What Does Your Recruitment Process Say About You?

In this competitive world of business we are all spending time and money trying to stand out from our competition, build a positive reputation and be seen as a trusted and loyal brand in our consumers eyes. Every positive experience, review and testimonial counts. However there is one area in which I have personally witnessed many companies fall down. Their recruitment process.

Companies forget that every candidate that is going through their recruitment process is a potential customer - and this potential customer has the power to influence for, or against, your brand.?

I have been close witness to someone very close to me job hunting over the past few months. Unfortunately this person has been unemployed so looking for work has been their full time job.?

Company A were first in the picture 2 months ago, headhunting my friend and arranging the first stage interview via zoom very quickly. The first stage interview went well, and Company A were prompt in arranging the second stage. For this stage, Company A asked my friend to prepare a full on business report - looking at certain data from the company they had around 10 detailed questions they wanted answers for, including graphs and charts. My friend spent a solid weekend on this work. He really poured his heart and soul into this work. He did research, spoke to people in similar positions - after all, he was unemployed and this company was the only process he had live at the time.?

The second stage interview went ahead a few days later, and to his knowledge at the time, it went well. Company A said they would get back to him with feedback and details of the third stage interview. This was 6 weeks ago, and he has heard nothing. Well, he has chased them up a couple of times and each time they are good enough to respond, buying themselves a couple more weeks, each time still nothing concrete. Nice way to show your appreciation for how much work was put into preparing for that interview.

Company B got back in touch with my friend about a month ago after initially interviewing him around 2 years ago. Company B have a lengthy process - 5 stages total, but each stage has been swiftly arranged and he has been given feedback within 48 hours. Friendly, open, honest and rapid communication. They have showed him respect and professionalism.?

Company C got in touch around 3 weeks ago. The first stage interview happened within 48 hours, and a job offer was presented 24 hours after that. However, the offer wasn’t quite high enough, so my friend asked for a revised offer, and since then (2 weeks ago) he hasn’t heard anything. Has he been ghosted? (so it seems!)

The services of Company A (a franchise company that have many services that we could be daily consumers of) will not be used by myself and my friend. That may only be 2 people who are not spending money with them, but as they are a very large company, how many other disgruntled candidates could there be that will also be thinking the same thing? Say for example you are a large company that hires for 100 positions a year, and you treat 80 candidates like you have my friend, and you lose 2 or 3 customers each time - will that cost add up in your business? My impression of this business is negative because of how they treated my friend. Just providing him with a timely feedback and response (which costs nothing) can save this company a bad reputation for how they treat potential hires.?

Company B, on the other hand, happens to be a luxury brand, and I can tell they are a luxury brand who do things properly - they have standards that they hold themselves to. I would want to pay attention to them, spread the good word about them and support them because of how well they treated my friend. In fact, this successful recruitment process ended up with a job offer which is very generous, and my friend has accepted :)

Company C speaks for itself.?

In summary, it costs nothing to communicate promptly with candidates involved in your recruitment process. Remember these are people for which every day counts - every day could be another day without any money coming in, anther sleepless night wondering how to pay bills or feed their kids. Even if you can't give them positive news, don't leave them hanging. It does reflect poorly on you as a person, as a professional and as a company.

We like Company B. Be like company B.