The "Face in the Place" Strategy

When HMs do not show up for candidate interviews or cancel at the last minute, it creates lot of scrambling for you. And has never been known to impress the candidate!

So here are questions you can ask. Ask these the very first time the cancellation/no show happens. Do not believe you just have to put up with this.

If it happens with a HM who is basically being a good partner to you, perhaps you won’t have to ask all these questions. But don’t hesitate to ask the appropriate ones because you are assuming this won’t happen again.

Try to ignore the impulse to tell the HM the impact of missing a scheduled interview. They will get it from your questions.

Plus “telling” the HM starts to sound like a lecture pretty quickly. As adults, we tune out anything that sounds like a lecture even faster than we did as children.

The great things about questions is a) they let the other person talk about themselves while you get the important data and b) give you control of the conversation.

Note: nowhere is the phrase “candidate experience”. More on that in another newsletter.

Questions at cancellation notice from HM to you:

• What message would you like conveyed to the candidate?
• Will anyone keep the appointment or are we totally rescheduling?
• Does new-interviewer Jake know he is to do this interview? Does he have all the links, resume, ATS data, etc.? Is there anything I (as recruiter) can do to help Jake have a great interview.
• After Jake interviews, will you want to debrief with him to determine if you do want to move the candidate forward to an interview with you? (Answer to this question helps you as recruiter know what to tell the candidate about next steps. Also reminds HM that we (you as recruiter and the HM)need to keep things moving forward.)

After cancellation:

• If this has become habitual, ask if the HM would like to change the interview scheduling and/or the order in which people interview the candidate.
• Does the HM have suggestions about how to modify the way you have been scheduling interviews to help eliminate the potential for the HM to cancel, reschedule and/or change interviewers.
• Next steps for the candidate?

Total No Show with no notification to you:

• I didn’t realize you were not going to do the interview. Did I miss something?
• What message should we give to the candidate?
• What are next steps for this candidate?
• Would you suggest having someone else do the next interview?
• What is the best way to get this on your calendar?

Please feel free to share this with your fellow recruiters. We won't throw HMs under the bus but we can get them to be business partners with us with the Consultative Recruiter strategies. It may take 2 to tango yet just one person to change the relationship. Enjoy!

Schedule a call for us to brainstorm solutions to any challenges: https://meetme.so/AllAboutYou