ADVICE & TIPS
June / July 2008
When First Impressions Become Lasting Ones:
Recruitment’s Effect on Company Brand
By Scott Stoppler, President
Executrade
Wooing potential employees is like going out on a first date. You want to look your best, be on your best behaviour, and, if things go well, leave your date with a good first impression. Companies spend so much time impressing customers that they tend to forget about impressing the potential employees who knock on their door. As a company, your goal is to build long-term relationships with these candidates so you don’t want to be caught answering the door in your underwear, unshaven with a cigarette dangling from your mouth when they ring the doorbell. Potential employees will notice the obvious gap between the branded image your company is projecting and the unkempt one standing in front of them.
There are many examples of common image “gaps” that exist between a company’s brand and its actual reality. One company says it values work/life balance, yet most of the staff work late regularly. Another company claims it uses only leading-edge technology, yet employees are working on outdated, obsolete machines. Your image comes from your brand, and your company brand, which involves much more than just a logo and slogan, should be reflected in everything your company does, including the recruitment process. For instance, the way your company presents itself throughout the recruitment process is a reflection of your brand, reputation, and image. The job interview offers many clues about what it would be like to work within your company. If what potential candidates experience from the interview is inconsistent with your company’s image and overall brand, you may need to re-evaluate your interview process or risk missing out on some excellent employees.
If they haven’t already, interviewers may want to consider aligning their appearance, their interview approach, and their overall treatment of candidates with the company’s brand. For example, interviewers should probably wear business attire, have a neat and tidy appearance, take detailed and organized notes, and be confident as well as courteous if their brand has a “professional” feel. Interviewers who make themselves accessible, provide candidates with an update on their application status, and thank all applicants for their time and effort are, in effect, practicing exemplary “customer service.” If excellent service is a value inherent within their company brand, the message sent to the candidate becomes more successful because this brand value is consistent with the candidate’s experience during the recruitment process. Company employees conducting recruitment interviews can help close the “gap” between the company’s projected brand and the reality experienced by potential employees. Poorly conducted interviews reflect on the entire company, not just that employee. In essence, the vibe that potential candidates get from interviewers can result in these candidates forming a negative opinion of your company and ultimately its brand.
So, what can your company do to enhance its brand during the recruitment process? Avoid making a bad first impression, which is simple and easy to do. First, be prepared for the interview. Just like the candidate, you need to do some homework before the interview. This will help you ask the right questions and show candidates you are interested in finding someone who will be the right fit for the company and who the company can engage in a long-term relationship with. Poorly conducted interviews can result in potential candidates walking away with a negative opinion about your company and its brand and sharing this opinion with everyone they know. As a result, your company may develop a negative reputation as an employer, which makes recruiting the best candidates even more difficult.
Second, when it comes to job interviewing, basic respect and courtesy are important if you want to leave a good first impression. According to a Gallup Management Journal article by Bryant Ott, “Never in the application process should someone from the hiring company put down an applicant or make the job seeker feel in any way that the organization does not care about them, regardless of whether they are a good fit.” Candidates get clues from interviewers as to how employees get treated at the company. When an interviewer fails to notify candidates of the final decision after an interview, or if candidates have a difficult time submitting their application to the right company contact, it can be an indication that maybe they don’t want to work for that kind of company anyway.
Ott explains that job seekers “appreciate honest feedback telling them exactly where they are in the application process” and some feel “the hiring companies are dishonest when dealing with the rejection process, and that employers are explicitly lying when they say they will call and then never pick up the phone.” Companies have to ensure that the way they treat their candidates is reflective of their brand, otherwise they will not be able to attract the right employees—or ANY employees for that matter. Continues Ott, “an organization’s poor treatment of its job applicants is akin to failed customer service, and it can have a negative impact on the likelihood of a prospective employee – hired or not – to recommend the company as a place to try to work.”
It may seem tedious, but the benefits of perpetuating your brand through every aspect of your recruitment process, especially the interview process, are worth the time and effort you initially put in. Be as prepared and respectful to your candidates as you are with your customers. And think about making a great impression throughout every step of your recruiting process; positive first impressions are inexpensive and they go a long way in helping you build your brand, your business, and your employee relationships beyond the first date!
Materials Sourced:
Job-Applicants-Are-Customers-Too
