Creating Lasting Impressions

Five months. Six interviews. Three assessments. I was interviewing with a company for five months. I was excited about the company and about the opportunity. But five months? This was a drawn-out experience and I lost patience. 

I admired the person who had reached out to recruit me and wanted to work with her. I admired the company and I thought it would be a fabulous job (it was). They told me they were working through some internal challenges and as soon as those were cleared up, I could start. I was happy where I was working and didn’t need to find another job ASAP, but it was a drawn-out process. Now, I wouldn’t wait five months for a company to draw out the candidate process. I probably wouldn’t wait even six weeks now, but according to SHRM, that’s the average time it takes from interview to hire.

HR is PR. For small businesses, Human Resources is the face of the company when posting jobs and contacting candidates. Human Resources may even conduct initial interviews or screens. How a company interacts with candidates does leave a lasting impression. Streamlining the application process, being communicative, and treating people like people can create a great candidate experience and leave a lasting impression on candidates.

If you have a small business and are hiring, here are a few things to consider:

• Company Values

• Job Descriptions

• Time from Interview to Offer 

• Streamline processes and remove unnecessary steps

• Prepare for the interview

• Show interest in the candidate

• Follow Up with the Candidate

• Job Offer and beyond

Company Values

What are your company’s core values? Does the company stand by its values and put them into action every day? Candidates are looking for meaningful work and a company that espouses its core values and puts them into action can attract more people. Meaningful work means something different to each person you ask, but a company with strong values puts more meaning into work and creates a better employee experience.

Job Descriptions

The hiring manager needs to review the job description for the position. Does it reflect the job accurately? As time marches on, jobs change because technology changes and people change and so, job descriptions should change with the times. Are the qualifications and expectations realistic? Does the job truly require a degree or can a person learn on the job? Does the job require 10 years of experience or can someone with 5 years do the job? Does it reflect the company’s values? The job description helps candidates understand what the job entails and can decide whether it aligns with their qualifications and values. 

Time from Interview to Offer 

Part of what made my experience so frustrating was the amount of time it took from the recruiter reaching out initially to the time I actually started the job. When I am setting up the recruiting process for companies now, part of the new process is speed. Reviewing resumes in a timely fashion. Contacting candidates quickly for initial screenings. If you take a long time to respond to candidates, they start to think that the company is disorganized. They start to wonder if this is what it’s like working for the company. Does the company move this slowly on everything?

Streamline the Application Process

There is a certain Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that is notorious for asking each candidate to type in their resume into the application even though the candidate has uploaded their resume because this particular ATS doesn’t parse the resume into the application. It’s cumbersome for applicants and a deterrent. Another ATS has a candidate create a login for each and every job they apply for through the ATS. Why does a candidate need to create a login at this stage in the game? Streamline your application process and remove unnecessary steps.

Prepare for the interview

Just as the hiring manager expects that the candidate will research the company and the role, the hiring manager should be prepared for the interview. Review the candidate’s resume. Be prepared with questions. Remove all distractions during the interview to focus on the candidate. 

Show interest in the candidate

I took an improv class and the training, though it didn’t make me any funnier, it helped me conduct better interviews. The first rule of improv is Yes…And. That’s not the important rule, though. The second rule of improv is Be Present. That’s the rule that helped me conduct better interviews. Be present for the interview. Listen closely. Ask follow up questions. Show interest in the candidate. Be present. 

Follow up with the candidate

Make a decision quickly about the candidate. Do you want to move them along to the next round of interviews? Are you not going to move them along to the next round of interviews? Either way, make a decision and communicate it to the candidate. Don’t leave the candidate out in job-seeker land to wonder where they stand. Getting back to the candidate quickly or letting them hang on is a reflection of the entire company. Is that the message you want to send?

Feedback to the candidate

What if the candidate asks us for feedback as to why they didn’t get the job? That’s something only a company can answer for itself. Some companies want to give feedback to help the candidate in the future. Other companies may not give feedback because they have far too many candidates to respond to. There’s a lot of reasons why an organization wouldn’t give feedback to an unsuccessful candidate.

Job Offer and beyond

Don’t delay in sending a written job offer after you’ve given the verbal job offer. When giving a verbal job offer, give the candidate all of the information and set clear expectations. What is involved in the process? Is there a background check, reference check, or other checks as a condition of employment? Set clear expectations with the candidate of what to expect from the time of the verbal offer until start date. Be communicative during this time because, even though the candidate may be busy working out their notice to their current employer, they’ll still have questions about their new job. 

Hopefully, your company will find a large pool of applicants from which to choose and you’ll be able to hire a successful candidate. Streamlining the application process, being communicative, and treating people like people can create a great candidate experience and leave a lasting impression on candidates. And certainly don’t wait five months to onboard a candidate.