Interviewing is certainly the process by which we make the determination to hire someone. However, there is also a critical component to this process—creating interest in potential employees. If we think back to the Four F’s (Find, Filter, Face and Finish) we will remember that Face is the process of interviewing. Just as bad filtration will lead to poor interview success, a lack of effective marketing will lead to poor acceptance ratios in the Finish cycle.

Every interviewer must understand that although the corporate goal is to reduce the risk of a bad hire, a candidate is trying to reduce the risk of a bad job. Therefore, companies must take care to provide information to the candidate that will reduce the perception of risk.

Marketing must be a component of all stages of the hiring lifecycle. At the “Face” stage, we can map marketing’s objectives to the interview triangle.

Ability: What will the candidate be doing? Why is this interesting?
Talent: What growth opportunities will the candidate have?
Character: Why should the candidate want to work for the company?

The later the stage in the hiring process when marketing actually begins the less effective it becomes. Save your marketing punch for the closing stage of a candidate’s offer, and its reception will be lukewarm. Inserting a corporate spokesperson (ideally a future co-worker) into the interview process is highly effective in increasing offer acceptance ratios.

The company that provides the most information to a candidate in the hiring process will almost always beat a competitive offer.

Next week - Part 4: A hiring machine sample interview process