Candidates Think the Way You Hire Is the Way You Manage

The good candidates you want will come from practices as busy as yours. So, shouldn’t they understand if the hiring process doesn’t happen in the timeframe that you said it would?

Or think of it this way: Are you fond of that hole you shot in your foot?

We all generalize. It’s part of how we get along in life. The actual wreck may be a couple miles further down the highway. But, when the traffic is moving over a lane or two, you get the idea that something is going on.

Sometimes, we generalize inaccurately. Being served burnt toast at that breakfast place you wanted to try doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a second chance.

With no information to the contrary, though, your candidate assumes that what he sees during the hiring process is the way it is at your office pretty much all the time. What can look to you like minor slip-ups are magnified beyond reality and will undermine the positive impression you need to make.

How many times have you told your candidate you’d get back to her by Thursday, but you didn’t follow up until next Monday, or even Tuesday? How often does a candidate arrive for an interview, the person he was supposed to meet with isn’t there and a suitable replacement can’t be quickly arranged? Do you tell your candidate to expect an offer by the end of the week, and it’s not actually finished until the end of next week?

These may be momentarily embarrassing, but you take them in the context of everything you have on your plate at the time. Your candidate doesn’t, however. She is focused on one thing: how you respond and whether you can be counted on to do what you say you will do when you say you will do it.

When you must fight hard to attract and hire quality candidates, you can’t afford to lose an advantage simply because you made easily avoidable mistakes.