This is a guest post from Freddie Chirgwin-Bell. Working as Marketing & Communications Executive at Morgan Jones, as part of our Recruiting Weekly Series. Freddie shares his thoughts on empathy being the recruiting superpower.
Have you ever thought about how much you make a difference?
As recruiters, we may not realise it, but we can and do change lives every day. People spend 1/3 of their life at work. So, when we get that placement, we could have changed that candidate’s life for the better.
It’s an incredible feeling. Helping people.
Feelings play an important part in our day to day, even the most rational of us are controlled by feelings and visceral reactions.
This has come to the fore recently with a (quite understandable and justified) focus on mental health and emotional intelligence in the workplace.
However, there is one emotion that I would argue separates the wheat from the chaff in the recruitment world.
There’s no need for the stiff upper lip mentality. Empathy rules the roost and provides the competitive edge in how you interact with candidates and how well you can place them.
The Candidate Advantage
Let’s look at the state of things.
Due to the pandemic, there has been a steep rise in redundancies and job loss. Companies have collapsed (see the energy company crisis), skills shortages are everywhere, and those vacancies are left unfilled.
Not only this remote working has led to zoom fatigue and has also been associated with issues such as anxiety, lack of privacy, always-on culture, and more.
Furthermore, a recent study showed that 89% of professionals globally feel their work-life balance is getting worse. This has resulted in increased stress and burnout across the working population.
For better or for worse this has had an incredible impact on people’s mental health and an impact on the candidate market.
So, what’s the answer?
Empathy
Empathy should now be an intrinsic part of your processes moving forward. No matter if you decide to stay remote, or use flexible working, having empathy with your employees and candidates will enable you to bring the best out of them whilst they and yourselves navigate this tumultuous time.
On a basic level, being empathetic and helping your candidates will provide an incredible employer brand. In a world where every business needs every advantage to stand out in crowded marketplaces, showing this side of your EVP will set you apart from the rest.
Empathising with your candidate shows that you understand their situation, feelings, needs and can act on them accordingly. It makes them feel valued and appreciated, something that can stack the odds in your favour other than simply “what’s in my pay packet?”
So, while competitive salaries, benefits, and perks can be attractive, it’s also important that organisations consider a more empathetic approach to their recruitment processes, at every touchpoint of their process, to ensure candidates stay with them and move quickly into positions.
Half the Battle
Recognising potential issues, recognising feelings, recognising potential impositions or difficulties. All of these contribute to your empathy.
Recognising and acknowledging what that person might be going through as an individual is half the battle.
Hell, it may even be two-thirds.
The key thing to point out here is that by recognising people’s needs and issues, you can better work with them to navigate and overcome these issues and get them to a stage where they truly shine.
A great example of recognising needs in advance; Being ghosted.
No one wants to be ghosted, to apply for a role and never hear back. A simple phone call letting the candidate know about the answer or the situation gives them peace of mind.
Yes, that’s right, even breaking bad news shows you’re empathetic and consider their feelings, their time, and their effort.
The Business Advantage
Recruiters: Imagine a world where every client or your bosses love you and there’s never any issues. Doesn’t that sound like utopia?!
Whilst this may be an exaggeration for you, by having empathy with your client and what they are going through you can better understand their needs far beyond the job description they sent you. Furthermore, it can build a better relationship with them for upselling, cross-selling, and more.
In The Future of Recruiting a report predicted that empathy (or a lack of it) could play a pivotal role in shaping employer brands both now and moving forward.
That’s the one emotion that keeps cropping up, again and again, and with such an emphasis being placed on this in articles, journals, and more there is a mounting body of evidence to prove its efficacy.
This goes beyond just promoting “good customer service” in your business guidelines. The point is, and it cannot be emphasised enough, it needs to be entrenched throughout your entire model.
This is a keystone of your candidate management, providing an exceptional experience and building an outstanding employer brand that far outstrips other brands EVPs or even the pay scales they offer.
“In the long run, COVID will change how people see employers,” says David Hindle, strategic recruitment lead at Lloyds Banking Group.
What’s easier to remember? A negative experience or a positive one? A lot of us are what’s commonly referred to as negatively wired, we remember the bad experiences because they hurt us therefore we avoid them at all costs.
Empathy can counter that, by enabling positive experiences at work, it lessens and deadens the impact of any poor experiences or issues we may face.
This needs to apply for everyone to work. Remember what we just said about ghosting? The same thing applies. Just by calling and talking whilst yes a negative experience, becomes severely deadened as you are the positive ray of hope for them.
Conclusion
All in all, a company or a recruitment company that cares will best the company that doesn’t. This is not only a candidate benefit but also a business benefit.
Putting empathy at the core of any recruitment process will not only help businesses attract the right talent, but it will help them to build honest and open relationships with new employees right from the start and ultimately improve retention.
As well as this, being empathetic to clients or superiors can also better your relations within work, opening up access to support, better communication, and enabling success at every level.
Freddie is the Marketing & Communications Executive at Morgan Jones. He is dedicated to creating informative, clear, and actionable content that truly adds value and helps people. You can connect with him on LinkedIn
