Viewing All Posts Tagged ‘candidates’
Who Cares?
Just not a nice question huh? Ask someone a question and when you get this response you just feel bad – like they are brushing you off.
Yet this is the response I get most often (verbally, physically) when I ask recruiters about the candidate experience – especially the candidates who apply but are not qualified or have clearly applied for the wrong job.
But my answer is always “you need to” and apparently The Gallup organization agrees with me. A 2008 study in The Gallup Management Journal (surveying a targeted U.S. sample of 1,376 adults aged 18 and over who were seeking a job – The sample consisted of those who are currently unemployed and seeking a job as well as those who are currently employed full time or part time and have searched for employment in the past six months) found that if you don’t care and aren’t treating all candidates like customers, you may be significantly harming your recruiting efforts. Continue reading
Business Wisdom for the Recruiting Department
An article in today’s USA Today spoke to the lengths that retailers (specifically electronics companies) are going to to “keep customers”.
”now is when I most want to keep my customers, because it’s much harder to get new ones”.
Is anyone taking this stance for candidates? Probably not. It seems that in our world of too many job seekers for too few jobs, we are more than willing to treat our candidates as if they are in infinite supply.
But this is a dangerous mistake. The candidate who applies for a role at your company today may turn out to be a customer or even worse, someone you desperately need to hire in 2010. How you treat them today WILL dictate how the perceive your company in every interaction in the future.
I’m not advocating sending fruit baskets to everyone who takes the time to apply to one of your open positions (chances are they applied for the wrong job for a myriad of reasons) but at the very least, you need to close the “black hole” and communicate with everyone, both thanking them for applying AND letting them know the final disposition of their application.
You can do it, your ATS can automate it for you. You just have to realize that it’s not a burden to do it. It IS the right thing to do and it’s just common business sense.
Joe the Plumber
I was thinking about Joe the Plumber from the election this month and why he’s a perfect analogy for the typical recruiting process.
Joe the Plumber comes to prominence by voicing concerns about being taxed under Senator Obama’s tax reform. He’s worried that the plumbing business he is buying will put him over $250K in earnings and he’ll be punished by new tax laws proposed by the Senator.
Now Joe is a national figure; mentioned in news articles, tv shows, and a very public debate.
Only, Joe isn’t what he says he is.
He isn’t a licensed plumber
He’s had cursory conversations about taking over a 3 man plumbing business that nets $100K a year (not $250K)
He’s had two tax liens in the last year, one that is still outstanding
He’s signed up for a plumbing apprenticeship but has never finished it
He makes about $45K a year.
His celebrity was nothing by hype.
Sound like any candidates you’ve dealt with?
The McCain camp says they can’t possibly check out the backgrounds and stories of every person that may reach conversational status but they do admit that Senator McCain’s standing up for him and calling him “rich” on national TV may have been a mistake.
Hiring managers and John McCain have a lot in common. They buy the hype, they believe what they want to believe and they more often than not, hire on the news and end up firing on the facts.
As Recruiters, it is OUR responsibility to weed out the Joe the Plumbers from our process. We have to stand up to the hype and be willing to point out that all that glitters is not gold.
Dating and Recruiting
I just read a great article on the ERE by Amy Kimmes.
The only addition I have is that when you break up, do it gracefully.
Recruiting Application:
Take the time to treat the candidate who has interviewed with your company with the dignity and respect they showed you.
give them feedback
give them hope
give them a link to AllianceQ!
Shelf life of candidates
I’ve recently been talking to Recruiting professionals who seem to be holding onto a antiquated misconception:
“I own my candidates”.
In the past, when you sourced a highly valuable candidate, it was common practice to hold onto them with white knuckles, never knowing if you’d see them again or if they might get “discovered” by one of your rival companies.
It’s 2008 and there are no secrets in recruiting anymore. If YOU know a candidate, so does your competition, in fact, that candidate may have already interviewed with your competition! So this “open source” idea of recruiting begs the question:
“What is the shelf life of a candidate?”
We all use some form of the acronym “QIA” (Qualified, Interested and Attractable) so we’ll use that industry term to answer the question.
Qualified: Chances are, if you find them qualified today, they will be qualified tomorrow – for the role you have today! What you don’t know is what new qualifications they may have in 6 months or what new competencies you would want to leverage for a different role.
Interested: Hopefully, if you’ve created interest in a candidate today, that interest will last. But how long? Today we all have a bit of ADHD due to the bombardment of stimulus from our electronic addictions and therefore our interests wax and wane. Here is where we start to lose “shelf life”. If you’ve brought someone to the table, passive candidate or active candidate, chances are that person is ready for a meal! This means, if you don’t hire them they will probably not go right back to being the heads down passive candidate they were when you first called. Don’t kid yourself, once someone has crossed the line and committed to interview with your company, they are ripe for someone else too!
Attractable: I use this term to denote your ability to actually ATTRACT someone to your role. You can have someone who is Q and I but wants too much money or has knowledge of your hiring manager and won’t work for them etc. Once you’ve chosen someone else for the role, a declined candidate’s ability to be attracted AGAIN goes down. Think of dating, if you date someone a few times and then are told “I just want to be friends” – you are less likely to answer the phone 6 months from now when he/she calls!
In short; the shelf life of a candidate (even in today’s economy) is about 30-45 days, even less if they possess competencies that are in high demand. Act today, act swiftly, and stay in touch with relationships you have but don’t think for a moment that Silver Medalists are loyal to you because you called first!
