Join us for a compelling episode of Work Wire as we explore the nuances of the recruitment process with a focus on enhancing the candidate experience. This discussion covers the challenges and strategies involved in treating candidates as valued customers and the impacts these practices have on employer branding.

The conversation begins with an examination of prevalent issues in recruitment, such as ghosting and the often lengthy and inefficient interview cycles. Insights are shared on regional variations in candidate experiences, highlighted by data from the Talent Board, which notes a significant rise in candidate resentment scores in North America.

Further discussion delves into the realities of rejection within recruitment, the complexities of providing feedback, and the importance of managing legal and ethical considerations. The benefits of extensive interview processes are also debated, emphasizing their role in ensuring a thorough mutual assessment essential for determining cultural fit and job satisfaction.

Throughout the episode, emphasis is placed on the necessity of empathy, respect, and strategic communication in transforming recruitment practices. Practical advice is offered on how companies can maintain positive relations with all candidates, thereby enhancing their reputation and strengthening their employer brand.

Tune in to this insightful episode to understand how to make recruitment a more empathetic and effective process that respects candidates and enriches your company's brand. This conversation is a must-listen for HR professionals and job seekers alike, providing valuable insights to navigate the complexities of modern recruitment.

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[00:00:30] Welcome everybody to another episode of The Work Wire. I'm Bob Goodwin, the founder of Career

[00:00:36] Club joined by my good friend, the CEO and president of SHRM, Johnny C. Taylor Jr. Johnny,

[00:00:41] how are you my friend? Hey Bob and happy new year my friend. Happy new year to you as well.

[00:00:48] Quiet at 2023 and it looks like 2024 is not going to give us any shortage of topics for

[00:00:53] the work. I think we're in a topic rich environment for better or for worse, yes?

[00:01:03] That's right. So today's topic, I'm going to kind of just jump into it because

[00:01:08] like something that's very near and dear to my heart, you know at Career Club we work a lot

[00:01:12] with individual job seekers as well as people that are coming to us via

[00:01:17] out placement services that we provide and so we've got, you know our clients are active job

[00:01:24] seekers. So I'm very sensitized to what their experiences are and what I was hoping we could

[00:01:30] talk about today is under the broad headline of candidate experience and you know from where

[00:01:37] I sit and I know that you're going to have a different point of view which I'm very much

[00:01:40] looking forward to is if the candidate experience leaves something to be desired,

[00:01:46] you know we'll talk a lot about ghosting just how long things take, the length of interview cycles,

[00:01:54] all that kind of stuff and yet on the other side you know I know that we'll talk about

[00:01:59] HR talent acquisition professionals are doing the best they can with the staffs that they

[00:02:03] have to work with but I just wanted to share you know a couple of things here. There's an

[00:02:11] organization called Talent Board, Johnny that as you may be familiar with a little bit newer to me

[00:02:17] and they actually have been measuring over time via surveys with about 200 companies,

[00:02:22] candidate experience and basically using the net promoter score methodology and what's kind

[00:02:29] of cool is they also do it as candidates go through the talent acquisition process from being

[00:02:36] screened to interviewed to offer to hired and how they're you know basically their net promoter

[00:02:43] score kind of changes or what's it look like at different stages. It's also interesting and I

[00:02:48] know we'll talk about this that the scores vary by region of the world so I'll probably quote

[00:02:57] some North American numbers and know that they don't look the same around the world okay but

[00:03:03] they have awards they call them candy C&E so I guess their little word for that is candy awards

[00:03:09] and in 2022 in 2022 they've got a score which is basically a negative net promoter score that

[00:03:18] they term resentment and in North America it's up 50% since 2020 so and not small numbers so from 8%

[00:03:28] to 12% which would be a 50% increase using my Tennessee math but even talking about you know how

[00:03:35] likely would you be to reapply to this company the scores are down how likely would you be

[00:03:42] to refer this company to a friend of yours who was thinking about applying down so there's there's

[00:03:49] just a lot and so I guess I want to start at the start candidate experience how would you

[00:03:56] describe that and what does that mean to to you and to the organization that you serve.

