Becoming self-employed and candidate experience - issue 6

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Hello all!

I’m splitting this week’s newsletter into three parts. First, I discuss founding March Talent and what I do. I’ve also published a new Coffee with a Recruiter podcast on candidate experience with Raj Ghir. And of course, I’ll leave you with a Tip of the Day, basically a cool insight, recruitment advice or similar.

Introducing - March Talent

I first considered becoming self-employed when I recorded a podcast with Developa (hi Beth!) about her journey into starting a business and the services she offers. The idea of becoming more self-reliant, developing a great service and finding amazing clients appealed to me so I took the plunge.

So what does March Talent do exactly?

This part is still a work in progress (like with any business at any stage to be fair!) but:

During my time working as an agency, embedded and in-house recruiter, I noticed a recurring issue - a poor hiring decision often led to underperforming teams, poor company morale and companies losing tons of money.

To solve this problem, March Talent helps companies hire the best through great interview processes, a compelling brand, tracking the right metrics and sourcing top talent.

I offer these services through an embedded and contingent model.

Perhaps I’m offering too many services, or maybe I should focus on one solution, or should I create very different services to differentiate myself?

Check out my website here and let me know what you think ??

The Coffee with a Recruiter Podcast - Candidate Experience

Our newest episode of the Coffee with a Recruiter podcast features Raj Ghir, a senior recruiter with years of experience in talent acquisition. In this episode, we dive deep into candidate experience.

Many companies underestimate how much candidate experience can influence the success of their recruitment efforts. A bad candidate experience can damage your brand and

• make top talent think twice before accepting an offer
• lead to candidates dropping out of interview processes
• discourage future candidates from applying to your roles

How do you improve candidate experience? Here are a few key takeaways from the conversation:

1. Communication is Key: Candidates should never be left in the dark. If there’s a delay or a change in the hiring process, it’s important to communicate this as soon as possible.
2. Feedback Matters: Providing candidates with constructive feedback, even if they don’t get the role, can set you apart from other employers.
3. Respecting Time: If you schedule interviews and then delay or cancel them frequently, it creates a negative experience.

You can listen to the full episode on the March Talent Podcast, where Raj and I explore these ideas in more depth and share other strategies that companies can implement to improve their candidate experience.

Tip of the Day - Alchemy by Rory Sutherland

I’ve been re-listening to the book Alchemy - The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense, by Rory Sutherland. The book offers a fascinating intro to the psychology behind human decision-making and how irrational thinking can be a powerful tool in marketing, business, and everyday life. Sutherland argues that many of the most successful ideas in business and marketing are built not on cold, logical analysis, but on creative, seemingly irrational insights that tap into the emotional and subconscious drivers of human behaviour.

An interesting takeaway appears in the first few chapters of the book where he discusses the “uses and abuses of reason”. Many business objectives involve efficiency, or creating things faster, simpler, cheaper, basically improving things based on anything you can measure.

We have a culture that prizes measuring things over understanding people

This over-reliance on reason and data can lead to “optimization bias”—where companies focus on improving existing systems based on logic and efficiency, but fail to innovate in ways that engage emotions or perceptions, which often drive consumer decisions.

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It’s been incredibly fun creating March Talent, and I look forward to continuing on this journey! I also hope you enjoy today’s podcast episode, and as Rory would say - stay irrational! ??

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