Your Hiring Process Could Be Your Brand's Worst Enemy
I'll start by saying that I'm hesitant to write this article because I don't want it to affect my career pursuits adversely. However, I think it's imperative to address this given the nature of the current economy, human resources, and how the brands look at hiring people in the modern era.
I have been looking for my career’s "forever home" for several months now. I put out hundreds of resumes; in that time (literally, I have a spreadsheet and everything), I have learned in today’s AI-driven world it has a great deal about keywords, formulating custom approaches to summary descriptions, and crafting and exquisite cover letters specific to the potential position. It's time; I have been hoping to meet a suitor that loves the eclectic array of experiences that I bring to the table and appreciates my empathetic yet educational approach to leadership.
"OK, OK, Justice, we get that you're looking for a job. What is the point of this article?"
For the last 30 years, I have researched, networked, investigated, and haphazardly fallen into all types of messaging approaches that brands put forward to offer goods, services, and or their respective education. The marketing that you would anticipate having either an agency or in-house marketing department manage for you. That said, when it comes to hiring practices, it seems like most businesses position themselves in both an authoritarian, exalted position and are completely unreflective of the brand that wants you to join. That said:
A candidate does their very best to scour over the roles and responsibilities of every position.
From there, we craft the best engagement position possible to deliver to the feet of our potential employer our resumes, references, and related self-referencing byproducts.
We have researched the organization, business, and related services that we could potentially engage.
Some of us do our best to educate ourselves about the culture, processes, and expectations.
And for creative professionals seeking positions with these brands, we often painstakingly travel back into our historical past to assemble the best possible set of deliverables, case studies, and related visualizations to show a synchronization to the vertical of the hiring brand.
I'm not going to get incredibly political or topical regarding the current state of the economy or how it relates to "the great resignation" and the supposed ample opportunity for nearly everyone. Pft. Taking nothing away from hourly, production, and related positions, there are many, of which I cannot speak on its behalf, but I would assume are easier to obtain (I would hope so) as they are marketed as such.
However, the mid to high-level positions that are following the same formulaic approach of "you'll be lucky if we call you, and if we do, be absolutely perfect from the top-down” approach — is broken and possibly caustic.
Now let's examine that snapshot in the roleplay of marketing your products to consumers and or other businesses.
You go onto a brand's website that you have an affinity for and compare, hunt for the specific product you want, and now — click to purchase.
“Thank you for your interest in this product, if you’re the right kind of consumer we’ll reach out with the next steps.”
Unrealistically in the consumer market, but not in the hiring market, you [might] receive a reply between two weeks and two months after the desired purchase.
Is the product you're seeking gracious enough to auto-respond to you? Yes? LEVEL UNLOCKED!
You do so with a meeting anywhere a couple of days from now and or weeks. As "we have a slew of people wanting the same product, and it will take a bit of time."
In the meantime, we would like you to fill out an array of forms related to your need for the specific product. What is it intended to use for you? Do you have experience with a particular product? And perhaps we might need a background check should we choose to sell you the product.
For purposes of this metaphor, we will say one week later; you get to speak to a sales representative of the product you wish to purchase.
You go through many formulaic discussions regarding what the product means to you, why you have chosen this product, and what would it mean to you if you received it? The sadist in them might even refer to answers as “you will be responsible” for X, Y, and Z of our mighty brand.!
Let's say by the grace of your higher power; you are chosen for yet another examination, perhaps this time by committee another few weeks from now as "you might be someone that we would sell that product to."
Now, here's a bit of a surprise for you, but in the marketing world, you are often asked to prove that you can purchase this particular product, products like it, by part participating in free-ideation in showing your usage of this product, and how to grow the business, loyalty, and awareness around the product.
I could go on, but I really do believe that the vast majority of my articles can grasp the metaphor for yourself and digest it with some educational confidence.
So why is it that when brands, businesses, and related pursuits want "the very best people," they progressively worsen an arcane process? The evolution of efficiencies that hiring tools have given these professionals might be a time-savings – agreed. But what, if any testing has been done to see its effects on the candidate, who by the way, is a consumer.
Look, I realize that this is why there are recruiters. When people put job opportunities out on social media or related employment boards, they get dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of unqualified candidates. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to sift, sort, and prioritize the potentiality of individuals for specific positions. That said, this is the business you chose, and if you are listening, I want you to pay close attention to the way it reflects on your business. I will say that I will certainly NOT be buying specific products based on the way I was treated in the hiring process.
Very few brands I believe are making progress strides when it comes to the hiring process. MOREOVER, what is this experience embedding in your current/future candidates?
What does it say about you when it requires weeks and or months to respond to a candidate?
What does it say about your culture when you decide to interview a candidate, you push the actual interview further out into (what could be, for the candidate, an unrealistic) future?
What does it say to your brand or business when the interview is prepared in such a way to have a minimal reflection on you as an individual or the position that you seek?
Are the HR representatives contacting you wanting to truly relate or are they going through the motions?
In the case of many prolific individuals, I contact – these people have real power and potent networks. Remember that interviewing them is by extension speaking to their secondary and tertiary professional collective. Yes, we talk – a lot. All of which have influence and perhaps an adjusted representation of your brand and its commitments to its people.
I know this has been long-winded, and I haven't made it a direct intent to be a soapbox about my position. This is about marketing to individuals and what your brand and its position say to people they seek to work for them.
I do I think that this article is going to fix anything? Realistically – no. However, I believe that it should be noted for the countless people who effectively change their viewpoints of your brand, not via marketing, by your hiring. Now you can process all the excuses you wish, but they’re just that. The brands I'm speaking of have the money, can re-create the infrastructure, and do more to examine, analyze and optimize the process they are hiring for in the current and future workforce. Your brand is a coin, it has two sides, an internal and external ethos and both must be nurtured.
Addendum: Please understand that I recognize that small to mid-sized businesses are ‘doing their best with what they have. That said, there’s no reason that you can’t reexamine how it looks from the other side, and how it could be perceived.