[00:04:03] Right so you know I'm going to say it in the context of we think at SHRM a lot about

[00:04:10] internal customers and external customers but they're all customers which is why I love what

[00:04:15] Talon or does and the use of the sort of the MPS. Now I don't know all the details about how they

[00:04:20] apply to their context in their context but what I will say is the notion that these folks who come

[00:04:27] in for interviews should and and to interact with your organization to look for employment

[00:04:32] opportunities should be thought of as customers your employees are customers but here's a real

[00:04:39] irony to it all Bob even if someone doesn't get the job at company A they actually could still be

[00:04:45] your external customer they could be a consumer so employers have an obligation I think and it

[00:04:51] six checks actually in our best interest to treat people as well as you can during the interview

[00:04:58] process now you may ask why do I say as well as you can because the reality is if you see a

[00:05:02] thousand people for one job 999 people are not going to be happy with it and some percentage of them

[00:05:09] hopefully a small number will have you know will have legitimate concerns but our data will tell you

[00:05:16] it's amazing how people feel how differently they feel about a company something you know the ideal

[00:05:23] job the perfect company etc until they're rejected yes and no matter how you do it like there's

[00:05:29] no easy way to say like this isn't a match you often have a negative or bitter taste in your

[00:05:37] mouth and I think if we're all being honest that's it no one likes to be rejected and especially when

[00:05:44] you put a ton of time which I know you're going to talk about a lot of effort and research and

[00:05:48] preparing when someone says you're not good enough or there was someone better than you no

[00:05:54] matter how beautifully they word it that's not an acceptable answer for some people and it leaves

[00:06:01] them with some sense of resentment so you know the talent board work is critically important

[00:06:06] I think that we have to make sure I love the fact that they do it at different points

[00:06:10] because a person who loved you and said had a great first interview may by the end of it

[00:06:14] think you're horrible and who knows what the real answer is maybe because you know

[00:06:20] but it is a real issue for us mostly because our employer brands matter more and more if someone

[00:06:28] goes out has negative experience they go out and trash on social media you could have other

[00:06:34] candidates or potential candidates decide not to interview with you based upon what that person

[00:06:38] says is sort of a yelp review and the chance that you may lose that customer that potential

[00:06:43] talent right and as I pointed out the outset there's the other side of this which is

[00:06:48] if I go interview for a job at Walmart and I have a horrible experience I may also no longer be a

[00:06:53] Walmart customer because of that horrible experience and I may tell others about that and

[00:06:59] you customers so there's both a true commercial externally commercial reason to be sensitized

[00:07:04] to this and do this right and there's also part of your employer brand to your internal

[00:07:09] customers you want to treat people right so that you have a solid reputation when you're

[00:07:14] going to market for talent no so so picking up on your as all made points it doesn't feel good

[00:07:27] and you know you've got people that you know are in between jobs so they're sort of already in the

[00:07:32] kind of a bubble of rejection and then should be subjected to more you know doesn't feel good

[00:07:38] the the analogy and you're the king of empathy like I mean I know that's like very very very high

[00:07:44] with you these are human beings right these aren't just work producing units or not cells on a

[00:07:50] spreadsheet they're not just counts in an ATS you know to calculate conversion rates against

[00:07:55] or whatever so these are real people and to be empathetic and what would it feel like

[00:08:01] to be on the receiving end if we wish you all the best in your future endeavors

[00:08:05] if you even got that but the analogy that I use is like you fly a lot so if the airline loses your

[00:08:12] luggage nobody wants their luggage to be lost but if Delta over delivered and like immediately was

[00:08:20] on the phone with you and said Mr. Taylor I'm really sorry there's been a mix up but you know

[00:08:24] here's a hundred dollar voucher and we're going to do this and do that for you because we want

[00:08:28] to make sure that you're as well as you can be in a situation you don't want to be in

[00:08:34] right then I think and it's done you know with authenticity you know not just like kind of

[00:08:40] hey here's 10 cents good luck but something like the I'm not talking about money in this case I'm

[00:08:44] just making an analogy that if if there was something that was a more empathetic approach

[00:08:51] and maybe even kind of geared to how far into the interview process did somebody get

[00:08:56] right if I'm being declined you know just by the ATS that's one level of engagement if I made it to

