Recruiting the right talent continues to remain and will always remain the key function to create successful business in the market-place. Recruiting process is about engaging with the candidates and providing them with the best candidate experience through their journey. In that context, recruiters are the strategic partners in the business because they are the face of the organisation out there in the market and contributing to the employer brand value and the making it into a growing profitable business. Now that there are so many softwares in the market-place to facilitate a seamless hiring process, do they contribute well enough in upholding the employer brand and the best experience to the candidates?
Automation in hiring has progressed tremendously in the recent years, yet what cannot be automated is the ‘human experience’. The recruiting teams are the ambassadors and responsible for driving a positive brand image by providing candidates with the best possible experience (‘candidate experience’).
Sadly, the candidate screening responsibility has been delegated to the tools to sift the candidate applications through keyword searches and shoot an automated rejection response. On the other hand, the candidate is left clueless, wondering what went wrong when their CV had all the skills and experience needed to perform the job!
Apparently, they did not use the correct ‘keywords’; maybe the resume writing service did’nt serve them the purpose…Linkedin is flooded with posts from candidates complaining about no feedback received after applying for jobs. What could be the feedback like? Possibly “Your CV did’nt have the keywords we were looking for!” 😊
Maybe it would help, if there was a reasonable limit set, for the number of CVs to be received in a particular time-frame to be screened through and then connect with suitable candidates (even those who did not know how to write a ‘Good CV’ with all the relevant keywords!).For CVs, that did'nt meet the selection criteria, a polite email with a valid reason may help. I agree it takes some time, but are’nt CV screening and candidate management a part of the recruiter’s role (with / without the assistance of the Applicant Tracking systems!)?
Like clients, candidates also are the stakeholders who must be look after and treated respectfully. Whether they form a part of the hiring organization or not, the experience they carry is building up on it's brand image. Lucrative salary package is not just the only thing that candidates are always looking for, the work culture and how people are treated is what really matters. People are assets and must be treated so!
'By providing a bad candidate experience, you frustrate and anger the candidates. And a significant portion of those disillusioned candidates strikes back by no longer buying your product' - Dr John Sullivan
Year 2020 has been a real tough one for everyone. Lots of posts from jobless people over months struggling to meet their ends, voicing out their struggle to land a job. Facing disappointments due to number of rejections faced each day.
But who’s rejecting their applications? Not the recruiter, it’s the automated hiring tools. I don’t expect the tools to empathize with the candidates because they are just a software to make the recruiter’s job easier, certainly not to replace them! Just imagine if the tools did so, the recruiters could be in the same boat as the candidates!
People analytics, data driven approach, business acumen etc are of prime importance, but that which is irreplaceable is the ‘People experience’ - Customer or the Candidate all alike. It’s not just the industry knowledge that gives a cutting edge, but the softer aspects of people skills have the most important role to play (in every profession).
I personally advocate the use of automation and love to learn and explore how to make processes better and improve user experience, but by balancing it with the human aspect. The tools and systems are there to support the humans and not the other way round….
"Pick up the phone and talk to that candidate. Give them the verbal handshake and build that relationship so that they trust you. That what it is all about." - Derek Bambrick, F.I.R.P International Talent Acquisition Partner, Hertz International
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