Time for Candidate Advocacy?
Kevin Wheeler
Do you have any idea what candidates or even just interested job seekers say to their friends and family about your organization and its service level to them?
I find that few organizations have ever systematically asked for or collected feedback from candidates — whether successful or not at getting a job. Even fewer have sought feedback from those who have just browsed the recruiting website or submitted a resume. Those of you who have asked know that what is said is not very nice.
In fact, if we were to run a nationwide poll about what job seekers and candidates think about us, I think it would amount to an indictment of our profession.
An overwhelming number of candidates never get any follow up on their resume at all beyond, in some cases, an email response or postcard verifying receipt. Those who complete online questionnaires, and even those who take tests, never get any indication of whether they are acceptable or not. Job descriptions often fail to differentiate one candidate from another, and there is frequently a very loose match between the successful candidate and the job requirements.
The bottom line is that we treat candidates with smugness and snobbery. We could get away with this when there were an abundance of qualified and available people for every job, but that time has gone. Talent is scare and will get scarcer over the next decade. Turnover is about to boom and retirements will start rising.
We can no longer use the excuses that resume volume makes it impossible to respond to everyone or that there is no time for gathering feedback. What is required is a reframing of how we do what we do.
I have written many articles about how technology, wisely used, can reduce the number of resumes submitted, improve candidate quality through more focused marketing and screening, and assist in communicating regularly. But even this may not be enough.
The newest focus in customer service is the trend to act as an advocate for the customer. A recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review (Winter 2004) focuses on how customer advocacy is being implemented by a number of large American firms, including General Motors and Qwest Communications International. Both of these companies have developed websites that contain interactive tools that help a potential customer decide which car to buy or which telephone service package makes the most sense.
In the General Motors model, the customer enters data about his needs, budget, life style and so forth. The software searches multiple websites and then makes recommendations on which cars or trucks to buy — even those of General Motor's competitors.
For those of us involved with recruiting, there are a number of ways we could leverage technology to build candidate satisfaction and make candidate advocacy part of what we do. Here are three ideas on how this might be implemented.
1.Basic processes. We need to put in place: (a) a guarantee to respond to every candidate within a certain time frame, (b) online screening and assessment that provide feedback to the candidate, (c) processes to gather feedback and comments from candidates that include random phone calls to job seekers, rejected candidates, and new hires, and (d) periodic follow-up communications to candidates on their status. By putting these steps in place we at least develop a floor of customer service that should create basic customer satisfaction.
2.Candidate communities. We need a candidate relationship model that allows us to develop active communities of candidates that have passed our screens and with whom we stay in touch frequently and meaningfully. How to build these communities and the benefits they bring is the subject of many of my previous articles. Doing this will ensure that we have delighted candidates and happier and better informed new hires.
3.Candidate advocacy. With these steps in place we can begin to implement the candidate advocacy model. This model would provide job seekers and candidates with online interactive tools that would allow them to enter information about themselves, integrate that information with data from assessments or tests they may have already taken, and then recommend specific jobs or types of jobs. In the beginning, these recommendations might be across departments or functions within our own company. Later this could be expanded to include jobs other companies have that are the same or similar. While this sounds self-defeating, the number of people you eventually interview and hire will most likely stay about the same or increase some. Secondary benefits are also important. The General Motors and Qwest advocacy process have been successful in improving customer trust and in boosting the image and reputation of the firms with customers.
While not every organization can afford to include competitors in the process, most organizations could include complementary industries, strategic business partners, or even customer organizations.
Candidates are frustrated and more difficult than ever to find and convince to work for us. Trust and relationship-building are essential. Organizations that implement this level of candidate support may not always win the candidate, but they will always win their respect. Just as one customer who is dissatisfied tells at least three other people about her dissatisfaction, so can the dissatisfied candidate influence many others with their opinions about you and your recruiting process.
This basic set of processes can give you a competitive edge, improve your image and brand, and drive higher quality candidates to your website.
Articles
Finding Candidates
- 10 Reasons to Hire Vets
- Hire Older Workers
- Improving Candidate Quality
- Sourcing 101
- Sourcing Candidates Well
- Tips for Building Employment-Related Websites
- U.S. Employ of People with Disabilities: Free Workshops
- Virtual College Recruiting
Interviewing Basics
- 10 Commandments of Recruiting
- 5 Keys to Successful Hiring
- 7 Tips for Successful Phone Interviews
- Behavioral Interviewing Basics
- Contrary Evidence Questions
- Interview Questions: Do's and Don'ts
- Interviewing Opening and Closing Remarks
- Interviews: Common Weaknesses
- Mistakes Amateur Interviewers Make
- Phone Screen Interview Mistakes
- Probing Techniques Explained
- Screening Interviewing: Top 10 Red Flags
- Strengthen the Validity of Your Interviews
- Telephone Interviews: Basics
- Ten Bad Listening Habits of Interviewers
- Types of Interviews
- Typical Probes and Follow up Questions
- What Do Interviewers Need to Know to be Effective?