[00:09:05] the finalists for a VP role and I put in a ton of work like getting the same rejection letter if

[00:09:11] I wish you all the best in your future endeavors that doesn't feel appropriate to me

[00:09:16] and it certainly doesn't feel very empathetic to where that person might be coming from

[00:09:22] so I could not agree with you more the question is what would be enough and I'll give you a personal

[00:09:29] example I interviewed a candidate I interviewed three finalists for a role not here at Sherm

[00:09:34] but in another organization which I worked as a hiring manager and at the end of it I interviewed

[00:09:40] three one person got it the other two didn't one of the candidates and I mean I was I had

[00:09:46] done lunch with them because this was a high-level position and I wanted to spend time with them

[00:09:51] one of the two candidates who was not successful in getting the job right still a very great

[00:09:58] candidate I called I personally explained that we went with another candidate I'm telling you

[00:10:05] it couldn't have been 12 seconds into it well what did she have that I didn't have

[00:10:10] and can you tell me why and by the way let me tell you about the interview that I had with

[00:10:14] that person on your team who I did and it just became this full gripe session I was like time out

[00:10:20] one I don't have time to coach you for your next job like respectfully I don't have that kind of

[00:10:27] time like and we know that and you've been in talent acquisition long enough you got the hiring

[00:10:32] manager looking for the next job to be filled right so I want to give you the right level

[00:10:37] of respect I want to take you through it and explain but there are things I can't talk

[00:10:42] about like I can't tell you of the three people who interviewed you this person didn't like you and

[00:10:46] let me tell you exactly what they said I mean there are people who have those sorts of expectations

[00:10:52] otherwise they don't think they were given a fair shot so I would just say empathy on both sides

[00:10:57] yeah okay no I talked about this idea of empathy oftentimes Dr. Alex Alonzo our chief knowledge

[00:11:05] officer talks about me but the me but the a lot which is the idea that I want empathy but I

[00:11:11] don't want to right and so there's no there is a talent acquisition person sitting on the other side

[00:11:19] who has 20 or 30 requisitions to fill and they are kind enough to call you back and bring you in

[00:11:26] the loop and tell you unfortunately you didn't get it da da da but if you want to spend an hour

[00:11:31] relitigating if you will that decision it's not a good use of their time yeah it's just

[00:11:37] productive for anyone because you're not going to get the job and they are now going to lose

[00:11:41] productivity and so it's a bad bad so I just I throw it out there not to defend not giving

[00:11:47] people and seeing them as humans you know I'm very very high impact but to say empathy goes both

[00:11:53] ways when you're hiring at the rates that you are these days and that we've been for the last

[00:11:58] three years in a post pandemic world and frankly before the pandemic if you remember we've had

[00:12:03] ultra low unemployment there's a lot of pressure on the talent acquisition people to keep this machine

[00:12:08] going so I want to compliment you first of all Johnny because the fact that you took the time

[00:12:13] to personally call this person and irrespective of how they responded to it you did the right

[00:12:19] thing so kind of as much as it depends on you be it be it you did the right thing right

[00:12:25] how they receive that is kind of on them what we're seeing some progressive companies do

[00:12:31] is rather than just send out a flat you know we wish you all the best in your future endeavors

[00:12:37] that's so 80 right no it's so 2024 or unfortunately but um but it's is

[00:12:47] is getting creative like with providing some job search resources like we know this is hard

[00:12:54] we know this isn't the news that you wanted to hear we want to be a help to you as you

[00:13:01] move forward in your continued job search so here's some resources we think might be helpful

[00:13:05] to you they're free you have a nice day it's something right it's something that acknowledges

[00:13:10] in the words we know this isn't what you wanted to hear and rather than kind of

[00:13:19] having a helpful you know as you move forward you're right the company has got to be able to

[00:13:24] balance you know offering a little bit more to somebody with just highly limited resources

[00:13:32] volumes of candidates that they're trying to you know get placed into roles you know and in that

[00:13:38] and then do what their main job is and ta but at the same time i believe there is a great

[00:13:44] opportunity for companies that really want to build a long-term relationship with candidates

[00:13:52] who really do care about their employer brand to think about and how can they be creative in

[00:13:58] building a longer-term relationship because the reality is these people are going to end up

