Time for this week’s installment of "10 Ways to Make Recruiters Love You," This week marks the eighth article in the series that was inspired by my friends over at ItzBigBlog who wrote on the Candidate Bill of Rights. I did a critique of their series in on of my own that focused on Candidate Rights. They also have a series that is somewhat parallel to this one, on the Recruiter’s Bill of Rights. You might want to check it out. My series is designed to help job seekers understand how to interact with recruiters so that their relationship will be solid and fruitful. Today’s topic is "Respect."
Respect -Scheduling of interviews will occur in a manner that connotes mutual respect for the hiring manager, their time and their efforts, as well as the needs of the company and formalized hiring process.
This is a very simple concept but one that if overlooked can create headaches for hiring companies and heartaches for the recruiter and the candidate. "How so?" you may ask.
Let’s talk about the headaches. Nowadays there are quite a few companies who realize that human capital should be thought of as a long term investment and they treat it as such. An element of that treatment is how they handle the selection process. From a candidate’s perspective, it may seem a long and drawn out experience, with hoops and hurdles to jump through and over. But, to the company it is the start of the investment in a candidate who has the potential to become an associate. And like any other good business that values their investments, they are quite deliberate with investing in potential team members. That can mean several things, but it is very likely that the selection process will include several rounds of interviews and meetings between the potential employee and more than a few of the company’s executives. In order for the company meet their hiring goals and move the hiring process along as efficiently as possible their HR folks try to schedule interviews and meeting for multiple executives and multiple candidates in a single day. These are some times mutually exclusive goals, but the HR staffers try very hard to be accommodating to everyone concerned. It costs companies a tremendous amount of money in travel expense and lost productivity to arrange these kinds of interview sessions because not only do multiple candidates have to travel to a central site (probably company headquarters) but also often times multiple field assigned executives must travel as well. Now throw into the mix a candidate that is uncooperative or arrogant; one who thinks that the potential employer OWES him or her some sort of special treatment. The candidate may want to feel wooed like a franchise player. And in fact the company may well have those feelings about that particular candidate. However, practicality, efficiency, hiring goals, company goals, and executives’ schedules may demand that the process begin and end within a certain time period and that multiple candidates be interviewed on a specific day. Sometimes the company just can’t bend – when that happens, the candidate must or…. you get heartaches.
OK, so let’s talk about the heartaches. These are the bad things that can happen to the candidate and the recruiter when the candidate can not be flexible enough to meet the schedule laid out by the HR staff. It can be one of several things that actually happen, but the end result is that the candidate is dropped from consideration. That can happen because the company feels "put off" by the candidate and they lose their luster. It could be that another candidate is "good enough" and even though the company would rather have had the reluctant candidate, they took the best available talent so that they could meet their business goals. The heartache for the candidate, well they lose their opportunity for employment with that company, which could have been their dream job. They may even extend their period of unemployment or their job search by months. The heartache for the recruiter, they may well have lost a fat commission. The recalcitrant candidate may well have been in the lead for the job, and when unwilling to interview as needed, could be replaced by someone that the recruiter did not represent. Recruiters don’t like to lose out on deals when they are near the end of an engagement.
Being flexible and available and showing understanding and respect for the time and efforts of the hiring company will go a long way toward making a recruiter want to work with you for the long haul.
Nest week is our next to last topic – we’ll cover "communication."
Series – 10 Ways to Make Recruiters Love You
1) Confidentiality – Recruiters are entitled to have confidentiality and security of the information shared with prospective jobseekers regarding the companies with whom the recruiter is working and the positions which he is trying to fill. Any sharing of information with colleagues or co-workers should only be done with express prior permission of the recruiter. (read the entire post here)
2) Credibility – Jobseekers that apply for positions or express interest in a position during recruitment will do so and substantiate that he or she is willing to accept a new position based upon the criteria that is outlined to the recruiter. This means that a jobseeker is ready, willing, and able to commit to a job change for an acceptable offer. (read the entire post here)
3) Accuracy – The resume and all other documents presented to the recruiter accurately depicts the experience, work history, and accomplishments of the jobseeker. All items will be a true representations of fact. (read the entire post here)
4) Consideration – Decisions to accept or reject offers will be made on the basis of facts and parameters discussed with the recruiter prior to the jobseeker receiving an offer. There will be no eleventh hour “gotta haves†that are sprung on the recruiter. (read the entire post here)
5) Consistency – Decisions to accept or reject offers will be made on the basis of facts and parameters discussed with the recruiter prior to the jobseeker receiving an offer. There will be no eleventh hour “gotta haves†that are sprung on the recruiter. (read the entire post here)
6) Follow-Up – Recruiters are entitled to consistent communications regarding the status of their candidate, regardless of the how busy the candidate might be or any change in the status of the candidate as regards his or her job search. Recruiters make their living by being available for phone calls, they are always available or have a system of notification such as pagers, forwarded telephones, or voice mail. There is no acceptable excuse for not calling your recruiter back, other than death – either yours or his. (read the entire post here)
7) Preparation – Each candidate pledges that they will review all relevant information about the organization provided by the recruiter and do research that is appropriate for the level of the position on which they are working. (read the entire post here)
8) Respect – (today’s post)
9) Communication
10) Information