Designing a successful recruitment process
Most days I spend my time looking at 3 things — recruitment, design, and rare 80’s funk Gems. Today I’m going to write about two of them.
Most days around 15:45 I hit ‘the wall’. Marathon runners get it -turns out I can achieve this whilst stationary!
Whilst runners push through it, I down tools & hop on my bike to clear my mind. This is when it hit me.
A great deal of Product Design is simplifying complex problems…this is also what recruiters spend most their time doing.
I’m not the first to highlight the importance of candidate experience (CX). And yes we get it UX Messiahs UX is everywhere; but as someone who speaks to designers all day, it amazes me how many companies still manage to get CX so wrong!
Many teams are wise to the importance of CX and have fantastic recruitment procedures if you are one of these; stop reading here.
If you feel you may not be or are just starting to grow and would like some insights here’s a few simple tips on how to improve your CX, and why it’s so important.
Firstly, explain the candidates ‘user journey’. Clarify how many stages of interview is a necessity. But it’s important to explain the purpose of each one, the stakeholders you will speak too, and how each stage is assessed.
Provide a time-frame of how long a process is likely to take. Managing expectations is a huge part of keeping candidates happy and engaged. Leaving people in the dark for weeks after 3 stages of interview is a really bad look for your business.
Letting someone know you’re dealing a high number of applicant’s & there’s multiple stakeholder opinions to align on takes 2 seconds. Just copy and paste the above!
Successful product design is a result of iterations informed by data & user research. Treat your applicants as users — ask them for some feedback. They are the most qualified people to inform you of how their CX was and how you can improve it. If we’re looking at recruitment as a product then candidates can provide great insights into yours!
Communication, Communication, Communication…I wrote this 3 times because it’s really important. Its also the pain point candidates mention the most! It relates to my first 3 points and is painstakingly obvious; but as someone who’s an expert in CX ‘user research’ it’s where so many of companies go wrong.
Kendrick Lamar said it best, be humble. This is coming from both friends in the design community and candidates I’ve worked with this year. I’m not saying everyone does it, but research confirms it happens, so let me elaborate…
We get it you have a winning mind-set & you hire the best engineers, marketing minds, product people and designers needed to build the best product. However potential teammates omitting a you can’t sit with us vibe until the offer is made never washes well. Again its simple but I’m only writing this because I’ve heard it many times, leave the egos outside the interview!
Off boarding is really important. To finish a process with no feedback makes for one unhappy candidate with nothing positive to say about your company. Communities are tight, everyone talks. A short, personalized email will go a very long way.
It’s increasingly hard to find decent candidates so be sure to leave doors open and keep in touch with those people who may have fallen just short. In the fast moving world of tech you may well be hiring them soon!
A recruitment process is a very clear indication of how things run inside a company. Understandably things may get a bit chaotic time to time. Regardless, first impressions mean a lot — make sure your interview process is a clean and organised one.
