Abraham Maslow developed his hierarchy of needs by studying successful people.  How does your company’s recruiting process match up with our human needs?

Obviously the physiological needs are taken care of through compensation and benefits.  Your company’s offers need to be competitive in order to attract the best candidates.  Compensation and benefits are generally only the tip of the iceberg.  Sometimes they are indicative of the company’s attitude toward its employees.

Companies condition candidates.  How does your company condition candidates who complete applications?  Do you contact them and reinforce engagement?  Or do you abandon them, and they never hear from you again?  How do candidates feel about your company after experiencing your recruitment process – safe and confident?  Or do you let them down?  The words “Black Hole” is used far too many times when referring to a company’s recruiting process.

One of the purposes of social media sourcing is to engage potential candidates.  As candidates continue through your process do they feel you company is still engaged?  Or does your company ignore them?  Did your company allow the applicant tracking system vendor assume ownership of your company’s recruitment process?

Does your company’s recruiting process encourage candidates to feel they are important to your company?  When candidates contact you are they confident that you will respond?

If your company’s brutally honest assessment is “No”, it is ignoring the hierarchy of needs during the recruiting process.  Now let’s consider how candidates who somehow finally find their way through your recruiting process feel.  What was their first impression?

If candidates have to work so hard to somehow make it through your recruitment process, does your company wonder when there is an engagement issue once they come on board?

It is important for companies to beware of conflicting goals in their recruiting process.  Conflicting goals create conflict and opposing actions.  For instance if your company’s use of the applicant tracking system is to screen out candidates, your company’s actions are opposing the goal of attracting the best candidates.  Top candidates will come to companies that act like they want them, not companies that act like they want to screen them out.

How does a company change its recruitment direction?  Unfortunately just as in sports teams, they may have to change team members and acquire professionals who understand that recruiting is a sales process, not a screening process.  Recruiting is sales requires a proper sales attitude and the excitement that goes with trying to attract the best candidates.  Between you and me?  A lot more fun!

In the screening out process, candidates are not treated as important potential assets.  They are treated as a metric, a number.  They feel that the pervasive attitude within the company is where people are not valued.

“Wait a minute!  We value our candidates!” is your response.  You probably do.  However, a candidate’s perception is their reality.  When was the last time that your company examined its recruitment process?  When was the last time that someone from your company put on the candidate hat with a fictitious name and resume and audited your company’s recruitment process?

In the Recruiting is Sales recruiting process, candidates feel they are important from the beginning of the process to its conclusion.  Of course you screen candidates!  They are prescreened and know after the prescreening if they are still a viable candidate.  Then they experience the interviewing process.  If they no longer are the best candidate, respect them by telling them.  If it was a really close call, keep in touch.  You may want to recruit them for the next position that requires the same skills and experience.  I’ve done that in the past.  It’s fun to hear their voice when I’ve contacted them to interview again.

When a company follows a person’s basic needs through the entire recruiting process, the process flows and the company improves the quality of hire.