“This is Suzanne from ABC Company.  I’m calling to invite you to a phone interview for the position with us you recently applied for.  Please call me.  I look forward to talking with you.” What job applicant hasn’t heard those words and become excited?  Just the call you’ve been waiting for.  And the job?  You know you’re perfect for it.  You meet every single one of the qualifications and there’s no doubt in your mind you can do it.  And the company?  What you know about them is impressive. Recently, we learned about a situation where a job applicant received tha

Marketing.  Sales.  Customer service.  Branding.   Recruiting.  The customer experience.  See a link?  If you don’t, you’re missing the boat.  And you may be putting your company in jeopardy. All companies have a brand.  It doesn’t matter if that company is a Fortune 50 global publicly-traded corporation or a privately held regional company.   Or if the company is a family owned and operated business or a one-person entrepreneurial start-up.  They all have brands.  And brands are a direct result of image.  And many other efforts.   Certainly strategic and integrated m

Great article I had to share.  The author talks about some wonderful companies who really understand the importance of a good candidate experience and how it relates to branding.  Now they get it. http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2013/02/05/seven-habits-of-highly-effective-candidate-experiences/

I’ve talked before about the importance of your brand.  And you’ll hear me talk about it again.  It’s that important. Branding isn’t just for the marketing folks.  It isn’t something you think about on occasion.  It isn’t just a corporate Brand Standards Guide sitting on a shelf (or more likely on your company intranet these days).  It should be clearly interwoven with the culture of the company.  What’s the image you want to portray about the company?  How do you want customers, prospective customers, vendors, suppliers, business partners, the community, employees and

We’re coming up on that time of the year where we all make New Year’s Resolutions.   How about making one in 2013 that can have a positive impact on others throughout the entire year? If you’re a recruiter, make it your practice to get back to every qualified job candidate in a timely manner.  Thank them for their time interviewing, either with you or the company.  Let them know they are not being considered further.    Make a brief call, or simply develop a standard e-mail to send out once they are no longer in the running.  It gives the candidate some closure.   And even t

Talk about mixed messages. One day the news reports “Unemployment on Downward Trend” and Plenty of Jobs Available”.  The next week we see “Employers Have Difficult Time Finding Qualified Applicants” and “The Upward Creep of Unemployment”.   No wonder we’re  uncertain about what’s going on with the economy and jobs. I was reading an interesting article the other day written by Lorraine Mirabella of The Baltimore Sun.  She wrote about the frustration job applicants experience through the online hiring systems.  And it’s so very true.  While Applicant Tracking Syst

Let’s talk branding.  My favorite subject. I’ve had individuals tell me that branding is for those “marketing folks”.    Recruiters and human resource leaders don’t need to be concerned with it.  The marketing people will handle it. Think again.  Branding is much broader than marketing.  Yes, typically it’s the marketing leaders that  think the most about it.  They’re the individuals that really truly understand the importance of it.  And the value of it.  But branding should be on the minds of everyone in any company.  All the time. One of the companies I gr

I find it quite fascinating.  The multitude of articles that are written on the Candidate Experience.  The seventeen steps an organization must follow to give candidates a positive experience.  The twelve items recruiters need to do.  Eight stages that job candidates go through and how to handle each one for a positive outcome.  Applying analytics.  Measuring the candidate against specific criteria.  Engaging the hiring manager.  Owning the experience.  On and on and on. Don’t get me wrong.  These are great articles written by very talented individuals.  They contain sage  adv

I’ve spoken previously about the negative impacts on a company brand that can occur as a result of a lack of common courtesy.  In my mind it’s very interrelated.  To some companies however, it’s not.  A person being treated poorly by an organization during the job interview process will walk away with a negative impression of the brand.  And many times that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they were not selected for the position.  It simply has to do with the fact that they were not treated courteously.  They had poor communication from the recruiter, the hiring mana

There is more and more focus these days on understanding the importance of the Candidate Experience. If you haven’t yet applied, the deadline is tomorrow (June 15) for the Candidate Experience Awards.  The CandE awards is an annual competition process where 1) Employers can benchmark their candidate experience against other companies and 2) employers can participate in a 3rd party survey of their own employment candidates to understand what they think of the process.  While it’s a competition, it also provides feedback.  And that can be extremely helpful. Here’s a link to the