Everywhere you go, someone has a horror story to say about a recruitment company. When I am asked what I do for a living I am often prepared to defend myself before I even utter the words ‘recruitment’.
For a while, in my recruitment youth, I used to wave my hand vaguely around and say I was a business consultant and wander off to fill my drink before anyone asked what that actually meant.
I have worked in the industry for so long now that I realise any crisiticsms of the industry are not levelled at me and I am proud to say I am a recruiter. However I still listen to the feedback that I hear about the industry and the employment market and use it as a tool to make sure the service I personally deliver is better than expectations.
Creating a great candidate experience
Creating a great candidate experience is easy; you just have to do what your mother taught you as a child…
Treat everyone as you would expect to be treated
It is not rocket science.
The Basics
(These apply for both recruitment agents and hiring managers)
- Acknowledge the application – don’t put on the job advert that you only reply to successful applications – how hard is it to just let someone know that their CV which they have invested time and money in has made it into your inbox. Use an automated program if necessary but give the applicant a sign that the internet successfully delivered their mail.
- Check to see if the candidate can talk. Times is precious in the recruitment world, but have an idea of the time of day you are calling your candidate at. They may be sitting next to their current boss, dropping their child at school, or sitting in the doctors – just ask if they can speak before launching into questions about their CV and current employment.
- Call back when it is suitable – and this may mean out of hours….
- Tell those candidates you spoke to who were not quite right and have not progressed to the next round, that they were not quite right. Be helpful in your feedback, be honest, and tell them quickly. If you realise someone is not going to progress then tell them as soon as you know, waiting is simply unfair on the applicant.
- Guide them through the interview process, don’t spoon feed. A potential candidate needs to research a business thoroughly before going for an interview, give them ideas of where to look, but don’t over brief or over sell.
- Interview feedback – be honest – same as the above really, tell the candidate as soon as possible. Recruiters are known to be great at telling people they have the job and can turn into scaredey cats when it comes to sharing the bad news. Truth is we don’t like telling candidates they have been unsuccessful, but every candidate would rather know than stay in the dark!
- Keep in touch. Your relationship with a candidate should not end when the application process does. LinkedIn is a fab tool to maintain contact, but giving a phone call, seeing how their new job is going (regardless of where they ended up). Build talent pools for the future, but most importantly continue that good impression that you started with. It builds excellent brand awareness.
Do all of these, take the time to really know the people, who apply to your roles, listen to them and don’t force them into roles that are not right and you will find you have happy candidates who will always take your call.
Painful as it is to acknowledge – your mother was right on this one!
By Jane Blackmore