Have you had any recruitment training?

In June so far, I have asked over 100 people in senior leadership positions in the creative, marketing, PR, digital, social media, and events sectors if they've had any training in how to recruit effectively during their careers.

Only 9 have said yes!

For those who work in a business with an HR or recruitment team, these colleagues have had the training and the qualifications/experience, but they are not necessarily the actual hiring manager. And for leaders in companies without an HR or recruitment function, it seems that very few people have had any formal recruitment training or coaching.

It's not surprising then that we still hear absolute horror stories about bad practices in recruitment all the time. Hence the launch of Recruitment Bootcamp, from Moxie and Mettle. More on that below; in this newsletter, I wanted to highlight a few stories we've heard of in recent months of terrible recruitment practices

Firstly, the questions asked....(in 2024 would you believe?!)

"What do your parents do?" is a shockingly irrelevant question that demonstrates the interviewer would judge a candidate based on their parents' professions or careers.

What are your childcare arrangements? - actually, it's none of your business! And do you ask all your candidates this? Regardless of age and gender?

There are so many more and there are loads of examples you can get with a quick Google search of "worst interview questions in 2024" (59k articles in 15 seconds at the time of writing)

Then, the feedback from clients

"They weren't the right fit". What on earth does that mean? And we ask, "What do you mean by that, so we can be helpful to the candidate?". And if this is the first bit of feedback, 99% of the time, the employer won't want to elaborate. This means it's an unconscious bias or a directly discriminatory reason, so they don't want to say!

"There was a candidate who had more relevant experience". What was that experience? (to advise the candidate on skills they need to improve). How was it more relevant?

I realise there are thousands of stories a day about bad recruitment practices shared by people on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. I also realise how distressing and disheartening it can be for job seekers treated this way; I'm sorry.

If you are in a leadership/recruiting role in your business and haven't had any recruitment training, you really should ask for it! It's about process and policy and ensuring that each candidate has the same experience from application onwards.

And it's important!

Take care

Liz

Liz Gadd | [email protected] | www.lizgadd.co.uk | 07377 400414

Ways to work with us

Moxie and Mettle - recruiters in PR, marketing, social media, creative, communications, events and digital marketing

Rustic and Rural - recruiters in the agriculture, farming, environmental, sustainability, rural affairs and country sectors, including equestrian sport

Recruitment Bootcamp - training for in-house and agency leadership teams in best practices in recruitment

Liz Gadd - consultancy, support, and advice in all things recruitment-related!