What Are Intake Meetings - Benefits, Tips, Examples

Intake meetings refer to the initial meeting between recruiters and hiring managers as part of the process of recruiting candidates for an open position.

Intake meetings play a vital role in the employee recruitment process. These meetings allow recruiters and managers to share their needs and expectations regarding the open role.

These meetings ensure that both parties are aligned in terms of job requirements, ideal candidate profile, and the overall hiring strategy.

In this article, we explore the benefits of intake meetings and all the necessary steps to make the most out of them.

Benefits of Intake Meetings

There are many benefits to conducting intake meetings. Probably the most relevant one is strengthening communication between recruiters and hiring managers. Let’s review a few more.

• Alignment on Role Requirements. This is a big one. If the hiring manager is looking for a specific type of candidate, but recruiters are not aware, the whole hiring process will become increasingly difficult. This is why intake meetings facilitate a mutual understanding between the two. After a well-executed intake meeting, both the recruiter and the hiring manager will be on the same page, which is crucial for a targeted candidate search.

• Candidate Quality. Wondering how to attract, select, and finally hire the ideal employee? By clearly defining the qualifications, experience, and attributes the individual must have.

• Streamlined Recruitment Process. An efficient and well-structured intake meeting guarantees a more organized recruitment process, reduces the time spent on screening candidates, and accelerates the whole hiring timeline.

• Candidate Experience. When recruiters and hiring managers are aligned, communication with candidates is effective and increases the chances of finding THE ONE.

Tips for a Successful Intake Meeting

To nail the intake meeting, some preparation before the meeting starts will come in handy.

• Do Your Homework. It’s a good idea to fully review the job description, understand the team expectations, and gather all the information you can about the role. Being well-prepared is the key to having a productive intake meeting.

• Ask (Good) Questions. Don’t be shy —ask the hiring manager all the questions you may have about the role and overall process. You can ask about the role’s responsibilities, required skills, team culture, and more. By doing this, you might discover extra info that hadn’t been included in the job description.

• Clear Expectations. Both the hiring manager and the recruiter should arrive at the meeting with clear expectations. They should agree on the hiring timeline, interview process, communication, etc. This way, misunderstandings will be avoided, and the whole process will turn out successfully.

• Key Takeaways. During the intake meeting, take notes that are useful and document the most important takeaways from the meeting. These notes will later be a reference both can come back to.

• Next Steps. Before the meeting ends, set clear action items. You could update the job description, delegate work to other members of the team, schedule follow-up meetings, and more. A clear action plan will make things easier and drive better results.

How to Prepare for an Intake Meeting

• Analyze the Job Description. Read the job description in full and write down any questions you might have. Identify which areas of the text need clarification and jot down ideas on how to improve them.

• Research the Team/Department. Get to know the team or department where the new hire will work. This will make it easier to identify better candidates, and will allow you to answer any questions the candidate asks.

• Market Insight. Understand industry trends, salary benchmarks, and more. By doing this, the meeting will be more productive, and the hiring manager and recruiter will be more in tune.

• Set Clear Objectives. Before you enter the room, you should already know what you want to achieve at the intake meeting. You might need to finalize the job description or agree on how the interview process will unfold.

What to Do AFTER the Intake Meeting

When the intake meeting is done, there are a few things you should do to guarantee total success:

• Summarize and Share Meeting Notes. Make a summary of your notes from the intake meeting, highlighting key takeaways. Include action items and follow-up tasks. Then share your notes with the other party to make sure you understand each other and you are both on the same page.

• Update/Edit the Job Description. It is likely that during the intake meeting, you made new decisions and reached new understandings. Make sure to reflect these changes in the job description.

• Develop a Sourcing Strategy. Create a sourcing strategy to attract your desired candidates. Think about the best channels and methods for reaching applicants.

• Schedule Follow-Up Meetings. Plan regular follow-up meetings or calls with the other party to make sure everyone is aligned and both are correctly tracking progress.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid During Intake Meetings

If you want to have a successful intake meeting, take note of these common mistakes you need to avoid:

• Lack of Preparation. Sometimes, the participants of the meeting have not clearly outlined the role’s requirements or decided on the key skills the ideal candidate should have. This means vague job descriptions and misaligned expectations between hiring managers and recruiters.

• Unrealistic Requirements. Another frequent mistake is setting unrealistic requirements and expectations for candidates.

• Don’t Rush. Not taking enough time to go over the details during the intake meeting can lead to miscommunication afterwards.

To avoid these pitfalls, prepare before intake meetings, set clear and realistic expectations, and allocate enough time to the meeting itself to get the desired results during the hiring process.

Key Questions to Ask During an Intake Meeting

Below you will find examples of relevant questions to ask during an intake meeting:

• Why Are We Hiring? It’s crucial to understand the reasons for the open role. Ask about former employees that occupied that role and inquire what should be done differently this time.

• What Will Be the Role’s Responsabilities? Ask about the expected contributions of the new role short term and how they will integrate with other departments of the company.

• What Skills Must the New Hire Have? It’s important to identify which are the essential qualifications and distinguish between must-haves and preferred skills.

• What Does the Ideal Candidate Look Like? Get a hold of what the desired candidate profile looks like. This includes the level of experience, certifications, skill set, etc.

Let AI Take Notes and Generate Summaries During Intake Meetings

You don’t need to take notes of your intake meetings manually. Not in this day and age. Let AI do all the heavy work for you, so you only have to focus on the conversation. AI note takers and meeting assistants can make your meetings more effective by providing a full transcript, generating comprehensive summaries, identifying key action items, setting up follow-up tasks and meetings, and allowing you to interact with AI chat features in a conversational way — just like you do with ChatGPT.

Also, AI can help you by drafting compelling job descriptions, creating charts and tables, and basically streamlining the full recruiting process.

Final Thoughts

It doesn’t matter if you are a recruiter or a hiring manager. When you are involved in a hiring process, you MUST be part of intake meetings to make sure both parties are aligned and will pursue the same goal. Effective intake meetings translate into a more efficient hiring process, increasing the chances of connecting with top talent that can actually effect change in your business.

By engaging in meaningful conversations, fostering clear communication, and setting clear goals, intake meetings are the way to go when you need to streamline the recruitment process for open roles.