I really wish that recruiting managers (and recruiters) would treat candidates with more respect.

Business owners wonder why candidates don’t turn up to interviews and when they do, they seem disinterested and lack motivation. If you’re in that position – perhaps ask yourself what you did to attract these candidates, how you engaged with them and how you sold your business to them.

At some point, your employees bought into you as a brand and somewhere they wanted to work. You may have been lucky and it may not have taken much effort to attract those people; probably because they already knew you the business owner/manager or because they knew others who worked for you.

Last month I helped a chap to recruit for a position in his company. I wrote him an advert scattered with key words and phrases I knew would attract the right candidates. I left him instructions on how to short list and suggested that he telephone interview the ones that matched his requirements. I told him to whittle the list down to three and invite these people to an interview. I suggested that he emailed and called them the day before the interview to ensure they knew where they were coming and if they were still interested in attending.

So when I checked in with him last week to find out how the interviews went – he told me that not one of the three candidates showed up. I was shocked! I asked him to run through the process he’d gone through and asked if they had all shown interest on the phone when he’d spoken to them. There was an awkward silence. It turns out that he had simply gone through the CVs and sent interview invites to the ones he liked. He hadn’t called them, he’d not checked they were coming – he simply sent one invite email to them and expected them to turn up.

I asked him to consider this process in a different light – what would happen if he had applied the same process to a customer who showed interest in buying one of his products and services? Would the person have bought from him? His answer was quite rightly no.

Candidates buy into you as a business, those businesses that invest in their recruiting and branding will ultimately attract better candidates who actually turn up to attend interviews.

Expectations from candidates are much higher these days – you need to spend the time schmoozing them! A bit like the dating process; show them you care and invest a little time in getting to know them. Ring them, talk to them, tell them about the business and what you want to achieve. Sense check that they have similar values. Invite them to an interview, ring them the day before and check they know where they’re going and where to park. When you meet them, test their skills, chat with them about their experience and weigh up whether or not they’ll match your culture. Make them feel like they’ve gone through a caring process, whether or not you hire them they’ll speak highly of you which is important for branding overall.

Don’t just send off an email and expect them to want to buy into your business!

Recruiting is hard work but the rewards are huge if you invest the time to get it right.

Aligning the employee journey with company branding is a passion of mine. Find out more by calling me on 020 8798 3470