Poor interviews hurt companies
Bad recruitment policy and disgruntled unsuccessful applicants can affect a company’s reputation
Poor recruitment practices and lack of good candidate care can directly affect an organisation’s bottom line, according to a research from search and selection firm Pohlen Partners.
Such research has been done in the United States and United Kingdom, and this inspired the firm to do it here too. The findings for New Zealand as regards to bad candidate care came out stronger than for the US.
Nicola Pohlen of Pohlen Partners says: “This research was done in New Zealand. We compared the results with a US survey.
“What was surprising was the concerns were more exaggerated in New Zealand. We think that was probably due to our smaller, relationshipdriven market. More than half of respondents said they would not even buy the company’s products and services after their experience, and a good number said they’d tell others not to as well.
“This really is something that any leader in an organisation should be interested in.”
Those surveyed had applied for roles between January 2015 and June 2016. More than half (55 per cent) of the respondents had a negative experience during the recruitment process.
Speaker, stress expert and critical incident professional Monique Knight says the effects of bad candidate experience can even be long term. “Companies need to remember that the people they interview are developing their careers. They will in time get promotions. I’ve heard of it happen that someone who’s had a bad experience applying for a job has later been in a position of possibly offering a contract to the company concerned. The result? No deal.”
Knight says it comes down to the company’s reputation as a fair and equitable employer.
“A candidate’s experience is bound to affect the organisation sometime. This can also affect the people involved in the employment process when they themselves are looking for another job. Imagine how a candidate treated badly would react if one of the people who did that landed up being their interviewee? That happens. It’s a small market.”
Pohlen says the research found there were five cluster areas that outline the feedback of poor candidate experience. They are:
Communication — minimal interaction.
Timeliness — lengthy process and not keeping with the promised timeline.
Role and business needs — too much fluidity.
Lack of interviewer expertise and respect for the candidate.
Lack of feedback when unsuccessful.
“These highlight elements important to candidates and give organisations components for consideration in their hiring practices.”
Pohlen says the results of the research include internal hiring teams as well as search and selection recruitment teams.
“Key messages that came out are that the candidates have a wide reach — their experience has an effect on the company’s reputation and brand.”
She says: “We were quite surprised at the response and the fact that people seemed to feel really strongly about it. I think what was interesting, and one of the reasons we ran the research, is that if some people do not like their experience with a company, they’re going an extra step by not buying the product and telling others not to.”
This affects a company’s reputation as an employer — and may make others not apply.
“It definitely affects reputation. We knew this in our own heads but this research gave tangible evidence to what we suspected.”
Talent attraction is key in any company and should be addressed at board level, Pohlen says. “Customer experience and innovation cannot be mechanised — it’s about the human component. Attracting talent is vital. Mutual respect is needed.”
Improving candidate experience is vital. “Some organisations are providing a good recruitment experience and they’re standing out. For others, it’s quite easy to improve things.”
Pohlen suggests organisations combine company resources to create employment strategies: “Don’t leave it all to the Human Resources department on its own to do this. Usually there are a number of areas affected in hiring.”
She says plan in advance a suitable recruitment experience — even identify timelines for candidates. This is so they know how it will play out — if there’s a second interview, psychometric testing, whether the process will be a week or month.
“It’s remembering that everybody is busy and candidates commit a lot of time to these process.
“Train all hiring managers with interviewing skills and candidate expectation. That’s about having the conversation about how they are representing the organisation.”
Organisations need to have the courtesy of acknowledging applications, calling people back and of course a key element is feedback after being interviewed.
Also, before starting the search for candidates, the business needs to know what the role parameters are and what the business needs, rather than changing this mid-process.