TREAT THE CANDIDATE AS YOU WOULD YOUR RESTAURANT’S GUESTS.

I used to pop the hood of my old ‘72 Dodge Dart Demon, “Jenny” and shove a pencil in the carburetor to open up the butter fly valve. This was before fuel injection. It would solve the flooding problem when I got to aggressive with the gas pedal starting the car. The pop, pop, BANG, pop releasing from the tail pipe and the occasional fire flash from the carburetor is pretty much what our economy is doing now. We know it is getting ready to kick over but we must endure the sputtering fireworks of ignition first.

Last month I talked about a short list of what the candidate can do when interviewing. This time I want to talk about the client.

I was conducting a search for a client and for whatever reason it took a long time to get back with the candidate at every step in the process. Yes for sure there were others being considered but the amount of time without a courtesy call had the candidate thinking after all was said and done. ”Do I really want to work for this company? Is this how they treat the people who are working for them now?” Treating someone professionally is a two-way street. Even if a company does not choose a candidate they have an obligation to leave them with a good feeling about the process, and the idea they valued the candidate for wanting to interview and join their team.

One of my clients who I have worked with for 4 years now said it this way. ”Jim, if we do not select a person to join the team I want them to at least go away from the process knowing we are a decent caring company. And if anyone of their friends asked about us they would not throw us under the bus. They would speak highly of our process, our company, and how we treated them with respect. I want them to feel they can come into one our restaurants and be a valued guest in the future.”

As a recruiter it is always difficult to present a company when they have a bad reputation in the market for how they treat their people. A good thought for the client is to treat the candidate with the same care they use with their guests. It helps turn a negative for the candidate who is not choosen into a positive and defines your company as a great place to work!

Jim Coromel

Check out my ramblings at "Coromel's View" www.jimcoromel.wordpress.com