[00:14:03] likely either as customers like in your walmart example and i've seen calculators that say hey

[00:14:09] you know if you piss off this amount of people that you reject this percentage of people is

[00:14:14] going to stop shopping you and if their annual spend is x for lifetime value of poor treatment

[00:14:20] is not small dollars it's worth it you're gonna get an ROI

[00:14:27] but um the the other idea before you leave they're gonna likely end up good good don't

[00:14:35] don't use my idea because i'm likely to do that i just wanted to make the point you

[00:14:43] you know i because i sometimes i listen in arrears if you will you you're spot on that there is a

[00:14:51] better way my point was not to suggest that there's nothing that we can do as employers you're right

[00:14:57] these smart companies the ones that have really cutting edge hr and talent acquisition processes

[00:15:04] and practices understand there's something between just a dear john or dear jane letter and you know

[00:15:12] especially as you point out the more time that someone has invested in getting to know you so

[00:15:17] if they're an interview number three and you simply shoot one of those letters out shame on you

[00:15:22] that really is kind of the dated approach and it does i believe have commercial implications

[00:15:28] for people because many of these people are consumers or can influence the consumer who will

[00:15:34] ultimately be your customer so so i got that but i i didn't want to make short shift of it by saying

[00:15:40] listen the reality is you know people have to get over it i wasn't indicating that i understand

[00:15:46] that i understand now people who are listening didn't know that what i am saying though is that

[00:15:52] time is a factor and the other one that i just think is always is we always and i know you

[00:15:57] know i'm a lawyer of our training and so i hate to default to the legal issues but you know the reality

[00:16:03] is the more you start telling people about why they didn't get the job the more you run the risk of

[00:16:08] getting dragged into some agencies some court some something's hair so there's also a practical side

[00:16:17] that if i turn down 100 people for the job and i gave the white male candidate a fuller

[00:16:24] explanation than i gave the black female candidate who didn't get the job will i ultimately get dragged

[00:16:30] into this it's not a reason to be clear i'm not saying that's not a reason not to but it's just

[00:16:36] it's not as simple as you know spending as much time as you want with everyone because if you

[00:16:42] aren't prepared to give this level of response and empathy toward one then you can't and to all

[00:16:49] then you shouldn't give it to one because this gets really really messy and the ta people are concerned

[00:16:55] about the time they're also concerned about the legal highly litigious environment that we have

[00:17:00] in the state yeah so one of the things that we coach our clients are for anybody who's listening

[00:17:06] is in an interview because to your exact point once that door closes that zoom window closes

[00:17:13] you're highly unlikely to get real feedback for every reason you just said so we really encourage

[00:17:20] people you know as the interview is starting to wind down john i've really enjoyed our time together

[00:17:25] thank you so much based on everything you've heard so far you know what gives you the most

[00:17:29] confidence that i might be a good fit for the show bob you've got this you got that and you

[00:17:32] got the other thing and i guess on the other side of johnny are there any concerns that you've

[00:17:36] got about my ability to be well bob kind of wish you had more automotive experience i think that's

[00:17:41] you know going to be kind of important but again i think you're a great candidate you are never going

[00:17:45] to get that feedback once that door shuts so for our candidates we really encourage you to ask those

[00:17:53] questions because it could be a miscommunication no no i've got automotive experience i'm so sorry

[00:17:58] i i i completely omitted my time at ford oh i didn't know that or you know to help kind of

[00:18:07] based on you know kind of the things that you like and the the industry experience johnny

[00:18:13] how would you kind of stack rank those oh you just add i don't think the automotive is that

[00:18:17] important i think you've got amazing skills and what we need so i think you're super

[00:18:22] strong candidate at least you know and and that's what i think for candidates clarity is giant

[00:18:30] and bob to that point giving the talent acquisition or the hiring patent manager whoever

[00:18:37] delivers the message that you didn't get the job giving them permission to to be ended that's why

[00:18:44] i love i hadn't thought about that but i love the idea of saying to someone tell me you know

[00:18:51] like you said at the end of the interview tell me about what went well and what gives you pause

[00:18:56] and i think you'd go a step further and say and i really want you to be honest because whether or

