Oh God! Not again. I
am fed up of scheduling interview for the candidates who don’t show up at the
first instance. Why this kolavari by the candidates? I am sure every
recruiter’s reaction will be the same when a candidate does not turn up for the
interview. Have you ever felt like calling the candidate and blasting at them
when they don’t turn up for the interview? Yes, of course recruiters feel it
but they don’t do it as it is unprofessional.
Candidates don’t realize what might be the plight of the
recruiter who has scheduled their interview with the hiring manager. They don’t
even feel it their duty to intimate the recruiter earlier that they would not
be able to take up the interview.
How do we avoid such kind of a situation? It cannot be
completely avoided but minimized if we make changes in our process of
prospecting the candidates. Do not take any kind of profile to just fill your
numbers or complete your target. Treat candidates as humans and respect their
values.
Before we go ahead with the
probable solution to decrease no-shows let us ask ourselves what might me the
causes of No-Show. Firstly, the candidate might not be interested with the
position. You may not have explained him the job description correctly. He/She
might not have heard about the organization their profile is being processed
for or someone would have given a negative feedback about the company.
Complete information about the
candidate would give us an idea whether he would appear for the interview or
not. The information cannot be obtained by speaking to him only once. You need
to have a thorough conversation with the candidates. Ask him when he will be
free to have a chat with you. Do not make it formal. Try to be informal, only
then will you be able to get complete information. Get to know what the
candidate knows about the Organization he/she is applying for, as this would
give an understanding of his knowledge about the Organization. If he has any
negative assumption about the organization then you would be able to clarify
it. Build their interest by telling them the projects they are going to work on
and the success stories of the Organization. Do not pressurize the candidate
when he says he is unavailable for interview. Try to take a date and time slots
when they will be available for the interview and convey the same to the Hiring
Manager, as this would give a candidate to choose a time when he would be free
to attend the interview.
Next step in the process would be
to know about the candidate’s area of interest and the motivational factors.
This would help you to know whether the candidate would be interested in the
job you are calling him/her for.
After you take all the necessary
information send the candidate the job description, company information and any
other information that can enhance their interest in the Job. Inform the
candidate about the interview process and whom they are going to meet for the
interview. Send email and SMS reminders to the candidate a day before and also
an hour or two before the interview. If possible give a brief note of the
questions they are going to face. This would get rid of the apprehension they
have regarding the interview and they would come ready to face the interviewer.
As mentioned earlier these are
the probable steps which can be taken to minimize the No-shows but it cannot be
completely avoided as there may be genuine reasons for not attending the
interview. At the end of the day it also depends on the level of relationship
maintained between the recruiter and the candidate.
These steps would also help us to
reduce the displacement issues.
Hope this helps……….
Happy Recruiting.
