EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS By Keira Maloney

I’ll never forget what it was like when mobile phones became a ‘thing’. My Dad was the first in my family to get one in 2000, but back then I was more excited about the concept of the snake game than the convenience of sending 140-character text messages or making calls outside the home.

From an early age, both of my parents were involved in volunteering programs, where board and committee members of different companies had volunteered for various community projects. They were always on the landline phone, even after work hours, and always returned voicemails the same day they were left on the machine. As a result, I grew up observing the completely traditional methods of business communication in my home, and I was mentally branded with what was considered acceptable and professional communication methods.

Fast forward to 2002, when mobile phones really started taking off. More than 250 billion texts were sent worldwide and by 2007, the number of texts sent surpassed the number of phone calls made per month. Texts officially became the preferred method of communication between people, worldwide.

Jump to 2022, and we’re living in a time where you have more friends on Facebook than numbers saved in your phone, and you wouldn’t dare pick-up a call from an unsaved number!

There’s no denying that communication has changed, and years ago I posted on LinkedIn about how frustrating it was that candidates didn’t pick up their phones. I would have no problem writing off a candidate as ‘not suitable’ for not answering a call or returning it in a timely manner, but I’ve come to realise that while the traditional forms of communication my parents used might have seemed like the most ‘professional’ option in the recruitment process, by following those old-school methods, I was missing out on getting in touch with great people.

People don’t want to be put on the spot, and in a candidate-driven market, we can’t afford to make them uncomfortable. Here are my tips, that I learned the hard way, for how to communicate with candidates in an industry where it’s difficult to get in touch.

1. Getting comfortable with text messages over phone calls. If an applicant applies for your position, or you’ve been given a referral for a potential candidate, always text them first. It’s a far less invasive form of communication and yields a much higher response rate than phone calls or voicemails.

2. Voice notes over voicemails. iPhone allows you to send a recorded voice-note as a text, and this is quickly becoming a more favourable option over the traditional voicemail. People just aren’t checking their voicemails anymore (some people even add this as a disclaimer to their voicemail recording!) and they are much more likely to listen to your voice-note and reply with a text, than to return a call from a voicemail.

3. Schedule your phone interviews. Set up a time and day via text for your phone interview, just like you would a face-toface interview. Springing a phone interview on someone might seem like a great way to test someone’s ability to work on the fly, but times have changed. Unless candidates feel comfortable during the recruitment process, they won’t continue to partake.

4. Get in touch as soon as they apply. Catching candidates while it’s front-of mind is extremely important. They might have applied for a position on a whim, and it’s not uncommon for candidates to lose interest in starting a new position less than 48 hours after they apply. Even worse, they may have already been snapped up by another business in that amount of time.

We’re living in a time where communication is less direct, more immediate, and extremely competitive, and while it’s been a difficult adjustment (even for me, a millennial!), the rulebook for communication has changed drastically.

But with that said, if you’ve tried texting, emailing, sent a voice-note, made a phone call, left a voicemail, and they’re STILL not getting back to you, well, that’s a tell-tale sign that they’re just not that into you.

Good luck out there!