when silence sucks!You Have the Right to Remain Silent (Reprise)

Comedian Ron White came up with a classic line in his routine about a time he was picked up by the police for being drunk in public, “I had the right to remain silent… but I didn’t have the ability.” Genius! In the comedic pause between the first and second part of that sentence, people started to think about what he was going to say next. When the anticipation was over they roared with laughter even though many saw what was coming. If you think about it, we all have the right to remain silent or speak out whenever we want. Like Ron White do we lose the ability in certain circumstances to distinguish between the two?

We hear a lot in the recruiting world about the “candidate experience” and the evil “black hole” that is a killer of employer-to-candidate communication. Without repeating a previous declaration that “all candidates don’t deserve a good experience” and have to explain that one again, lets's just say that honest communication is necessary for the hiring process and is not negotiable as a mandatory skill of a recruiter. Human interaction is at the heart of the issue.

You have the right to remain silent… but what do you do when the hiring process takes longer than you expected?

The complexity of a company’s hiring process is not transparent to someone looking for a job or a new step in their career. No news is not good news. The lack of timely turnaround, even if justified, creates unnecessary anxiety. Nothing is really wrong with this scenario except for unmatched expectations. Remember Gibbs Rule #6: Never apologize – it’s a sign of weakness. More importantly, why say “I’m sorry” if you did nothing wrong? The more you educate candidates about the process the more confidence you instill in them. Prerequisite to having an open dialog is keeping the lines of communication open. Try to give them a reasonable time frame in order to set realistic expectations. Sharing the process with them also gives insight into the culture of the company they hope to join. Honesty doesn’t mean you go negative on your own company. Remain positive and never air dirty linen in public if something did go wrong or somebody is holding things up. Honesty has two very important side effects. First, it helps to keep your focus on track and if somebody in the organization is dragging their feet then light a fire under them. Probably most important is the fact that lies are always very thinly veiled. Never be in a situation where you have to keep track of which lie you told so that you are consistent. Give them a reason, not feeble excuses.

You have the right to remain silent… but what do you say when a candidate is not the first choice?

In every arena where human beings compete, somebody is the winner and the rest are not. If there are numerous positions open there may be more than one offer. If not, the first-runner-up may be someone you would have hired if Number One hadn’t been in the running. Don’t lose an opportunity to cultivate a future hire by closing too early. Keep a list of those in the running for the next opening of that type and the time-to-hire can be dramatically reduced. The open dialog means keeping a tickler file on your candidate network and reaching out to them from time to time to keep the channels open. It also means extending an invitation to stay in touch and answering the phone when they call. Every contact gives more credibility to your hiring process. As an important side note do not overlook the requirements to maintain balance and impartiality in your selection of candidates. Maintaining lists outside of a company ATS can open the door for charges of discrimination, so any offline private or public databases are still subject to the same restrictions and controls without the built-in safeguards of an ATS. The ultimate goal is not to replace the normal processes, but to give recruiters, managers, and candidates the ability to manage data already vetted through the system. Instill in everyone the idea that the opposite of winning is not losing because in some cases there are other opportunities to win.

You have the right to remain silent… but what do you say when a candidate doesn’t get the job after an interview?

The hardest job for anyone to do is to communicate bad news. Candidates will come through the door that appeared to meet the job specs on paper, but when called upon to offer a depth of substance in an interview they reveal that they are something less than the ideal employee. If they don’t fall into the first-runner-up category there is still value in their background, perhaps for other jobs, as long as their story line is not totally a sales pitch of a candidate “brand without substance.” The approach, while time-consuming, would be to identify any redeeming value to the company since this individual has already gone through the screening process in order to get to the interview stage. It helps to think of it as a golden rule of candidate communication: Tell them what you would want to hear in that situation. Many recruiters will string along a candidate who failed the job interview, but that really doesn’t do anyone any good. At some point, the process has to come to closure and the preferred way is with the mutual understanding that it didn’t work out rather than hoping they go away quietly. There is no good way to tell someone that they are not going to be considered for a job without some sort of feedback. Sometimes there is a cultural mismatch as well as a skill differential, but more often than not it is just a simple fact of relativity. When compared to other candidates on measurable dimensions they fell short of the mark. If you are interviewing without an evaluation yardstick, the message given will be personal, incomplete, and hostile sounding.

You have the right to remain silent… but what do you say to the candidate who needs a lot of help to get any job?

Be careful to separate personal coaching from the recruiter’s chair and giving official feedback. There is a myriad of legal concerns that could expose the recruiter and the company to claims of discrimination. No good deed goes unpunished! This should not be used as an excuse to ignore candidate communication. You know that they are never going to be hired at your company so official feedback has to be targeted to their skills relative to the job and their outlook as it meshes with the company culture. More often than not they already know that they are not a match. Communication also involves listening so when the questions come up about “What could I do better?” you can casually ask “What do you think you could do better?” Then listen. You will hear stereotypical feedback that you can address and perhaps offer non-binding advice. At this point, anything the recruiter offers that is intended to be helpful could be perceived as humiliating if it is a monolog instead of a dialog. Two-way communication is made easier if there has been a good recruiter/recruitee relationship built up over time.

The message to recruiters should be a reminder that you work with PEOPLE and if you don’t like working with PEOPLE then find another job. Learn to talk to PEOPLE or you are admitting that you add no value to the process and anybody can do it.