Silver & bronze candidates, are you managing them?

(StreamYard had a moment putting this out Live, which is rare, and thankfully the audio is great!)

Silver & Bronze Candidates talks transcribed by otter.ai

Hello, it’s Katrina Collier here again with another five minutes. Thank you so much for everyone who’s giving me feedback and sending me messages and encouraging me on this is actually the fourth one and I think quite mind-blown by the feedback. Of course, right on cue the builders right outside have started making a lot of noise. So I’m hoping you won’t hear them, hopefully, hopefully.

0:24
This one is sort of an add on to the one that we had about ghosting. I’m on a definite rant about ghosting at the moment, I spoke on Global TA Day about it. I’m forever talking about it. I’ve done updates about it. I believe it needs to stop. That’s just my opinion. Of course, many recruiters would like the candidates to stop first I feel that recruiters in the companies need to stop first. That’s, I believe where it started. And if we can stop it, sorry for whoever just took offence to that, but if we start there, then it’s going to help.

0:56
But I got some really, really interesting feedback. I’m not going to say from who because she’s not ready to put it publicly yet, but I love what she sent me in a private message. “A lot of what’s broken about recruiting is based on what people’s companies and direct managers” and by this, she means agency managers “celebrate. Meaning if it’s a big fee that gets you on the leaderboard, not the number of candidates who you have deep relationships with or have gotten back to, guess what people do with their time. It takes someone special, who cares about people to proactively do the things that matter to others with no internal recognition. What people don’t realise is your reputation stays with you.”

1:34
I used to say that years ago all the time, people didn’t come to Spring Technology, they came to Katrina Collier, they trusted me to do their recruitment. And I’ve been saying this for years and it’s all the way through The Robot-Proof Recruiter. I’m constantly talking about it’s YOU, it’s your reputation. You’re the person opening the door, either directly to your company, or to your agency. But I love this bit. This was the bit that she really got me on and I am going to get her on The #SocialRecruiting Show I am.

2:01
“The second reason I feel this happens is because of risk, risk in telling that number three” so that bronze applicant, if you will, candidate, even silver for that matter, “that they are number three and having them take another job when the recruiter wants to keep them warm. This does play into your trust and relationship that I was talking about. That another angle to think about. I would venture to guess that many recruiters leave candidates hanging because they want to keep them in the process.”

2:31
And that was the bit I wanted to talk about. You can’t keep people hanging! What we do is based on trust, and it’s kind of extraordinary, because trust takes a really long time to build, right, and seconds to lose. You’ve had it you’ve built trust with a friend and they just do one thing and it’s gone like permanently gone. I mean, think of if you’ve been betrayed in a relationship, for example, all those years of trust go and here we are recruiters and we’re trying to gain the trust of somebody, their career, they’re putting their career in our hands, to bring them into the company or into our client’s company. We’re trying to do that in a heartbeat. And then we kind of muck around with them.

3:14
So it’s a big deal for us to gain trust and deserve trust. And again I talk about it all the way through The Robot-Proof Recruiter. It’s so so important. It’s why it’s the first thing on the Mastermind. And again, [I’m going to keep doing that the wrong way. This thing’s backwards.] Pod three is launching on September 30, and we talk about trust and why it’s important that when it comes to communication with those second and third level, you know, the runners up, if you will. If you don’t talk to people, if you’re not honest with people, you’re not going to build trust.

3:47
People understand there are 100 people going for the one role or whatever the number might be. Okay, unless you happen to be recruiting for a unicorn, which does happen, of course. There are plenty of people who are still struggling with roles like that. But in general, most people are aware there are lots of people going through the roles. Now, the more honest and open you are with them about where they are in the application process and how they’re getting on, the better it’s going to be. There is no point disappearing on somebody who is in that third place, because they may well end up getting the job. But if you kept in touch with them, if you advise them, if you coach them, if you gave them support, then it might all turn around completely.

4:29
But not only that, that human being is going to go somewhere else at some point. And someone else is going to say to them “we’re recruiting for more of people like them, who do you know?” and they will come to you if you have looked after them, if you have gained their trust if you’ve been open in your communication. This isn’t complicated. This is really simple. Just be honest. What’s the absolute worst that’s going to happen? They’re in the third position anyway. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’ll go look, you know what, I’m going to keep looking. They’re doing that anyway. People are looking at more than one role. They’re not just talking to you. But if you’re really honest with them, you’re going to gain the most trust from them. And they’re going to want to be honest with you. And that’s what you want a two-way relationship all about honesty.

5:12
I’m out of time already. These five minutes go awfully fast. I’m going to come back to the perimenopause chat if I do happen to pop on here over the weekend, which I think I will as well because I want to talk more about that personal side. I’ve got some resources to share for that. So thank you for everyone who has given me feedback on that and I shall see you all very soon.br