2 Common Mistakes Employers and Hiring Managers Make in the Hiring Process

There are 2 things that most companies do a poor job of when hiring.

1. They write job postings that don’t effectively sell the company and the position.
2. They do a poor job of communicating with applicants.

Let’s address the first one first…

Job postings are a marketing vehicle. I’m a believer that the marketing function should sign off on all external job advertisements. They are an external communication piece that talks about the company as much as any other marketing piece.

Job postings are an opportunity to get potential employees and other people who may read them (i.e. potential superfans of your company) excited about what a company does. If a job posting lacks purpose, clarity, excitement, the company’s story, and a glimpse into the company’s vision, the results of the job posting will reflect that.

If a company is trying to attract the best talent, then putting forth their best effort to write a compelling job posting is really important.  And when I say “job posting” I’m not just referring to the job description. I’m referring to the posting/advertisement that appears on job sites like ours, Luke’s Circle.

Make sense? Writing a compelling job posting will help you draw more (and better) applicants, which is why it shouldn’t be overlooked and is why someone in the marketing function shoulld review it before publishing it. 

Now let’s talk about the 2nd topic…

In general, if companies viewed all applicants as potential customers, their entire business would perform better.  It would set the tone for the culture from the very first interaction a future employee has with the company.

If an applicant spends the time and effort to write a cover letter, research a company and apply for a job, there is a pretty decent likelihood that they are a fan of that company. Employers should want those people to continue to be fans even if they don’t get the job.

It doesn’t matter if a company sells a consumer product or a B2B product. The more superfans a company has, the more people they have talking about their company, and the more likely it is that they’ll benefit from that awareness in some form (customer referral, a positive online review, employee referral, etc.).

In my opinion, how a company treats applicants is indicative of how well they treat their customers and their employees.

So for any hiring manager and employer who is reading this, here’s a final thought:  consider conducting an audit of each of your touchpoints and interactions with your job applicants and see how well you communicate with them. Do applicants leave the process (even if they don’t get the job) with a positive feeling about your company?