[00:19:00] not i get this job or not i'm going to be interviewing for a role elsewhere so anything that you can

[00:19:05] tell me mr. ms hiring manager or a talent acquisition professional i will consider that a gift giving

[00:19:13] that person permission to be honest with you will go a long way and i hope you encourage and

[00:19:19] everyone listening none of us want a derivative ad no one there's nothing better than delivering

[00:19:24] the great news you got the job all hands are raised because everyone wants to make the offer

[00:19:28] no one wants to have their rejection calls so you have to make us feel pretty decently about going

[00:19:34] through the process because i believe net net the feedback is a gift even if it's not feedback

[00:19:39] that you actually want to hear at the time yeah so i want to move on to just a couple other

[00:19:45] and not small points in this whole kind of recruiting process because it is part of the

[00:19:49] candidate experience is a couple things one is when a work product is being requested so i need you

[00:19:59] to like you know do a mock sales call for me i need you to do a presentation for me like like you

[00:20:05] need to produce some work candidate yep and then separate but related is eight rounds of interviews

[00:20:16] and like can anybody like here make a decision like like what's going on here so we just find

[00:20:23] you know again i'm very candidate centric in my job that candidates really feel like they're being

[00:20:28] put through the mill without kind of an equal level of i don't know what commitment to something

[00:20:37] as we go deeper in the process so you're asking a lot from me but i'm incrementally not getting

[00:20:43] more from you and then i'm likely just going to get the dear john dear jane letter at the end of it

[00:20:50] and it just feels it feels just really out of alignment so challenge and this is what i'm so glad

[00:20:57] you brought up and i hope the people out there don't like throw rotten tomatoes through the screen but

[00:21:04] i think it's totally not accurate to say i'm doing all of this and you're doing nothing

[00:21:09] let me tell you if i give you eight interviews of my highly-paid executives time trust me i'm investing

[00:21:16] a lot in you you may not see it but and i get it proportionately you may say listen it's a lot of

[00:21:23] my time but at the end of the day if you are the more interviews you are getting internally

[00:21:29] frankly a lot of times not i understand is over process right but a lot of times what we're doing

[00:21:35] is the most important decision a hiring manager can make is they're higher and they want to do

[00:21:41] everything that they can do to ensure that you know not just the competency skillset required of

[00:21:46] the job but our culture you only get culture by meeting different people not one person but

[00:21:53] different people different and then you get all of that because in this process you should be

[00:21:58] interviewing me as much as i'm interviewing you to decide so i the more interviews you get

[00:22:04] especially if you are in a role very different from most of your clients bob but if you are currently

[00:22:10] in a company doing fine and someone reached out and you're going through this interview process

[00:22:14] it is a gift again when the company will give you the opportunity to ensure that you're going

[00:22:20] to like it here because i've now left my good job to come to you and after only interviewing

[00:22:25] with two people i don't really know i you know if this is right so i'm not i'm a big fan

[00:22:31] of more interviews not fewer provided you tell me up front provided you try to accommodate me and i've

[00:22:37] said to hiring managers try to you know give it one full day of interviews as opposed to having

[00:22:42] somebody return to your office six different times or six so because they do have lives and most of

[00:22:48] us with jobs can't just break out and so there is a lot to be said by candidate experience but

[00:22:54] i would just say i challenge the notion that the company gets nothing or is not investing

[00:22:59] anything and it's a fair point johnny i guess my point is is well when when it's enough enough

[00:23:07] like do i really need to go through eight rounds of interviews for because i can eat eight more people

[00:23:13] and have an even deeper sense of the culture there eight is probably enough remember that tv show

[00:23:18] oh my god eight's enough so i think there's some number if it's five if it's six i'll

[00:23:26] you know i can tell you right now in my current job my folks hate for me to talk about my current

[00:23:30] role but at the end of the day i have 11 direct reports if anyone is going to join my executive

[00:23:36] team they're going to meet them all because we happen to operate as a team so what is the

[00:23:43] point of you meeting nine people out of the 11 and saying love it love them all only to get here

[00:23:48] and the two you didn't meet you hate and by the way you spend a disproportionate amount of your

[00:23:53] time with them in your new job like to your credit i think it's about bob i'll throw this out and you

