Q&A : "Can great candidate experience scale?"

"Can great candidate experience scale?"

I was presenting to a group of experienced recruiters last week, a bit of an "ask me anything" type of forum. One person raised their hand and asked me this question. I quickly jumped to an answer, thinking about all the candidates I hear from every day, the ones so incredibly frustrated with not hearing any news, even when they're three plus rounds deep in a process, even when they’re told they're the number one candidate. I quickly answered a confident "No," that it takes a special kind of recruiter who cares about people and won't compromise their values. That I use all the extra time between calls, early mornings, late nights and weekends to get through my entire inbox to make sure every email and InMail from a real person gets a real response. I text candidates between interviews; we prep and share feedback. Good candidate experience is highly personal and doesn't scale. 

But then I woke up the next day regretting my knee jerk reaction of "No." I've seen candidate experience scale. At my last search firm, my team was known for it. I had candidates reach out to me to compliment people on my team; they were persistent without being pushy. I saw firsthand how candidates trusted my team and brought them into their thought process about which offer to accept, a type of transparency that has to be earned.

So how did we do it? For one, we hired the right people: recruiters with shared values. An experienced search professional can teach the retained search process. I can't teach someone to care about other humans. The second point is boring but needs to be said: someone who is organized and on top of details. Third, more than anything, it was our team culture. What did I follow up on as a manager? What did we all care about? Placements, revenue, sure. But most of the conversation was about the day to day wins. Getting back to everyone. Preparing candidates and clients before interviews. Going deep on feedback to know how candidates and clients were feeling about each other, preparing for those in depth conversations. I shared a number of personal stories in my book, "Search in Plain Sight," with many quotes from my team. Candidates let us into their lives so we could game plan together. 

Once recruiting leaders talk about the "in-between", everyone else does. If we only celebrate big fees or placements, that's what the culture will become: transactional, and more about revenue than humans. 

Everyone matters. It's something to hire for, and also something to celebrate to scale. 

As for my old team, I love watching their journeys and the paths they've all taken. They're the best.

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