I am often asked how I became interested in recruitment as it’s not every HR’s cup of tea. Understandably, I guess you can say recruitment chose me and it worked out to be a match I embraced.
I was inspired by a series of events that had caused me a lot of frustration with the recruitment process back when I was job hunting. A couple of years back, I was fortunate to land a job at a not for profit. I worked in the HR department doing a little bit of everything cutting across different HR functions. At one point, I had the opportunity to support end to end recruitment as there were many open positions that required attention and an extra set of hands.
As I got more involved in the process, moving candidates from one stage to the other, scheduling tests and interviews…I recalled thinking, finally, how fabulous it was to be on the other side of the recruitment process. I quickly switched to remembering all of the frustrations I had experienced during my prior job hunts. I am sure we all have a story or three about our job-hunting experiences.
My major pains were centered on the radio silence after having sent out job applications. If lucky, there would be a couple of phone screen interviews, written tests and/or an interview that I’d attend but with little to no communication thereafter despite various attempts to find out from the organization about the status of my application. Sometimes the radio silence would be broken long after having reconciled and moved away from thinking about the jobs that I had applied for. Usually, it would be a delayed and impersonal message that vaguely but regretfully communicated that the application will not be proceeding any further.
Many organizations came off as one-sided, inaccessible and not caring about the kind of impression they had on prospective talent. Since I had been in those shoes before, I wanted to ensure that candidates had a better interaction and experience during the recruitment process.
I wanted to embrace a more pro-candidate engagement from the status quo. My approach was to treat both candidates and the hiring team as my clients since both had needs that required respective attention. Essentially, I viewed myself as providing a service and one of my goals was to provide quality service delivery to the best of my ability.
It was important to be proactive, keep all parties well informed and updated while ensuring accessibility in case of any questions. When I started getting positive feedback from candidates as a result of these minor improvements, I was elated and encouraged to do more. Creating a positive candidate experience shows the prospective talent that you are engaged and walking with them through the various processes and procedures of the recruitment cycle. It hugely impacts how they perceive the organization and how they perceive you as an individual with some expressing personal gratitude on how you handled them through the process. It shows them that you respect their time, that the processes are transparent while providing a lot of clarity which they appreciate.
Recruitment is also a lot like a match-matching process of finding the ideal partner. Both the organization and talent have a minimum criteria. Both want to make a good impression on the other and there is a certain nervousness along way. You know the feeling. Interviews (dates) determine whether there is chemistry and if both parties are perfect fit for each other. In the end, each party makes a decision on whether they are a match or not. Ultimately the best candidate feels engaged and valued enough to accept an offer whilst the organization gains top talent. It’s a win-win all around.
Today’s job market is candidate driven with candidates now being viewed as consumers rather than just applicants. The paradigm has shifted, the game changed. Organizations have had to gain a competitive edge to attract talent who are now very selective in choosing which organizations and types of roles they wish to work. Consequently, new recruitment strategies such as recruitment marketing and employer branding are currently being used to woo talent.
Recruitment has greatly evolved to become dynamic and highly engaging. I enjoy engaging with candidates, the hiring team and different stakeholders. Helping people land their dream job is a very satisfying feeling and makes all the work meaningful. It also presents an opportunity to learn from the clients, different industries depending on the position, sector/industry of the recruitment. Not to mention, it keeps me on my toes to stay up to date with the current trends as recruiting tools and strategies are ever-evolving.