[00:23:59] can and i agree 11's a lot and eight's a lot but i think it's about telling people in the beginning

[00:24:05] this is how much time this is going to take if you're really interested in coming to work with

[00:24:09] my organization this is how we do it this is the number of interviews and i got it if you're

[00:24:16] too busy or and not judging you but you just can't commit the time check but if you do want to do it

[00:24:23] and you feel strongly about this upfront this is the time commitment i think that's a better one as

[00:24:28] opposed to making companies decide is for the magic number is six the magic number is eight enough

[00:24:34] i don't know the answer there so i'm unwilling to i've heard that very con you know sort of

[00:24:40] piece of feedback it's just too long well if i told you in the beginning this is how long

[00:24:44] it takes then you got to decide you know and hiring is i think i think you know

[00:24:51] it is and at the same time it's a very competitive labor market in the best people are in demand

[00:24:58] and i think that there's an efficiency there's just a you know you've talked about this before

[00:25:04] and i've really internalized this that there's not a good or a bad culture is it a fit for you

[00:25:09] is a different question but is that a good culture a bad culture i'm a little bit in the

[00:25:14] keeps can anybody here like make a decision like let's go but oh by the way i've also got

[00:25:20] three other things that i'm working on right now so i just want to be up front with you guys

[00:25:25] that i'm looking to make a decision in the next two weeks i'm happy to meet all 11 people if

[00:25:29] that if that's because i think this is a cool role is there a way that we can figure this out

[00:25:34] so that we can kind of meet it meet the finish line together now that makes sense we're saying the same

[00:25:42] thing that's right as long as you're clear about this is how much time i have to give they say this

[00:25:46] is much and then you match i will say this it could be that what they're doing is giving you

[00:25:53] an indication of how they actually operate you mentioned culture there's some organizations

[00:25:58] where no decision is made unless it's truly consensus so the interviewing process is is actually

[00:26:04] giving you some insight into how they operate so why have you just interviewed with four people

[00:26:10] in the name of expediency right you get there and then as you start you've accepted the job

[00:26:15] you're working there and you realize gosh every decision has to be done via consensus and it takes

[00:26:20] eight to ten people to make a decision i wish i had known that before i took this job

[00:26:26] hundred percent which is why i brought culture guys to your point right these are very

[00:26:31] strong behavioral indicators of how decisions get made here particularly important decisions

[00:26:38] that's right so to that point i will tell you a funny one so i've talked to someone and i'll save

[00:26:43] the name of the company because i don't want them to get upset but this person said this

[00:26:47] company required that i give them a writing sample and in the process of reviewing the

[00:26:52] writing sample this company has a very very strong bias toward writing in the active voice

[00:26:58] not the passive voice so the feedback that this individual my friend received in the hiring process

[00:27:05] was the piece that you submitted was really heavily written in in passive voice and we're an active voice

[00:27:11] company and my friend said i just rolled my eyes and i thought what a stupid thing to say

[00:27:18] and i said to him actually that was a gift because what could have happened is you've left

[00:27:23] your job to come here and you would have been brutalized because you didn't write an active voice

[00:27:29] now you may think that's a silly point but it's their point it's the way they operate and so i

[00:27:35] just got to throw in here as you kick it back to you be very careful my angelo the now one of

[00:27:41] greatest poets of all time said when someone shows you who they are the first time believe them

[00:27:47] it's one of her most famous quotes and so if the company is telling you eight nine ten

[00:27:55] at every level they're telling you who they are and you had better believe them and factor that so

[00:28:01] don't think that a rejection is rejection of you they may have just saved you a lot of

[00:28:07] painstaking like think about you you're working with people in your organization

[00:28:12] who have already been displaced typically they can't afford to make another mistake if they go

[00:28:18] somewhere and it doesn't work out three months from now when they come back to you now they've

[00:28:21] gotten job hopping on their resume so they need to understand who this organization is and that

[00:28:27] organization might have been telling you from the beginning we make decisions more slowly

[00:28:32] period we're consensus only period this is who we are yeah well to your point about mutual

[00:28:40] due diligence johnny this is why we also really double down on know yourself and know what's really

