just a PDF. Ongoing support, upskilling, and a structured process that helps them succeed.

A new wave of AI-enabled interview tools now supports managers by:

• Suggesting compliant questions
• Helping structure interviews
• Generating defensible records

(We’re working on something exciting at SocialTalent in this space – stay tuned.)

But tools aren’t enough. Hiring managers need human training to:

• Redirect vague answers
• Ask probing, job-specific follow-ups
• Adjust to AI-influenced candidate responses
• And critically — sell the role and the team

2. Create a Culture of Hiring Accountability

This is bigger than TA. It’s an organizational challenge.

You can’t fix it by pestering from the sidelines. Hiring needs C-level support and clear standards.

Treat hiring like budgeting or brand stewardship. If a manager is bad at it, they shouldn’t be doing it.

3. Use Data to Drive Change

If you’re a TA leader reading this and nodding – don’t just agree. Bring evidence.

• Show where candidates drop out
• Compare your interview feedback scores against competitors
• Track post-hire attrition rates by hiring manager
• Highlight repeat offenders when it comes to interview quality

Bring this to your executive team and say:

“Here’s where we lose talent. Here’s where we make the wrong calls. This is what needs fixing.”

Final Thought

Recruiters get the enablement.
Hiring managers get… a calendar invite.

That’s not enough anymore.

In 2025, the hiring bar has been raised – by AI, by candidate expectations, and by legal scrutiny. If your hiring managers can’t rise to meet it, you’ll keep making the same mistakes.

Stop making excuses for bad hiring practices. Start building better hiring managers.

This article originally appeared in Johnny Campbell’s Talent Leadership Insights LinkedIn newsletter. Click here to subscribe!