How to Lose a Candidate in 10 Days (Part 3)
Day Five – Create a scheduling nightmare
You did it! You have candidates ready for onsite interviews! Let the nightmare begin…coordinating the schedules of numerous interviewers; by the way who are all too busy to bother to respond to your meeting request. So, you hold your breath, hit send and hope for the best, scheduling dates and times that appear to be open. How were you supposed to know you’d have to reschedule 100 times as each interviewer finally responds? And so what, you included an hour “break” between some of the interviews…the candidates will appreciate the down time, right? Unfortunately, they don’t. This appears unprofessional and disorganized. Every time you schedule an interaction with a candidate and then reschedule that event or leave time too much time between meetings, you’re communicating your disorganization and your disrespect. Remember, many of your candidates have other jobs, and getting away for a multi-hour interview is not easy. Candidates don’t want to be inconvenienced, and they are not likely to look favorably upon a company that can’t even get an interview figured out.
It’s important to make interview scheduling convenient, for candidates, for your interviewers, and for yourself. The candidate’s interview experience can make or break their interest. If hiring manager travel schedules or other priorities are preventing easy coordination, you might consider using other methods such as video interviews. And by the way…beyond the schedules, don’t forget the comfort of your candidates…offer necessities such as water and if they are in for an extended time, provide them lunch.
In today’s tough talent market, wow’ing the candidate is as important at them wow’ing you. If you really want them on your team, don’t make them feel like the stinky kid!
Day Six – Stay behind the mobile technology times
So you know your career site is all kinds of messed up on a mobile device. But hey, you’re not the IT guy. It’s completely frustrating when candidates that they can’t find the job description or apply to a position they thought you posted. You want to tell them to get off their devices and go sit at a desktop; they’ll see it just fine from there, right? WRONG…they will just dismiss you and your jacked up career site.
Now more than ever, candidates expect companies to have MOBILE career site functionality. Often, this is because they simply don’t have the luxury of checking opportunities from their work computers, so they can only conduct searches during lunch breaks on their, yes, MOBILE devices. Other times, it’s a matter of convenience. What if they spot a post from a friend while checking Facebook, and they want to learn more right away? But…your career site functionality doesn’t allow them ease of applying. If candidates can’t act on the impulse to apply when they want to, they’ll just forget about it and move on. Whatever the reason, today’s innovative companies must give high regard to the millennial workforce with recruiting processes that are optimized for mobile devices.
Last note…be sure to review your career site from varied mobile devices to see how your site looks and operates. Is your career site easily navigated from a mobile device? Can candidates complete applications using a mobile device? If you want to stay in touch…you have to be in touch!
43% of job seekers have used a mobile device to look for jobs AND 37% of all job seekers expect to apply for jobs right from their mobile devices!
