A Paradigm Shift Within HR Departments Recruitment Function

From: “How lucky candidates are for having this opportunity!”

To: “How lucky we are for having these candidates!”

In today’s business context, where companies struggle more and more to successfully fill their job openings, we are witnessing a complete paradigm shift from Human Resources (HR) corporate departments in the way recruitment processes are managed.

While I am not working in an HR department, I have been part of the hiring process for many years, regularly interviewing new candidates. As a manager myself, I often reflect on the challenges companies face nowadays when searching for new people to join their ranks and consider the practices needed to tackle them.

Most of us remember the days when companies could run their recruitment processes with very little care or respect towards candidates. Acting from apparent positions of power, it was the norm for companies to take several weeks (sometimes months) to provide any kind of feedback, leaving candidates completely unaware of the process's progress. Unfortunately, those days are still prevalent, and many companies have yet to grasp that this model is outdated and serves neither the companies nor the candidates.

It’s universally agreed that having great people is fundamental for any business’s success. Thus, recruitment dynamics and supporting processes are critical within HR’s broader roles and responsibilities. However, despite most companies theoretically agreeing with this belief, they repeatedly fail to demonstrate it through their recruitment practices. Even specialized recruitment companies, which one would expect to lead change, seem to lag in finding better and more respectful ways to interact with job candidates. The lack of empathy towards job seekers becomes apparent when there’s no feedback about their applications. Often, recruitment teams forget the stress applicants endure. This flawed approach hurts both candidates, deserving kindness and respect, and companies, risking negative publicity among potential future applicants.

When companies persist in these outdated practices, they essentially imply a lack of acknowledgment for the applications they receive and a disregard for investing time because of more urgent business tasks. Companies operating like this are stuck in an old paradigm that could be described as “How lucky candidates are for having this opportunity.” As mentioned earlier, this approach will eventually hurt businesses, making it increasingly challenging to find the right people. Candidates will soon realize they're better off working elsewhere.

However, times are changing. Some companies are taking these issues seriously, embracing a new paradigm described as “How lucky we are for having these candidates.” They are deploying recruitment practices that are efficient and respectful toward job candidates. It’s not about avoiding bad news but about providing timely and meaningful feedback on every application regardless of the outcome. These successful practices rely on using multiple communication channels to promptly engage with applicants at every stage of the recruitment process, from initial CV submission to the final decision. This fundamental paradigm shift requires companies, in general, and recruitment teams, in particular, to redirect their focus and devise new processes to treat job candidates with the respect they deserve, thriving in hiring new employees in an increasingly competitive talent-seeking environment.