Manager’s impact on the Candidate Experience and the Employer's Brand

How a company treats its candidates in the recruitment process has a direct impact on its brand. A company's reputation is determined, not by a beautiful billboard or a catchy slogan, but by how it treats its customers and current, as well as prospective employees.

Recruiting is a team effort, the team including the recruiter and the hiring manager. However, the ultimate responsibility for the success of the entire process lies with the hiring manager, who essentially controls the entire process: he decides what to evaluate in the interviews, what homework to give to the candidates and makes the final selection.

The hiring managers have a key role in creating a positive candidate experience and employer reputation. To create an attractive employer’s image and ensure succession, even those who are not selected- and there are usually many times more of them- must leave with a positive feeling.

Common Mistakes

I have seen many employers lose a suitable candidate simply because they unknowingly mistreated them. Inattention or carelessness in the recruitment process can negatively affect the attitude of the candidate and ultimately cause great damage to the image of the entire organisation.

For example, situations where managers change job roles and job descriptions in the middle of the recruitment process, not communicating them properly and creating a lot of confusion for recruiters and candidates. Or situations where managers put a particularly suitable candidate on hold for a long time because they want to see other candidates for a benchmark, but no other good candidates apply, and the time of the manager, the candidate and the recruiter is wasted. I have also seen companies unwilling to bother to give proper feedback to a candidate after several rounds of interviews and homework.

Controlled Personal Brand

For a job seeker, the candidate experience begins with the employer branding long before applying for a job. When a person becomes interested in an organisation, he/she begins to imagine what it would be like to work in that company. He/she will start researching the organisation’s LinkedIn or other social media profiles. At this stage, managers are particularly important. At this point, they and their personal brand are the face of the organisation. All their posts, language and choice of images determine the personal brand a manager develops. It also sends a kind of a message when there is no sign of the manager on social media.

Managers, especially hiring managers, should be brand ambassadors for their company and use their social media to promote the organisation and its culture. A brief explanation of a recent development, a few pictures of a Christmas event, or a short post of a fun gathering - all of these give a true picture of the company culture.

A Well-Planned Recruitment Process

The full extent of the role of hiring managers in shaping the candidate experience is revealed in interviews. While the purpose of the job interview is to find out whether the candidate is suitable for the role offered, the candidate also looks at whether he/she even wants to work for the company.

If the manager has not read the candidate's CV before the interview, or if he does not prepare for the interview and improvisation on the spot is not his/her forte, it will give the candidate a bad impression of the manager and the company in general. Also, if the recruitment process involves too many steps- it shows that the hiring manager does not respect the candidate’s time. An excessively lengthy process sends a message to the candidate that the delay is intentional or that the process is not well planned.

Personal and Humane Interaction

Hiring managers send messages to candidates in numerous ways throughout the recruitment process. Information that reaches the candidate, whether in the form of notifications, emails or calls between each stage, also influences their opinion of the company. While many of these notifications can be automated, a personal contact by the hiring manager can provide a significant boost to creating a positive candidate experience.

The most important of them is individual feedback, which helps the candidate to improve him-/herself in the future. Some may view it as a waste of time, but life has shown that candidates are incredibly grateful for such feedback. This is especially true if the candidate is not selected. A personal phone call and individual feedback from the hiring manager, perhaps even a chance of a discussion, is far more positive than generic feedback from the recruiter. Creating a successful candidate experience in recruitment is not a subject belonging to the realm of esotericism or mysticism. The way a candidate feels when leaving the interview, tells him how the leaders in that company treat their employees. In this light, open and supportive communication, as well as an efficient and well-planned recruitment process are completely human expectations.