Dallas Executive Search - Recruiting Can Damage Company Reputation

Today companies spend a huge amount of time, effort and money to build and maintain their reputation and brand name in the marketplace.

A company’s reputation has an enormous impact on the growth and success of the business. The importance of developing positive relationships with customers, vendors, employees, community leaders, the media, and a variety of other groups, represents a significant investment and should be closely guarded.

Often Overlooked

One of the most important (and often overlooked) groups a company must consider when strengthening its reputation is the candidates who are contacted by the company’s recruiting agents. In many cases, these people are asked to consider an opportunity with the company, and many of them are invited for interviews with one or more of the company’s representatives.

The Problem

Unfortunately, many candidates are misinformed or oversold about the particular opening they are asked to consider. Other candidates are not provided meaningful feedback regarding their candidacy, and some people receive no communication after an initial contact or even after an interview.

In his recent book, Deciding Who Leads, Joseph Daniel McCool provides a number of interesting insights about the executive search profession. He notes that the profession has to admit its shortcomings in how candidates are treated and the impact of this poor treatment on the recruiter and the client company.

He states that:

“Job candidates judge a potential employer by the humanity that is extended (or most often not extended) by people they believe - rightly or wrongly - should give them some consideration.”

This ill will may be generated by internal, as well as external, recruiters. Most recruiters are not malicious or intentional in their misinformation or lack of communication. Generally, they are very busy, and they have other searches, job orders, or deadlines which lead to this lapse in quality service. In addition, many people don’t like to deliver the news to a candidate that he/she has not been selected for a position; thus, they may avoid this uncomfortable task, usually at the expense of the company’s reputation. Whatever the reason, many candidates drift away from the recruiting process with a negative impression of the company.

The Solution

A company must make a very deliberate effort to avoid these pitfalls in its recruiting process.

- Make sure that the information shared with candidates is accurate and timely.

- Don’t oversell the opportunity on the front end and disappoint the candidate as the process moves forward.

- Make every effort to ensure that all aspects of the process are handled professionally and that all candidates are extended some basic common courtesy.

If an external resource is used by the company to search for a position,

- Make sure that the executive search firm, recruiter, or headhunter has a long track record of treating each candidate with the highest level of professionalism and consideration.

- Even go as far as asking for testimonials/references from candidates that were not selected for a position represented by the recruiter. That person should be able to speak favorably about his/her experience with the recruiter and the company offering the position.

In today’s market, a positive recruiting experience for all candidates will truly distinguish a company from its competitors and will go a long way to further improve the company’s reputation in the marketplace.

Carl J. Taylor & Co. is an executive search firm based in Dallas. For over 20 years, the firm has successfully completed challenging search assignments for clients of all sizes in Texas and around the country.

For more information about this or other executive search related topics, please call Carl Taylor at (972) 490-7697 or email him at ctaylor@carltaylorco.com. The company website is www.carltaylorco.com.

Contact Information

Carl Taylor

President

Carl J. Taylor & Co.

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