[00:28:50] important to you because what we do see is it when candidates have been displaced somebody press the

[00:28:55] pause button on their career and on their life and they get reflective it's like you know i

[00:28:59] haven't been happy there for the last two years and you know would i have ever had the

[00:29:04] gumption to leave on my own probably not but somebody did it for me you know what now i

[00:29:09] know more what i'm looking for and we really try to encourage people to have the conviction of your

[00:29:16] conscience of like what's what's important to you not just at work but in your life and how does this

[00:29:21] fit your life or not and so to your well-made point around hey this is mutual due diligence

[00:29:27] here and you need to understand the culture and and the way i say the real mark of of conviction

[00:29:34] and clarity is knowing what to say no to so a candidate needs to be able to say you know what

[00:29:41] this whole process this speaks volumes to me about how these guys roll i'm not going to be

[00:29:47] judgmental i'm just gonna say it's probably not a good fit for me not for me to that point i i

[00:29:54] oftentimes when you're not when you talked about wanting to discuss this i thought perfect timing

[00:29:59] think about interviewing like dating if you just think about it that way it's okay the first couple

[00:30:07] of dates to spend time asking questions it could be after the first day eh there's nothing i like

[00:30:13] about that person or they said that one thing but do the same thing to your point in the

[00:30:18] interviewing process you're interviewing your you're determining picking up all of the cues

[00:30:23] the words that are said and the ones that are unsaid you should be looking at it every and the

[00:30:29] second date and the third date and the fourth date none of us most of us don't rush in and make a

[00:30:33] decision about who you're going to spend your life with with two or three meetings you actually get

[00:30:40] more and more interactions and that's why some people sort of lean towards some organizations

[00:30:44] toward more interviews than less because we're trying to get you to put the same level of due

[00:30:49] diligence i like the way you're interviewing me and i'm interviewing you so this is not just us

[00:30:54] rejecting you you could reject us but amen it's time to figure out who these people are because

[00:31:02] as you know the data shows typically you spend more of your waking hours with your colleagues that

[00:31:08] work than you do your own family just because the mass says it right you sleep you work and then

[00:31:14] you have free time and there's just not a lot of free time to spend with people after working

[00:31:19] and sleep so i just would suggest that people not see yes hands down companies need to do better

[00:31:25] talent acquisition teams need to be more mindful for all the reasons that i described in the beginning

[00:31:30] the least of which is it's just not good practice it's not 21st century practice to blow people off

[00:31:36] not be responsive to be mean etc got it check and you need to all of us should be figuring out

[00:31:41] i love that idea that you shared about how to follow up with people got it the second thing though is

[00:31:49] maybe there's a gift and i keep using that term but every job that i have not gotten

[00:31:56] okay and these are jobs that i went after that i didn't get at the time i was annoyed because

[00:32:02] i'm competitive and i thought if i'm here you all are listening right this is johnny tail

[00:32:08] and then um it wasn't very long typically six months a year later i'd say gosh i dosed to pull it

[00:32:15] like this was they the they didn't reject me hell i wish i'd rejected them but some of us get so

[00:32:24] committed to wanting that job for financial reasons for ego reasons for whatever that we

[00:32:30] are too not we're not objective enough either would you say that bob

[00:32:33] no i would completely say that and i'm smiling while you're talking about being competitive not

[00:32:40] getting a job that you really really wanted and then being able to look back and go omg i

[00:32:45] i that would have been a disaster zone for me them right and the whole trajectory of my career

[00:32:53] would have been very different and and so i'm thankful for like how it ended up working out

[00:32:59] and you make a great point too about you know between just financial pressure ego whatever else

[00:33:06] fear whatever else might be acting on somebody like you really want this job but with a little bit

[00:33:14] of objectivity a little bit of perspective may not be the right fit for you so you know

[00:33:23] this whole candid experience it does go both ways which is what you always kind of bring me

[00:33:27] back to the there's not just one side of something having said all of that and i want to start to wrap

[00:33:33] us up here real quick but you know what we know is the candidates just want a timely response

[00:33:39] right so and i know you've got a little anecdote on ghosting they want a response they want a

[00:33:45] timely response right and they just want to be treated with i think all that kind of falls

