How much time, effort and money does your company spend building and maintaining your reputation and brand name in the marketplace?

When you think about the importance of developing positive relationships with customers, vendors, employees, community leaders, the media, and a variety of other groups, you have a significant investment… and, justifiably so. All of us want to create and maintain the best image we possibly can. Your reputation has an enormous impact on the growth and success of your business.

Often Overlooked

One of the most important (and often overlooked) groups to consider in strengthening your company’s reputation is the candidates who are contacted by you or your recruiting agents. In many cases, these people are asked to consider an opportunity with your company, and many of them are invited for interviews with one or more of the company’s representatives.

Unfortunately, many candidates are misinformed or oversold about the particular opening they are asked to consider. Other candidates are not provided meaningful feedback regarding their candidacy, and some people receive no communication after an initial contact or even after an interview.

In his book, Deciding Who Leads, Joseph Daniel McCool provides a number of interesting insights about the executive search profession. He notes that the profession has to admit its shortcomings in how candidates are treated and the impact of this poor treatment on the recruiter and the client company.

He states that: “Job candidates judge a potential employer by the humanity that is extended (or most often not extended) by people they believe – rightly or wrongly – should give them some consideration.”

This ill will may be generated by internal, as well as external, recruiters. Most recruiters are not malicious or intentional in their misinformation or lack of communication. Generally, they are very busy, and they have other searches, job orders, or deadlines which lead to this lapse in quality service.

In addition, many people don’t like to deliver the news to a candidate that he/she has not been selected for a position; thus, they may avoid this uncomfortable task, usually at the expense of the client company’s reputation. Whatever the reason, many candidates drift away from the recruiting process with a negative impression of the company.

The Solution

You must make a very deliberate effort to avoid these pitfalls in your recruiting process:

• Make sure that the information shared with candidates is accurate and timely.
• Don’t oversell the opportunity on the front end and disappoint the candidate as the process moves forward.
• Make every effort to ensure that all aspects of the recruitment process are handled professionally.

If an external resource is used by your company to search for a position:

• Make sure that the search firm, recruiter, or headhunter has a long track record of treating each candidate with the highest level of professionalism and consideration.
• Even go as far as asking for testimonials/references from candidates that were not selected for a position represented by the recruiter. That person should be able to speak favorably about his/her experience with the recruiter and the company offering the position.

In today’s market, a positive recruiting experience for all candidates will truly distinguish your business from your competitors and will go a long way to further improve your company’s reputation in the marketplace.