I know - but the pic made you click on the article, right? And it's sort of relevant. This is about recruitment, not dogs - but please stick with me....
Part 1 of this article a few days ago was about how Customer Experience (CX) is such big business - and rightly so - but that the other CX - Candidate Experience - should be given equal importance.
Cost Centre or Value-Add?
The bottom line here is whether a firm views recruitment as a competitive advantage or as a bit of a necessary afterthought.
If you’re ‘filling vacancies’ then you’re being transactional. Transactional with people. For you recruitment is a cost centre; tens of thousands per hire.
However if you view your hiring process as the market’s window into your business – as something carrying huge reputational impact – then, for you, recruiting the right people is a multi-million Pound value-add.
The interviews AND the overall process itself need to be on-point....
The Interview
If you Google a fairly vague term like ‘common interview mistakes’, pretty much every article, Reddit thread, YouTube or TikTok video carries advice exclusively for candidates. Common areas such as:
- preparedness
- body language
- not talking too much
- listening more
- showing genuine interest in the company
- making the case for why they should choose you
A perfectly sensible list. But ‘common interview mistakes’ should equally be aimed at those doing the actual interviewing – and it generally isn’t.
All firms want to hire the ’best’ people, but then forget that the best have other options. The selling can’t just go in one direction.
Let’s use the list above. As an interviewer you need to be:
- prepared (i.e. at bare minimum has actually looked at the CV and read the notes from any previous interviewer)
- displaying positive body language
- balancing explaining the role / expectations alongside actually listening to the candidate’s thoughts
- showing a sincere interest in the discussion
- selling the opportunity as a good professional and cultural match
The other major thing to remember? People talk. Including the ‘best’ ones.
A candidate you’ve interviewed will return to an office at a direct competitor, sit next to someone with a similar profile…and talk. It’s hard to describe just how impactful that word-of-mouth review is to a firm’s reputation.
The question you have to ask yourself is whether you want that review to be; ‘Great culture. Really engaged interviewer. Seems like a perfect firm to join’ or ‘Terrible experience from start to finish. Definitely not worth leaving here for.’
The Process
Different interview processes will work for small firms, big firms, tech firms, non-profits, C-level roles, junior roles…..but there are some fundamentals that should underpin everything.
Following through: quite simply, if you express an interest in a candidate you need to follow through with an opening discussion. A quick intro call with HR, a coffee with the hiring manager, a formal case interview with a Partner….anything.
Getting someone’s hopes up only to then leave them endlessly waiting is frankly worse than never responding in the first place. Make them feel engaged.
Momentum, Momentum, Momentum: if I had a Pound for every time a candidate was left frustrated because of the endless gap between one interview and the next then I’d have probably stopped being a recruiter long ago. I’d probably own a CX technology business. Apparently they’re doing great!
I’d have even more money if you include candidates who were put on ‘pause’ while in the meantime another firm set up multiple interviews and made an offer. Grrrrrr.
If you’ve worked hard enough to get a candidate engaged, don’t throw that goodwill away!
Everyone on message: this goes to heart of culture. Does the candidate take away the feeling that everyone is engaged in them, from the Talent and HR people right up to the Partners and CEO?
Does the candidate feel comfortable reaching out directly to one of the Talent team during the process (or even one of the senior leaders they’ve interviewed with)?
Having a go-to person in the business whom they feel engaged with is a very powerful thing. It says ‘we are a welcoming environment, we care about our people and who we hire is so important to us’.
It’s so often the difference-maker between a candidate choosing one firm over another.
So, is recruitment a cost-centre or a value-add?
- by Tariq Siraj