[00:33:50] under the headline of respect you know so but but what happens in north america isn't what

[00:33:56] happens everywhere so you want to share a little story yes so i was watching i read something this

[00:34:01] morning that shared with me by chief staff from an organization called rest of the world or rest of

[00:34:07] world dot org and they were talking about people who would come to the united states on visas to work

[00:34:14] in the tech industry and then when the tech industry laid off from india by the way this

[00:34:17] article says they left india to come work for 160 000 a year one person did and then they

[00:34:24] were laid off last year in the tech resizing the tech industry resizing they went back to india

[00:34:29] and the guy was describing not only the pay cut he had to take the length that it took forget

[00:34:35] interviewing eight times he had to wait eight months to even get his first interview but then

[00:34:39] he said what was really interesting there is because they have 1.34 billion people if i thought

[00:34:46] i were just a number in the u.s talent acquisition process you really are in india he said the

[00:34:53] employers goes there their entire persona during the interview process is we're doing you a favor

[00:35:00] because we have so many people i got your stanford mba an engineering degree and everything but we've

[00:35:06] got thousands if not tens of thousands of people who have similar degrees and backgrounds right so

[00:35:12] it was really interesting to sometimes get get you know reoriented because we look at this a lot

[00:35:18] from a purely u.s centric standpoint the general consensus general consensus their exceptions is

[00:35:24] that the u.s talent acquisition process is actually a fairly dignified one filled with respect very

[00:35:31] responsive exceptions notwithstanding and that around the rest of the world particularly

[00:35:37] where they are the the economies are shrinking and they're far more volatile than ours

[00:35:42] that you you treat it pretty well in the u.s so again i'm not not saying there's not room for progress

[00:35:48] but i just think that we have to also be mindful of the fact that work to do but we've we've gotten a

[00:35:55] lot better than we used to with respect to talent acquisition in the hr profession yeah yeah and i

[00:36:01] appreciate everything you shared i guess i would sort of leave with you know that the employers

[00:36:07] do have brands and not just wal-mart macy's kinds of brands but brands within the ecosystem

[00:36:15] which they operate right oftentimes these candidates are going to end up at a client at a supplier

[00:36:22] like they're going to be part of your ecosystem and you want to be well represented that even

[00:36:28] though i didn't get hired by them you know what they treated me well and and i still respect them

[00:36:32] it's an organization blah blah blah same thing with referring talent same thing with

[00:36:38] reapplying may not have gotten that one director of marketing role but there's another role that's

[00:36:43] opened up and we want to make sure that if they were the you know kind of silver medal

[00:36:47] in the last one that they're still open for going through the process again and maybe being

[00:36:52] the gold medalist for this role you know and again johnny this is your speech but just

[00:36:59] doing the right thing is always the right thing and you know giving people grace that on your point

[00:37:05] talent acquisition people are doing the best within you know not a lot of resources working a lot of

[00:37:11] volume often right yep but at the same time you know candidates are real people too and

[00:37:20] you're just being empathetic in both directions not me pathetic is it me pathetic uh

[00:37:27] he's a great point

[00:37:30] yeah no i really enjoyed this topic and i hope i hope we walk away

[00:37:35] as you said the practitioners on the phone hiring managers if you're not an hr um it's still

[00:37:41] every one of us you you make the point which is you're going to see these people again in snowy

[00:37:47] and therefore why not do right by people even if you frankly even if you never were gonna they

[00:37:53] were never going to be a customer or whatever why get in the business of not treating people the

[00:37:58] way you'd like to be treated amen so i think i can't end on a better note than that johnny great to see

[00:38:03] you as always thank you for your wisdom everybody who's listening or watching the work wire this week

[00:38:09] thank you so much if you're on youtube or your favorite podcast please rate review subscribe

[00:38:15] and if you've got any ideas that you would like to see us cover on a future work wire episode

[00:38:20] you can email me at bobbycareer.club and we would love to hear what you guys would like to talk about

[00:38:24] so with that johnny i wish you all have a great rest of your week you too happy new year again my

[00:38:29] friend into the audience thank you so much check out career.club for personalized help with your

[00:38:34] job search visit shrm.org to become part of the largest human resources organization worldwide