Candidates For Hire Are Assessing You Too – Make A Good First Impression
When it comes to interviewing potential new hires, the business is under assessment just as much as the candidate. As The Guardian outlines, strong employer brand is crucial in attracting the right sort of talent. If you can’t make a good impression on potential hires, you’ll never end up attracting the right sort of people for your business. This is ever more relevant in the age of social media, where interviewees can – and will – give your company a rating online after every single interaction. Making a great first impression is key, will help you to attract new hires, and starts simply enough – with appearance.
The look factor
Office design is a long-standing factor of importance when it comes to commanding respect from employees and clients. Inc magazine outlines how an office’s appearance is often something Googled by prospective talent, and in particular how it lines up with your values. There’s a reason that the open-minded, free-thinking tech offices of the mid-noughties were famed for their open plan design and use of beanbags, for instance. This, and hygiene, are two key factors. Having a professionally cleaned and demonstrably hygienic working environment demonstrates that your premises can meet cleanliness, health and safety requirements, and that you have an active concern for the comfort and wellbeing of interviewees.
Timeliness and organization
The hiring process itself can be as much of an insight into your company as any prepared information made available to a candidate. BetterTeam highlights how your core business competencies, including timeliness and organization, can make a hugely positive difference – even for failed candidates. Building a good reputation by being down-to-earth, and showing through your own conduct that the candidate’s time is just important as your own, will help to foster a good relationship with the candidate. Post-interview, regardless of whether you hire or not, provide feedback – accept that this is a two-way street, and you can make a real impact on someone’s prospects, either in or outside of your organization.
Rethinking the process
Interviews have a habit of becoming tiring – quickly. Tired old ways of sounding out candidates, such as through asking, ‘What are your strengths and weaknesses?’ are decried by the Harvard Business Review as being unlikely to find any real value. Changing how you hire, and looking to challenge candidates in fair ways (no trick questions) is instead something that can drastically change the quality of your hires. Once again, this can build brand image, and help candidates understand your company and feel valued. A real examination of their skills, talents and feelings on the work you conduct is something to be treasured, and something which can help to greater define the reputation and role of your company.
Bringing these tracts together – appearance, organization and an incisive, new approach to questioning – will put your company right at the front of your applicant’s mind. A good first impression will help to boost your brand and attract the right talent – time and time again.