Candidate care!

We all have mission and values statements incorporating us, our customers and employees. But, what about potential employees? It is easy in our busy day to day HR and recruiting work, to fail our marketing colleagues in "living the brand". To state another way, we are privileged to be working in our roles so what are we doing to make sure it is that much easier for the next person coming in?

1. Candidates are the "H" in HR 

In a self-absorbed commoditised world where it seems everything is a product - we can be guilty of forgetting that candidates are human and, like us - humans. This detachment is not unique to recruiting - it has become an acquired habit to discharge indeed, mentally survive your daily duties. Professionals in medicine are the perfect example of those who stay necessarily detached. In our case though, we carry the title of "human" "resources" and we carry the job of looking after what is supposedly the largest asset in the business.

REMINDER:  each application is a person filled with hope and dreams that go beyond their name and personal details. Details requested by you as employers that extend to birth certificates, photos, Tax details and referees.  A level of detail dare we say we ask for  and might only possess for our nearest and dearest at best.  

2. Do Unto Others...

It is part of our universal human values so why have we forgotten this?  We don't need to say more. As Gandhi summarised this best:  "Be the change you want to see in the world"

REMINDER: Respect, politeness and humility go a long way to helping someone who is trying to earn a living. 

The Top 4 things that candidates want - Wouldn't you if you were one?

1. Communication - tell them whether they were successful or not (not leave them hanging and in the dark). We aren't that busy and a glib statement stating "we will only contact shortlisted candidates" might pass but does it past the standards we want for ourselves?. 

2. Honest feedback - why they did not get an interview. It only takes a small amount of time to do this. Imagine someone rejected a dozen times and they get a note from you explaining why they didn't get the job - they will remember that about your organisation forever.

3. Adequate time to apply for the vacancy - or be prepared to change your expectations about the application standard. Imagine a person juggling their current job, home life and other aspects having to think about responding to a job application and dealing with PC or internet problems and being given 3 days to apply. Yes, some candidates might deal with such "adversity" and overcome this to apply -great. But, do you even get to see what adversity they overcame to apply? In which case - why have such deadlines?

4. Clear Job description  -  a clear document that sets out expectations of the role makes it easy for you to reject, hire and of course provide feedback. Take time to create one and with it some weightings for each of the task. As you get applications weigh up the application against this. Voila, you can then use this document in 2. above to provide feedback.

Let's put the "H' back in Human Resources. As always, we look forward to your feedback!