Dear Barb:
Can we control what candidates are saying about us and our company on social media sites? It drives me crazy that they can post lies about us and we have no recourse. Most of the candidates who are hurting our reputation are not the caliber we place. We specialize in IT contract and direct placement and trust me if they were any good, we would have placed them. Unfortunately good candidates are reading these lies. It just seems impossible to stay ahead of all these postings. Should we just ignore them?
David S.
Houston, TX
Dear David:
What you can control is the positive information about you and your company on social media. There are individuals who specialize in online reputation management.
One of the greatest issues we have always faced is that we only place 5% of the candidates we attract. The other 95% are not helped primarily because they don’t have the skills, stability or expertise our clients demand, or they are not in our niche.
Create resources for the people you don’t place, so they will feel you have assisted them. This will also eliminate the 60-90 minutes most recruiters spend each day talking or providing free advice to individuals they will never place. Give individuals something to do and they will stop calling you for free advice.
If you want to review a resource we have created for the candidates we don’t place, go to www.happycandidates.com. You can set up a customized career portal for your job seekers in less than 15 minutes and it will appear that you created this resource for them.
If you’d rather set up your own resource, our site can provide you with ideas you can duplicate. The bottom line is we need to improve the overall candidate experience in this candidate driven market.
Barbara J. Bruno, CPC, CTS
