Recruitment as a company’s calling card

Finding the most suitable employee is a key goal of any company. In recent years, however, the labor market has moved in a direction where employees also have opportunities to choose an employer. The latter, in turn, must make an effort to provide applicants with a positive candidate experience throughout the recruitment process.

If a company lacks its own HR manager or recruitment specialist, now is not the best time to look for one, because a recruiter is one of the most sought-after and thus most heavily advertised positions on the job market.

Many executives like to take the bull by the horns and post a job listing in some traditional or more modern recruitment portal. Finding good specialists may pose challenges, however, and often the ad may not bring in suitable candidates. In such a case, it’s worth considering leaving the process to professionals.

Many reasons to trust a recruitment partner

Recruitment consultants are experts in their field. They can manage the recruitment process, map key competences and ask the right questions of both new employees and managers looking for the right employee. The outside recruitment consultant directs the company’s recruitment manager’s attention to topics and details that give a precise specification of the vacancy and affect the whole recruitment process, the experiences of the candidates during the process and their decisions to accept the offer.

Both content and form are important for a good job ad

A well-written and designed ad will stand out better for potential candidates and seem inviting. Whether it’s in a hip or conservative style, it can signal the company’s culture. The choice of recruitment channel is also important to get the ad across to suitable employees, capture their attention and encourage them to throw their hat into the ring. As society moves increasingly to being based on knowledge workers, the more carefully we should consider how job ads crafted, since they are marketing texts.

Recruitment takes teamwork

Recruitment is a form of sales and candidate discovery has to be done by the employer, because they are not lining up in a queue behind the door. To do this, the recruitment consultant needs relevant information and sales arguments about both the company and the work. That means the recruiter wants to be up to speed with the field in which they are looking for personnel and the company’s competitors so that they can highlight for the candidates the strengths of the company looking for employee or the possibilities the position offers for growth. The hiring manager is the one who can share information about the profile of their company and the position to be filled.

Recruiters and consultants are observant communicators and good analysts of information. They hear about the factors that influence people’s work motivation and drive the desire to change jobs and map possible arguments and think about the characteristics of the prospective hire, how to best find candidates who match that description, and what might pique candidates’ interest in the work being offered.

An indirect part of recruitment is how the company is covered in the media and what is the renown and image of the recruiting manager or executive.

Just as important as talking about the company’s success stories, financial results and operating profit is how the company talks about its employees’ contribution to achieving results – for example, what it says about this on social media.

Consider the candidate’s schedule

All of us have a schedule for our future; some longer, others shorter term. Finding time to meet with an employer may not always be a priority in a good specialist’s daily schedule. If the candidate is ready to meet, make careful note of the time preferences expressed by the candidate and show that you understand the possible constraints (for example, the candidate cannot make the meeting at the proposed time or there is less time than the employer would like).

The hiring managers must set priorities and find time in their busy schedule to meet with the proposed candidates. If time is found to meet with a candidate of interest only weeks after they first spoke to the recruiter, the candidate may have “cooled off” and no longer interested in meeting. It may also happen that by the time all of the meetings have been held with the candidates, some are no longer looking for a job.

The hiring managers must remember that their task is to continue the sales launched by the recruitment consultant and marketing the employer.

Candidates expect an open, unprejudiced attitude at job interviews

We all have preconceived notions. It’s important to be able to recognize and be aware of them. Each interview is unique and even the weather and the mood of the participants can influence it. But something that is bound to affect an interview is whether the participants have done their homework. If the candidates have been asked for a CV and cover letter, they should be reviewed and recalled before the start of the interview. Before meeting the candidate, run though the interview in your head, because clarity of the process and the interview also transfers to the candidate and shows the recruiter’s professionalism and how well thought through processes are at the company.

The experiences gained through the recruitment process and the emotions that it fosters have an effect of the company’s image and reputation on the job market. It is good practice to thank the candidate for the time they have invested and encourage them to apply for vacancies at the company in future as well. This helps to create and strengthen the positive image of the company and its attractiveness as an employer on the job market.

If all candidates are treated with respect in the recruitment process, then that adds up to a pool of people who are likely to speak positively about the company’s reputation in future.