October 22, 2023
Given the situation in the last four weeks, millions globally have lost jobs. With several businesses making cuts to sustain, the job market is tight. Both the recruitment agencies and internal recruitment departments are inundated with thousands of applications from candidates looking for jobs.
The challenge on hand for recruiters is how to help candidates? There aren’t many jobs for recruiters to discuss with candidates, neither any pipeline as it stands. But, is not responding to the candidate applications the right approach? Candidate care is most imperative in crisis and ensuring support to the candidate in such times reaps great benefits for every business. It’s also the time to demonstrate kindness. “In a world where one can be anything, be kind.”
Agreed, recruiters can’t place candidates due to lack of jobs. Here are six ways Recruiters can help candidates.
Listening is an underrated skill. Every other person has a story, especially in times like these. People like to be heard. If they’ve lost a job or are in the process of redundancy, they want someone to hear them out.
Answering candidate calls and hearing them out is the simplest of steps one can follow. Also, reach out to the candidates on your internal database. Talk to them; how are they currently doing? How are they handling the situation? What is their current status of employment, etc.?
Listening is the most important part of candidate care. Demonstrate empathy.
These are tiring times. Especially for people who are out of jobs or on furlough. When candidates send across their CVs/Resumes, they are seeking help. Candidates are looking upon recruiters as a ray of hope in helping them find their next job. This is a question of livelihood.
In reality, recruiters might not be in a position to help them find a job. However, acknowledging the receipt of their CV and thanking them for reaching out is the least one can do. A standard email template embedded on the ATS can be used to respond if recruiters don’t have time to personalise each email.
Recruiters might not have jobs on hand to work upon. However, they might know some other agency or a company who might be currently recruiting. Every business is hard-pressed with reducing costs where they can. With the increased supply of candidates in the market, not every company will partner with agency to help find talent.
In this scenario, recruiters can direct candidates to potential employers. An approach like this ends up creating a positive impact with both the company and the candidate. When the situation improves, the company might remember this gesture and partner with the Recruiter to help fill their vacancies.
Recruiters review hundreds of CVs on an average week. Recruiters know what the Hiring Managers and decision-makers’ like/dislike on the CV. Recruiters also have many templates which can be shared with the candidates looking for jobs.
There is hardly any effort to be put in here. Helping candidates, in this case, is natural. Recruiters can set up a landing page on their website with guidelines on how to write a CV. They can also post multiple CV writing templates candidates can download from the site. Recruiters can also help and direct them with CV formatting.
Once the candidate has written their CV, recruiters can review the CV and give feedback. Remember, this one small deed can help a candidate find a new job. When they end up getting an interview/job with your help, a year down the line, they might end up becoming your client.
Lastly, helping candidates with their LinkedIn profiles can equally benefit in them networking and gaining employment.
We are all working from home. Everyone has time on hand. Given that most recruiters operate in a particular niche, recruiters can identify sector-specific training material and post it on their website. Sharing the details via email and followed up with a phone call is the easiest thing to do.
There are many online training platforms. Recruiters have to identify the most relevant to their sector, write a blog post and post it on their website (of course with source and credits to the respective online training company).
When people face crisis, the ability to think clearly is impacted. Recruiters can reach out to the candidates and guide them on skill upgrading, alternative professions matching their skills, other jobs they can do to sail thru’ troubled waters etc.
Jobs are scarce. Every company who will recruit will have many candidates to shortlist from. The market is no longer candidate-driven. Every candidate will need to give in their 150% to stand out. Just having skills alone will not help them crack the interview and secure the job.
Recruiters have an opportunity here to assist candidates in preparing them for interviews. There is ton of material available online on how to prepare for interviews. However, developing a customised interview preparation material in line with the industry sector helps. Recruiters know their areas, the way Hiring Managers, Talent Acquisition Heads, etc. make decisions on candidates.
Develop a customised training module. Conducting mock interviews and preparing candidates for future interviews can make the Recruiter stand out in a market like this. It not only helps the candidate secure and crack the interview, but also influence the client in hiring the agency to fill future vacancies.
Treat candidates with respect. Don’t ignore them because they can’t be placed. Helping candidates by listening to them, with their CVs, etc. might not necessarily help them secure a job. However, they will remember who helped them and who did not in this crisis. These candidates might very well end up being your potential placement or a client in the near future.
I will end the blog with this quote by Maya Angelou “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
