Alive HR

HR Pro Victorio Milian has reminded us several times to “Put Up or Shut Up,” to publicly declare our intentions and publicly report on our progress (or lack thereof). As such, I wanted to publicly state that I am committed to:

Improving the Candidate Experience

It’s not that I’ve done a horrible job with this. Over the years, I’ve employed these kinds of approaches in the hopes that candidates would walk away with a good taste in their mouths.

• Welcome. Our front desk staff are friendly and cordial to interviewees, greeting them and offering something cold or hot to drink. And other employees often stop to say hello and introduce themselves and chat, which sets a very nice tone.
• Respect their time.  I start my interviews promptly–after all, we expect the other party to show up on time! On the rare occasions I run late, I apologize and explain.
• Setting. We meet in my office, not a cold conference room.
• Tone. I keep my interview tone friendly, not adversarial, as I wrote in one of my earlier posts.
• Parting gifts. If my company doesn’t appear to be a good fit for whatever reason,  I often refer people to our sister agencies. I keep a list of other organizations for this purpose and can explain which companies might have day schedules, pay a higher rate without the degree requirement, or be a better match for their transportation situation.

So I’ve done all right in a lot of ways and feel gratified by positive and grateful feedback from candidates about their experiences. But I know from both  job-seeker and HR blog posts and from  Gerry Crispin’s session at the May, 2010 RecruitDC that most of us still have room for  improvement. A whole lot of room, actually. So my Put Up or Shut Up commitment is to do just that.

One area I have particularly struggled with is communication with applicants. It’s  a lot easier–of course– with top talent.   But often, I have fallen short with applicants that are not my quick picks. Knowing that, during the last year I’ve also added these strategies:

• ATS.  We implemented  an Applicant Tracking System. Oh, I know, they get a bad rap sometimes for lots of valid reason. But I’ve been doing nonprofit HR for a minute, and  with all the hats we wear, I know there is no way to  humanly communicate with all these thousands of people  each year without one. I’ve never managed to come anywhere close, in fifteen years, until now.  My ATS is a godsend.
• Own it. I changed the  ATS default so that my what I call  ‘Thanks but no thanks’ letters  [known  to some people as  rejection letters] originate from my real email address, not an @no-reply.
• Own it, part 2. I include my real name and title on my response. It keeps me honest.
• Be real: I attempt to write in natural language and personalize each email just a little.
• Give feedback: Whenever possible, I tell people why they haven’t been selected, whether it was lack of a driver’s license for a job with involving driving or the fact that their minimum salary requirement is three times our stated range.
• If appropriate, I refer them to alternate positions or encourage them to apply for future openings. As before, I refer them elsewhere if I have a genuine lead.

I haven’t been able to provide a “wow” response to every candidate all of the time. Recently I was looking for people with specific training and X amount of experience in my field.  Applicants who had neither qualification received  boilerplate emails–though they did originate from my e-mail address with my signature. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more, but given the amount of time I had for the task, I’d have to say that any response is way  better than no response.  I think it was a decent compromise and the right use of my time.

So I’m focusing on this, improving, and will continue to find additional ways to do better, though I know it will never be perfect. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

And what about you? What’s your Put Up or Shut Up? Or if recruiting or hiring are  a part of your job, how do you enhance candidates’ experiences?