Is Your Company a Good Career Investment? Talented Candidates Already Know.
I sourced and interviewed a talented candidate for a key position recently. I asked my standard question, designed to gauge the candidate’s due diligence and overall abilities as a competitive professional candidate. “What do you know about the company?” I asked. Savvy Candidate exceeded my expectations with their answer. “Your customers are pleased with your product based on the reviews I discovered while researching your company, which tells me volumes about the quality of your product and your company. That’s why I’m talking to you today,” Savvy Candidate replied.
When I’ve been on the candidate’s side of the interview table, I too have done my diligence before considering a company to join. In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ve researched the financial health of a company more than anything else, because for me, choosing the right company to join is a lot like choosing the right stock to buy: both activities are critical in ensuring financial success now and into the future for me and my family.
Certainly, the financial health of a company is important to confirming ongoing cash flow (one of several key factors for career success) for both owners and employees alike. Savvy Candidate, like many other candidates I’ve sourced over the last few years, has once again taught me the critical lesson of how reputation is a key performance indicator of a culture that supports the success of the entire team.
For Savvy Candidate, happy customers equal happy employees, and they’re spot on. With the upswing of the economy here in SmAlbany, it’s gradually becoming a candidate’s market. Candidates absolutely want to know exactly what’s so great about working for your company. And if they can’t easily find the good news about your company, they’ll take their business elsewhere, attracted like moths to the bright light of the positive buzz and reputation of your competitors for talent.
Or even worse: they’ll say “no, thank you” to pursuing a position with your company based on the negative press they’ve heard from their network, or yours. Several years back, I presented a Talented Candidate to the CEO of a local company for a new position critical to the growth of the CEO’s company. Talented Candidate fired on all cylinders of the new position’s requirements: the CEO was very pleased. But Talented Candidate turned the CEO’s offer down. And they told the CEO exactly why. “There are some people in my network who like you,” Talented Candidate told the CEO. “But unfortunately, there are more people in my network who don’t like you and don’t like the way you do business. And that’s too much of a risk for me and my family to leave a good job at this point in time.” We found another solid candidate to fill the CEO’s job, so the CEO didn’t give too much thought to Talented Candidate’s candid feedback. However, it did explain why it might have been a bit more difficult to source good candidates for CEO’s company.
Having difficulty sourcing the best / right talent to bring your company to the next growth level? Do you know how the market views your company as a career investment? Ask your talented candidates and incumbents: they already know.
Tags: accountability, business, candidate, career, ceo, customer service, economy, employee, employer, engagement, hiring, HR, interview, interviewing, job-hunting, leadership, marketing, networking, recruiting, reputation, responsibility, sales, strategy, succes
