Interview with the vampire

The title of this blog post is given by the name of the famous movie by Neil Jordan, and the photo shows Anica Dobra and Nebojša Bakočević in the scene of the New Year's party in the movie "How Rock and Roll Failed" , where Barbara and Darko meet. Darko, a seductive vampire and Barbara, a blushed-cheeks young girl who instantly falls in love with a seductive and life-threatening vampire. Barbara's cheeks flush with a combination of attraction and fear, but also with excitement that, despite the excruciating pain, she can be given "eternal life".

But how did all that relate to recruitment and selection?!

Wait, take it easy… First let's share the roles in this recruitment movie of ours - "How Recruiting Failed"

The employer is the powerful, charismatic vampire Darko.

Candidate - confused, frightened Barbara.

Further on, we will not deal much with Barbara, because we are familiar with the mix of her emotions well. Looking for and/or changing jobs is very stressful and it's nothing but natural to be confused, scared, excited, anxious. We will follow the causes of Barbara's stress, as well as her reactions.

Let's see what Darko does, through the prism of recruitment and selection!

Branding

Darko’s naivety is first reflected in the fact that he thought a good enough costume was enough to pass. However, he soon gets a cold shower: "The costume is great, it's just that your performance is a bit… jerky."

I understand the need for employer branding, because first of all the profile of employees is changing. Surprisingly, the new generations are no longer fascinated by the brand as such. It is no longer enough to be just Google or Apple, but what is inside and what the candidate gets out of it is important. Everything I see on the part of employers is an effort to present themselves in the most attractive light for the widest possible range of candidates, and these presentations are usually video materials from team building, watching movies together, eating cake, everything is like super fun, even going so far as to have employees make video performance, because "the boss says that the raise depends on performance."

Please do NOT do this again. The relationship between employer and employee is based primarily on work, not on entertainment. If it is fun, then great! Candidates do not apply to your ads? Barbara tells it nicely, "Your branding is great, only your performance is a bit... jerky".

How can it be better? Bring some reality to your branding initiatives and show potential candidates what it's really like to WORK at your company.

Job adverts and first contact

Darko's "entrance" to Barbara is "Girl, you have a lovely neck, what blood type are you?!"

Although only disguised as a vampire, Darko shows a primary interest in what he wants to take. It is no longer a question of whether he will bite her, but how much blood he will drink.

Well, that's what today's job ads look like. Every ad the same template. Barely copied job descriptions, with detailed assignments, responsibilities, limitations, competencies... The list of everything your employer will "take" from you is quite long.

If you're not already withered, hold on a little longer… there's a section that states what the employer is giving in return. Here is the offer: "regular salary, 20 days of annual leave, contract from the first day, flexible, dynamic, challenging..."

How can it be better? By branding, you have attracted the attention of the widest audience, and the ad should address the candidate's profile directly and convey a clear message about what is worth for the candidate of applying to the ad. It is only through this kind of communication that it is possible to narrow down the entire audience to the targeted group of candidates. If this clear and direct message does not exist, then it should not be surprising that "all kinds of people" responds to the ad.

By defining a value message, you will greatly facilitate your work in directly addressing candidates via social networks, and what is even more important, you will increase the percentage of responses to your messages.

The employer's legal obligation, there is no need to be part of the offer - salary is compensation for work provided, 20 days of leave is the legal minimum, illegal work is prohibited...

Without going into details, because it will be explained later, HR benefits ≠ benefits. As currently advertised, their function is a carrot on a stick.

Interviewing

If and when you get to this stage of the process, that's when the seductive dance with the vampire begins.

From an interview with HR, through an interview with the hiring manager, then psychometric testing, technical tasks, and who knows what else.

Everyone's mouth is full of stories about how the candidate is in the center of attention, and all behavioral questions, questions based on competences and the like are designed to meet the needs of the employer, so that the interviewers find out what the employer can "take" from your competences, knowledge and previous experience.

As for psychometrics, I have absolutely no intention of minimizing its contribution to predicting a candidate's future performance in a position. I believe that the use of various test batteries with the intention of detecting some "pathology" is often overdone. I will remind you that clinical tests are not used in the business world and that most recruiters are from the field of organizational, not clinical psychology.

How can it be better? Simply, show a genuine interest in the candidate a little broader than the context of the position they are applying for. By asking questions, find out at what specific life/professional moment he/she is in and whether, and how, you as an employer could improve his/her current situation. Change your perspective! Don't expect candidates to charm you with their story about "why they chose you", but try to find out why and how you, as a future employer, could add an extra dimension to the quality of his/her life.

Keep testing. Just be moderate. Do not go with the principle "I have all kinds of tests, so I'm playing with it...". Use tests to identify tendencies in the candidate's behavior, as well as the potential they carry, but not with the aim of classifying them in one of the "boxes" - Dominant, Analyst, Influencer, etc.

Making an offer

There are different approaches here. From sending a written offer to the candidate who is recognized as the best, through exclusively communicating the offer verbally, to a combination of these two approaches. Anything that does the job is OK. Except that when you only verbally present the offer to the candidate, the candidate has to remember everything and has to blindly trust you, which I'm not sure is very smart. Ine thing that I have a very big problem with is the use of the term "benefit", the way HR uses it. In the Serbian language, the term beneficija (Latin beneficium) means a privilege, perk, discount, while the English term benefit means a useful or good effect of something.

In these linguistic nuances, the answer to the question of how it can be better is shown in the table below, with a few examples that HR considers benefits.

Not all features are benefits, even though people can benefit from them.

Employment

Standard procedure defined by law and there is nothing to comment on.

So, Barbara and Darko still got along.

At some point Barbara asks: "So, what are we going to do now?", and Darko answers: "We're going to watch the video until the colors melt..."

Well, it would be great if everything was so romantic, but it's not.

It is not that big a problem that there are no candidates, nor is it that big a problem that there are no good candidates. The problem is that people don’t want to "their blood to be sucked".

I have the impression that many people don't like the movie, because nothing in this process has changed for decades.

The way things are for employers, the colors have already melted..., If they don't change something urgently, next on the repertoire will be a black and white movie.

Dragan Vukosavljević

People development consultant