Interviewing Best Practices
- 7 Keys to Effective Selection Interviews
- A Closer Look at Behavior-Based Interviewing
- Advantages / Disadvantages of Interviewing
- Applying Core Competencies to Selection Interviews
- Are You Really a Behavior-Based Interviewer?
- Assessing Speaking and Listening Skills
- Best Practices in Interviewing Candidates
- Deadly Interview Mistakes
- Death by Interview
- Ensure Hiring Success in Every Situation
- Executive Assessment Should Be Mandatory
- Generational Interviewing
- Hiring Interview + Strategic Applicant Management
- Hold Evening and Off-Time Interviews
- How to Interview a Top Performer
- Improve your Interviewing Techniques
- Interview Questions to Assess Soft Skills
- Interviewing for Ethics
- Interviewing Millennials
- Interviewing: Business or Psychology
- Metrics Interview
- Peeling Back the Onion
- The Positives of Panel Interviews
- Time for Candidate Advocacy?
- Tips for Conducting Successful Interviews
- Two Critical Interviewing Questions
Laws & Documentation
- Applicant Reference Release
- At Will Employment Release
- Avoid Negligent Hiring Mistakes
- Employee Referral Program Metrics
- Fair Labor Standards Act Information
- Four Interview Questions Never to Ask
- Giving Employee References
- Hiring Compliance Guidelines
- Hiring for Small Business
- Interviewing People with Disabilities
- Job Denial Letter
- Legal Issues in Interviewing
- Minimize Employment Risks: Document
- SAMPLE Employment Policy
- SAMPLE Letter: Educational Records Check
- SAMPLE Letter: Reference Check
- Ten Safe Hiring Tools
- What is Negligent Hiring
Line Manager / Recruiting Partnership
- Defending Candidates to Hiring Managers
- Interlocking Core Competency Interviews
- Internal Application Process
- Making Internships Work for You
- Making the Case for Behavioral Interviewing
- Non-Traditional Merit Pay Alternatives
- OFCCP Definition of an Internet Applicant
- Why Managers Shouldn't Do Most Hiring
- Workforce Planning: Strategic Staffing Strategy
Post-Interview
Pre-Planning & Retention
- Bonus or Incentive?
- Brand-Building on a Budget
- Build a First-Rate Hiring Process
- Closing the Deal
- Compensation Plans: An Overview
- Conducting an Exit Interview
- Good Hiring Starts with a Good Job Profile
- Improve the Quality of the Employment Function
- Interview Process Problems
- Interview the Job Before the Candidates
- Job Description Template-Link Pay to Performance
- Linking Pay to Company Performance
- Selecting and Using Salary Surveys
- Succession Planning
- Succession Planning: Identifying Top Performers
- Using a Pre-Interviewing Questionnaire
- Winning the War for Talent
- Worker Shortage by 2010: Preparation
Reading the Candidate
- Beware of Those Who Boast
- Blind Man's Bluff
- Decision, Decisions: Choosing the Better Applicant
- Detecting Deceit in Interviews
- Little White Lies on Resumes
- Suspend Judgment Until the Interview is Over
Recruiting Basics
- College Recruiting Basics
- College Recruiting Essentials
- Cut Down on Interview No Shows
- Discouraging Low Quality Applicants
- Don't Hold Too Many Interviews
- Job Descriptions: Why are they Important?
- New Strategies for Screening Job Candidates
- Preventing Resume Overload with Questionnaires
- Resume Review Basics
- Test Validation Explained
- The Value of Person-Organization Fit
- Three Companies Cut Turnover with Tests
Recruiting Best Practices
- 25 Telltale Signs of the Wrong Candidate
- 5 Overlooked Ways to Hire Winners
- Asking the Right Recruitment Questions
- Attracting Your Competitor's Employees
- BPR.......for Recruiters!
- Candidate Engagement
- Cloud Recruiting
- Evaluate Your Capture Strategy
- Hiring Best Practices
- How Do You Attract and Retain the Best People?
- How to Attract Applicants to Undesirable Jobs
- How to Attract, Develop and Retain Best People
- How to Find and Keep Valued Employees
- Ignorance and the Human Condition
- Onboarding Success Secrets
- Secrets to Non-Profit Hiring
- Selecting Top Management Talent
- Semi-Active Candidates are Best Bets
- Six Core Selling Principles
- Skills Based Recruiting: When, not How
- Smart Choices: How to Hire the Best
- Strategy for Hiring the Best This Year
- The Uses and Misuses of Personality Tests
- Top 10 Employee Selection Mistakes & Solutions
- Treat Candidates with the Carbon Rule