Speaker 1: The money show Business Unusual.
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Speaker 2: dot today to switch and save today. So I don't
Speaker 2: know if you remember the last time you went for
Speaker 2: a job interview, And I've noticed on LinkedIn. Maybe it's
Speaker 2: just my feed, but there've been plenty of stories from
Speaker 2: people who've explained how badly they were treated. The person
Speaker 2: interviewing them doesn't care. They get there, they're told it's
Speaker 2: not happening, They go for an interview and they never
Speaker 2: ever hear anything back. Adviita and I do is the
Speaker 2: Africa MDA Jackhammer Global Adviita Good evening. I suppose one
Speaker 2: of the reasons this is happening is that in our context,
Speaker 2: if you have a job to give, you have so
Speaker 2: many applicants. There's so many people who are so desperate.
Speaker 1: Exactly. So I think the reason is that in South
Speaker 1: Africa we do have a tough job market where companies
Speaker 1: are holding the upper hand. So these disorganized hiring processes
Speaker 1: have become normalized and it's quite problematic. And I know
Speaker 1: this feels like something of a lighter topic, but you know,
Speaker 1: we've really been in undie over the last few months
Speaker 1: with senior candidates complaining about really poor experiences that they've
Speaker 1: had at the whims of interviewers. And I think the
Speaker 1: humanity has gone out of the process. Companies have forgotten
Speaker 1: that they're not buying commodities, they're hiring humans.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would imagine it's also very risky. I mean,
Speaker 2: we live in a social media age now. Maybe people
Speaker 2: in the middle of their careers don't want to sort
Speaker 2: of go on social media and say I was treated
Speaker 2: like this, but actually people will, and you'll get dressed
Speaker 2: for it. You will.
Speaker 1: The reality is, like you said, we live in a
Speaker 1: hyper connected world and people can and will share negative
Speaker 1: experiences with their networks directly or even on platforms like LinkedIn.
Speaker 1: And I think we all know that WhatsApp messages travel
Speaker 1: faster than life does, so it not only makes it
Speaker 1: unlikely that the same candidates will re engage with the company,
Speaker 1: but it also erodes the talent pipeline by poisoning the network.
Speaker 1: But even on the flip side, when you account for
Speaker 1: the fact that the company does have the upper hand
Speaker 1: even when a candidate is appointed, employees have had a
Speaker 1: positive candidate experience are more likely to be satisfied and
Speaker 1: engaged in their roles. Therefore, if the experience is poor,
Speaker 1: even a hired candidate may not be as happy as
Speaker 1: you'd want and could be treading water until the next
Speaker 1: good opportunity comes along. And companies don't really think about
Speaker 1: why they're not attracting top talent. But when you track
Speaker 1: metrics like an increase in quality applicants or higher office
Speaker 1: acceptance rates reduce time to full roles, there's tangible evidence
Speaker 1: that you're doing something right, and so when you can't
Speaker 1: track those things favorably, you're doing something wrong.
Speaker 2: It's often just that people are ignored, isn't it. They
Speaker 2: send in their cvs and they hear nothing back. I
Speaker 2: think plenty of people send in a CV and almost
Speaker 2: are surprised when someone comes back. Nowadays, I mean that
Speaker 2: says so.
Speaker 1: Much badly, and I mean again, candidates are being treated
Speaker 1: like faceless numbers or just words on a page. That
Speaker 1: being treated as cvs. AI is filtering out candidates, And
Speaker 1: while it might make a recruiter's job easier or an
Speaker 1: HR person's job easier, it really again takes the humanity
Speaker 1: out of the process, because even an automated response is communication,
Speaker 1: and people just want to answer one way or the other.
Speaker 1: They really don't want to be treated as an inconvenience.
Speaker 2: So what's the right way to treat someone? I mean,
Speaker 2: in a way, it's just the normal rules apply, bekind
Speaker 2: make sure that you're actually professional, do the usual things.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, I think that the highest impact, lowest
Speaker 1: effort changes are about communication and respect. So when you
Speaker 1: do have a candidate in process with you, outline what
Speaker 1: the process is, tell them how many interviews are coming,
Speaker 1: what the timeline is, You know what hoops they're going
Speaker 1: to have to jump through, and don't keep adding hoops,
Speaker 1: and then ensure that the interviewers know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: Interviewing is a skill. It shouldn't come across as an interrogation.
Speaker 1: The panel shouldn't presuppose that the candidate doesn't have other options.
Speaker 1: They still need to sell the company as much as
Speaker 1: the candidate needs to sell him or herself. And then yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the communitytion thing. Always close the loop, even if
Speaker 1: it's a negative answer, whether you're going to hire someone
Speaker 1: or not. People shy away from delivering bad news because
Speaker 1: they just don't want to be the bad guy and
Speaker 1: they don't know how someone is going to react. So
Speaker 1: you can prepare what to say. You can have a
Speaker 1: script for yourself, because ghosting isn't okay when you're dating someone,
Speaker 1: is definitely not okay when you're taking someone through an
Speaker 1: interview process. And I think what companies or just individuals
Speaker 1: and companies forget is that each candidate that you interview
Speaker 1: could become your customer or your future employer. These things
Speaker 1: come around, and so if you treat someone badly, it's
Speaker 1: not going to be forgotten. What's that saying. The acts
Speaker 1: never remembers, but the tree never forgets right.
Speaker 2: Yes, and what goes around comes around too. I mean,
Speaker 2: you never know that someone you treat badly will come
Speaker 2: back to you in a different way. Do you need
Speaker 2: to pay a little bit of attention as to who
Speaker 2: in your company is doing the interviews, doing the approaches?
Speaker 2: Just make sure that actually that person is behaving in
Speaker 2: the right way, because one person could interact with dozens
Speaker 2: of people on a daily basis and sort of trash
Speaker 2: your name for dozens of people.
Speaker 1: Yes, and no, I mean I think anyone who's involved
Speaker 1: in a hiring process, everyone should be singing from the
Speaker 1: same hymn sheet, and you'd be surprised at the number
Speaker 1: of times that that doesn't happen, So I think there
Speaker 1: needs to be somebody to coordinate all the efforts. But yes,
Speaker 1: anyone who has external interactions absolutely needs to be at
Speaker 1: the top of their game, and that often isn't the case.
Speaker 1: I think that there are some things that are time
Speaker 1: saving efforts, and there are some things where you know,
Speaker 1: senior managers or hiring managers may not want to get
Speaker 1: involved until later on in the process, but later on
Speaker 1: in the process it may be too late because the
Speaker 1: damage has already been done.
Speaker 2: Advita and I do thanks so much, Africa MDAR jack
Speaker 2: Hammer Global