Are Candidates Skeptical About Your Business?

With so many businesses operating in survival mode during the recent recession, management standards and quality may have suffered, mistakes were probably made, and many fortunes may have suffered as a result. Many staff have been overworked, overlooked and forgotten also, leading to a tarnishing of many employer brands.

We are perhaps seeing the fallout reflected in employee attitudes, as studies show that 25 percent of workers don’t trust their employers, two-thirds are disengaged, and companies look for honesty and reliability above all other factors when choosing a new hire.

Are Candidates Skeptical About Your Business?

If your company’s reputation and brand was especially tarnished during the recession there may be skepticism in the marketplace about your business and top candidates may be deterred from interviewing or be cautious about signing on the dotted line. Part of your hiring process will be to convince and coach a skeptical but talented candidate that your business has overcome its recent problems or at least has a concrete plan to address the problems inherent in the business—that is, if you want to establish trust and restore faith in your organization.

As I see it, there are  five key messages you’ll need to get across in the employment market to convince skeptical candidates that your business is bouncing back from hard times.

1. You’ve diagnosed the problems and have a cure

To start with you’ll need to make it clear that you have diagnosed your problems and that you know which direction is up. It might be that you open up about various weaknesses in the business, which contributed to harder times and make it clear you know what needs to be done to address them. Outline your improvement plan and list some key milestones.

2.There is suitable investment and top down backing

Skeptical candidates will know that it will take investment to bounce back, and you’ll need to be as explicit as you can be about the financial and operational resources that are being made available to make this renaissance a reality.

3. Demonstrate what you have already done to sort out the business

Provide real evidence that you are on the road to recovery by listing several key milestones that you have already passed during this journey. This could be anything from new hires that have already joined as part of the turnaround plan, or projects that have been completed in the plan, or simple progress indicators such as increases in staff morale, or a reduction in time to market or losses, etc.

4. Your employees are engaged in the plan

The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that employees are a much more trusted source of company information than senior managers, and where possible, let them see that current employees have been rejuvenated and reengaged into the turnaround plan.

5. Show that their appointment is a key milestone of the improvement plan

Linking the skeptical candidate’s potential appointment to the plan is a key way to demonstrate that progress is being made just by him or her joining; help the candidate to position his/herself as a bit of a “savior”, but also to show the person will have some control and some say in rejuvenating the business. This will help to unite the candidate in the common cause.

And so, if you are a business that is bouncing back from hard times and is facing skeptical candidates, you might want to ensure that your interviews contain these five messages.