#210 Recruitment Theory (7) | The Ultimate Guide to Handling Applicants
Lately, rather than being a PR manager, I've been doing a lot of things as a recruitment manager and have been focusing solely on recruitment activities, so today I'd like to talk about recruitment. Among those, I will introduce the most important aspect:
communication with applicants.
What is communication with applicants...?
What should you be careful about when communicating with applicants during the recruitment process? I asked ChatGPT again, and it gave me five precise points of advice, so this time I will use a method of reflecting on how well we are doing based on ChatGPT's answers.
1. Maintain a professional attitude
Recruiters must always maintain a professional attitude. In all communication with applicants, such as interviews and email exchanges, try to use polite and respectful language.
This is extremely reasonable. After all, we are human resources and recruitment professionals for the company, and we represent the company, so this is a point that must be observed, but! I don't actually handle the communication with applicants myself. Basically, my two loyal recruitment subordinates are the ones handling the numerous applications from "new graduates," "mid-career hires," and "outsourced workers (via agencies)." I do follow up on emails, but they are able to handle things without any particular issues.
And my recruitment subordinate, M-chan, uses a frank tone with some people to close the distance in communication, and since I think this is really good, I take the initiative to instruct her, "That way of handling it is fine!" Since she sends properly polite messages in normal situations, and this is "handling that she thinks is good for closing the distance" on top of that, there is no problem at all.
2. Respect the candidate's privacy
In the recruitment process, it is extremely important to respect the applicant's privacy. Please be careful not to leak confidential information such as the applicant's personal information or work history.
This is also a matter of course. It's so obvious that there's nothing to write about this, so let's move on.
3. Prompt replies
If an applicant sends an interview request or a question, it is important to reply promptly. To avoid making the applicant anxious, try to respond as quickly as possible.
This is extremely important. And our recruitment team is
able to respond quite quickly. Simply put, when I am
in the position of a job seeker, I want to know the results of an interview quickly, so I try to reply without keeping them in suspense. Of course, there are exceptions, but generally, the decision is made after the interview is finished, so I am conscious of responding promptly. By the way, our company has always been quick to respond; when I had my final interview, I received the job offer while on the train home, haha.
Also, I try not to let weekends get in the way. This part is important, isn't it?
4. Provide feedback
Providing feedback to applicants is extremely important in the recruitment process. Recruiters are expected to provide feedback to applicants at the appropriate time and offer suggestions or advice for improvement when necessary.
We do this quite a bit as well. I mentioned before that we create an "offer letter," and we continue to perform this ritual. Since the beginning of this year, we have
been able to achieve job offer acceptance from almost 100% of our offer letters, and we explain that starting from our "reaction during the document screening phase," haha. We also provide feedback for the first interview, aptitude tests, and the final selection, giving all kinds of feedback.
We also provide partial feedback to those who are not selected, but I want to design this part better. Rather than saying "low ability = not selected," it is overwhelmingly more common that people are not selected because
the applicant's background does not match the current department or they are a necessary presence but now is not the right timing. It is important to provide solid feedback on those points so that they might want to apply again for their next challenge or when the timing is right.
5. Be fair
It is extremely important to be fair to applicants during the recruitment process. Please be careful to judge all applicants by the same standards and avoid discriminatory behavior in the selection process.
This is also a natural value... but! Honestly, the perspectives and standards can change depending on the interviewer, so we must unify the rules around this. Actually, I felt this was an issue, so we had a meeting last week. It was about
how to determine the judgment points (though we didn't really reach a conclusion, haha).
With that said, Chat GPT has summarized it like this.
As described above, in interactions with applicants, it is required to always maintain a professional attitude, respect the applicant's privacy, strive for prompt responses, provide feedback, and be fair.
Thank you again today, Chat GPT!!
Summary
I have had Chat GPT say almost everything I wanted to say.
If there is anything to add, it would be the importance of creating appeal to get them excited.
That applies to everything—the business, the employees, the benefits, and more—but the goal is to convey the company's charm in abundance, make them think, "I want to join this company!," and even if that doesn't work out,"I want to grow and join this company!"is the best possible outcome.
To achieve that, every little action counts, but high-quality output and business growth are also important, which means that truly everything connects to sparking interest in applicants.
I must straighten my collar and continue to do my best in our recruitment activities!