How Do You Treat Your Candidates?

I recently attended a meeting for a non executive (unpaid) position in Leicester and it turned out to be an interview. I was suitably unimpressed but this did get me thinking about the impression you get at an interview and how we all have to be aware of how we brief candidates before they enter the lions den.

How do you treat your candidates?

If you are using a recruiter of some repute, one not targeted on the number of CVs they can fling at their clients, they will have done a good job selling the opportunity.  Some may have done this face to face.

Remember, the candidate if seeking work will have sent their CVs to at least 50 jobs and they will have rarely received a reply from the recruiter. So however keen they are on your job they will have some degree of frustration and stress over their current situation.

Now I am sure you allow your well briefed candidates to wait in a bright and airy room with a comfortable chair and you will of course have laid on fresh coffee and perhaps bottled water.  They know exactly what to expect during the process.

To present a positive image, you have information on your company on the walls and presented on the table and perhaps have a video playing about your company.

You may make sure an employee not associated with the recruitment process pops their head around the door to see how they are getting on and offer the chance to informally talk about how great the company is.

If you get them to fill out an application form, you ensure it is simple, relevant and someone is on hand to provide assistance.

When invited to the interview the manager is prepared and well trained and asks relevant questions.

When you tell them you will give them feedback within a week, you do just that.

Apparently, you may be surprised to hear that this sort of interview situation occurs in the UK just 15% of the time and some candidates do not get the great reception you offer.

After waiting a few weeks for the interview, after a brief telephone conversation with a recruiter, they wait at the reception, without coffee or directions to the bathroom. They are forced to listen to the latest gossip from a passing employee.

The candidate is then given an application form by the receptionist to complete in the reception using a telephone book to rest on. The candidate is taken into a dull room, 10 minutes after the allotted time and interrogated by an HR professional.

Then after a weeks gap a manager comes along and talks about themselves for 20 minutes and asks some prepared questions from HR.

They then get told “we’ll call you”, follow by an email from the recruiter 14 days later.

Perhaps I have been a little extreme to make a point but this sort of thing happens.

What impression does that give a candidate and would the company treat a customer in that way?