The All You Need Is L.O.V.E.D series on creating the ultimate candidate experience and a candidate bill of rights is continuing today. Last week we looked at the first letter in our acronym L.O.V.E.D when we focused on L is for LISTEN.
Logically, today we move on to O. O is for Own. I am confident that nothing will get you more bang for your buck, so to speak, than executing well with OWN.
Time and time again we hear from candidates in survey after survey about how they fall into some mysterious black hole or abyss when they apply for a position or talk to a recruiter. I think it is the same black hole where socks seem to disappear to in the dryer. If you want to get significantly better results as a recruiter or a recruiting organization you can do yourself a favor and get vastly better at owning your candidates. Just raising the bar a fraction in this area will set you apart from virtually every other recruiting organization.
That last statement is a sad indictment of our industry I suppose but it is true. Recruiters and recruiting organizations are so bad at this aspect of creating the ultimate candidate experience that just being decent at it will put you head and shoulders above the rest.
So what does OWN actually mean you ask? Great question, let's take a look.
The concept of OWN in the context of L.O.V.E.D and committing to it in a Candidate Bill of Rights means that the recruiter will take ownership ofthe candidate and what they experience once they are in process.
There are many ways to define this but a few simple things to think about and execute are:
- Take full responsibility for every aspect of the candidate experience. Nothing falls through the cracks or gets missed. Schedules are detailed and tightly integrated and each interviewer and/or hiring leader knows exactly where the candidate is to be at any given moment in their day. More importantly, the candidate has the schedule, knows who they are meeting, has bio's on each person they are meeting with and clearly understands each persons role in the organization. Directions to your building and interviews are clear, precise and you follow up with your candidates to make sure they know exactly where they are going.
- All questions get answered quickly. Your turnaround time for candidates in process needs to be prompt and consistent. This will often mean you are virtually "on call" with your candidates but you will clearly stand out against other recruiters if you execute this well. Your hiring leaders need to be coached on why this is important as well and when you have questions that are dependent on their expertise and knowledge they need to get back to you quickly to ensure your candidate gets the attention they deserve.
- Each aspect of the candidate experience is customized and tailored to candidate needs, likes and interests. This means you actually have to know a little about your candidate and ensure that the experience they have reflects what you know. Nothing impresses a candidate more than when their personal interests show up in their recruitment process. This is especially true for passive candidates. I was once recruited by Microsoft for a leadership role in their recruiting department. They knew I liked jazz music and arranged for my wife and I to attend a jazz club one night during my interview process. Nice touch! Jason Warner, formerly the Director of North American Staffing at Starbucks and now with Google, is exceptional at creating a customized and personal candidate experience.
- Value their time and commit to making their time valuable. Essentially you need to realize that every moment they spend with you or with your company is time they are not spending at their current employer, looking for a new opportunity or spending time with their family. Their time is valuable and you have to make every moment count. When I was the director of talent acquisition at FirstMerit Bank in Ohio we used to give movie tickets to the candidates we interviewed with a note. The note said that we knew their time was valuable and we appreciated that they chose to spend that valuable time learning about career opportunities with us. We went on to say that we wanted to give them back a few hours of that investment by sending them to the movies on us. Not very expensive and certainly a good experience.
Those are just a few ideas that help to create the ultimate candidate experience and one more step in making your candidates feel L.O.V.E.D.
OWN each candidate. Commit to doing so in a Candidate Bill of Rights. Executing well in this area will set you apart from every other recruiter and create positive grassroots buzz about you, your recruiting team and your organization.
In the next part of our series we will take a look at V.
V is for Validate.
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