Can I get your number?

No seriously, please may I have your telephone number?

It never ceases to amaze me how difficult some people make it to get hold of them! Remember that most of the time in my case, these are applicants for a live role we are recruiting.

Let me give you some examples.

We regularly receive CVs with no phone number (or email address). So yes, the CV has probably been sent by email in the first place, so there's the email address, but it still needs to be added to the actual CV. And neither is the phone number on the CV! And the phone number needs to be added to the email sent!

No problem, I think; I'll look them up on LinkedIn and go to contact details to find the number and low and behold........ no phone number (and most of the time, no link to a website or a portfolio, and the only "contact information" in LinkedIn is a link back to the LinkedIn profile!)

So all I can do is email them back and hope they get in touch...a much slower process.

If I receive a relevant application from a candidate with a great CV who is appropriate for the role to which they have responded, the first thing I want to do is call! That may make me unusual in my approach as I appreciate that people don't like the phone so much now, but it's still the quickest and best way to start a conversation with a candidate, by far!

Another top tip.

On your text or WhatsApp messages, make sure each message comes with your name, phone number, and email address as your signature (easy to set up so it automatically adds the info, or you can do it as a text replacement and choose which texts you add it to, takes seconds.

Now I realise that if someone sends you a text, you are getting their number, of course. But I very often get a text from a candidate saying "Can you call me please?" or "I've sent you an email, could you take a look?" or words to that affect, with no name. I don't have every candidate's name in my phone, it would be an impossible task to add hundreds of people a week into my phone. So when I get messages like the ones above, I have to find out who's sent me the message. By looking at the CRM, searching for the number, seeing who it is, and then responding accordingly.

I realise that this sounds like a minor inconvenience and it's not a big deal at all. But when you multiply this by 40+ occurrences a week, it becomes a bit more time-consuming!

So, make sure it's easy for your recruiter or a company you've applied to for a role to get hold of you, in each communication and in all the ways; phone, email, LinkedIn, your website.

My newsletter on recruitment news and views, The Good, The Gadd & The Ugly, goes out weekly.? Subscribe via LinkedIn OR Substack, wherever you prefer to get your newsletters. And thanks for reading!

Happy job hunting!

Take care

Liz

Liz Gadd | [email protected] | 07377 400413 | www.lizgadd.co.uk