Words many recruiters have uttered in their time. But how pushy can/should you be?
You’ve got a brilliant candidate that you’ve been speaking to for some time now. An amazing role comes in and they’re at the forefront of your mind. You pitch the job to them and they’re super keen “I really love what they’re about, the brands great and I’d love to work for a company that size”. Great, details go straight over to the client and they want to see them.
This is where it’s key to get to grips with how far down the line they are with other opportunities. As a new recruiter, I personally feel there’s only so much digging you can do without p****** off your candidate.
Your priority is what competition you’ve got. They like your brand, but do they like the other brand more?
There’s times when candidates simply don’t want to discuss their other opportunities with you – this could be for several reasons but these are the most likely:
- You haven’t built a rapport and you’ve popped the question too early
- They’re worried about what we could do with the information they give us, e.g. contact current employers or affect their chances of getting the position
A couple of days before the interview you call the candidate to prep them and answer any questions they may have. As far as you’re aware, they’re still really keen but they’ve told you they have a couple of 2nd stage interviews next week and they don’t want to say where (and you certainly can’t make them).
Then the worst thing happens. Your candidate emails you the night before the interview to say they’ve accepted another job offer. What can/should you do? Chances are, if you followed the process correctly, there’s nothing more you could have done.
Whilst I absolutely love what I do here at PIE there’s always a frustration when a scenario like the above occurs. However, you can’t control everything and sometimes, you just have to accept that.
It’s important to note that the best way to prevent cancellations and no shows is to truly invest time in building rapport with a candidate, selling the job opportunity to the candidate, and gaining a firm buy-in from them regarding their interest in working at the company. By building rapport with a candidate, you can earn their trust, learn about their career goals and how those goals align with the current opportunity. It’s equally as important to be able to articulate what the career path is in the company, so you can provide candidates with a bigger picture of where this current position might lead them.
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