Candidate care – why is it important for recruiters?

Before I bang on about candidate care, let’s get the basics straight here. What exactly is candidate care?

• A candidate; a person regarded as suitable for or likely to receive a particular fate, treatment or position. A new job or promotion perhaps?

• Care; to feel concern or interest, or to attach importance to something.

Combine the two and you have candidate care. It is the relationship and interaction you evoke with an asset (or potential asset) of your business.

Before you contemplate throwing the job advertisement reel out for the influx of fish in the sea, you need to have a respectable structure in place. The following fundamentals cannot be ignored in reliable recruitment and candidate care processes.

Engage your staff

That’s right, what a great way to generate some morale for your current roster of super stars! Your staff are already assets who know the business logistics. Ask your team to refer the position to any of their high performing associates or peers. Suitable people are not always actively looking for a new challenge.

Value confidentiality

Across board, this needs to be noted. Job seekers, and those who are looking for new ventures, may require the confidence that their application remain tight lipped.

Communicate

This in itself is a huge task for recruiters but one of the most important. Anyone who takes the effort to apply for your role should be recognised, and with the multitude of communication channels available, there should be no reason why you cannot achieve this. A simple “we will only get back to those successful” is not good practice.

Do not leave your candidates waiting. You have invited these people to your event, you are the master of ceremonies and they are your guests. Treat them this way. Ok, it might be some time between the applications called and interview taking place, but you need to keep your hopeful, well, hopeful. The old saying “if you snooze you lose”. A good contender may just as well loose interest or be snavelled up by your rival if you drag out the process too. Keep them informed.

Feedback

Your applicants offered their valuable time and effort so you need to reciprocate the favour. Offer constructive and professional feedback to those who were interviewed, focusing on their strengths and areas that need improvement. Feedback is a great tool for continued learning and development.

The golden rule to good candidate care is to treat people how you would like to be treated. I learnt this from a very early age and it’s certainly not rocket science. Doing the right thing by people is good business strategy.

As quoted by one of the world’s leading business people Sir Richard Branson,

“Respect is how you treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.

Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

Remember word of mouth and the forked tongue of a disgruntled applicant can cause a multitude of headaches for your company. Treat this as a priceless marketing exercise and put yourself in their shoes.

Candidate care and talent management is the new currency of prosperity. Talent is the backbone of any advantage you have over your competitors and recruiters need to start at the start; it’s that basic really.

Rank the importance of healthy HR management a priority, and you will be on your way to creating a healthy candidate care approach.
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