Competing to Win the Best Candidate

We all know that people need to compete hard to win your job, but you also need to compete, to be sure of landing the best candidate. The interview is the place where competitions are won or lost.

Planting Seeds

Plan to answer candidate questions fully in an engaged way, selling them something positive about the business during your answer. The notion of being sold to makes the individual feel valued and wanted.

Maintaining rapport and engagement

The end of the interview is another opportunity to build rapport. Walk each candidate out to the door and use that time to find out more about them, showing them that you care. These extra minutes could make all the difference if your candidate has multiple offers, as they’ll be more attached to you.

Manage Expectations

At the point of parting, set clear expectations about when the candidate will hear from you. It is vital that you then stick to the timeframe that you’ve set.

Do Your Admin

Immediately after the candidate leaves, take two minutes to wrap the interview while it’s fresh in your mind. Give your positive and negative feedback to HR or the recruiting agent, confirming the timeframe. If you’re working alone, put a note in your diary to contact the candidate, and jot down your feedback. Later, when the reminder pops up, you can phone candidates with feedback points fresh from the interview.

No news isn’t good news.

Things can change and processes can become elongated. When this happens, communicate it to everyone involved. The fastest way to lose someone is when they don’t hear anything. For you as the employer, no news going out is disastrous news, it increases the likelihood of losing your candidate.

Give Feedback

Candidates really value constructive feedback, so consider how and what you feed back to them.

If it’s a YES, then sing their praises as to why that is the case. Compliment them, say why they were brilliant and make them feel special. Even if they don’t accept your role, they’ll still have an amazing impression of your business.

If it’s a NO, then no communication, no reason is not an option. At Andrew James Specialist Recruitment, we use the 80/20 rule. Spend 80% of the conversation on what they did well and what you really appreciated about their experience. In the remaining 20%, give tangible reasons why it’s not moving forward currently.