The way to build relationships in business, recruiting and life is to converse or communicate between people. The lack of communication can create roadblocks to building any connection. Technology can enhance and/or break it down.
The implementation of a virtual world via Covid and our race to get things done faster can also create a breakdown in communication for several reasons. Building a strategic communication plan will not only improve connection and relationship building, it can also reinforce or strengthen it. Overcommunication will always trump lack of or minimal distribution of information in a relationship.
We need salespeople to sell business and employees to complete work, this is why utilizing various methods of contact strategically can build up your connection and enhance it. Recruiting is building talent pools to hire people for a living, this cannot be done without a telephone, computer and people. The first point of contact is outreach in recruiting, either through a posting a job, reaching out to candidates online or in person at career events. Therefore, knowing the communication workflow and response plan a company has in place is critical to keeping relationships to fill roles. The best relationships are built with trust, this is why recruiters need a telephone to establish the connection verbally with candidates to keep them engaged in a relationship with the organization. A job post, an email, a social media message can provide the information to connect, however without follow up there is no relationship. Both people and computers can have issues as emails can go to spam, a recruiter may not respond to a message or a phone call and if they are managing candidate flow with technology, this is really not acceptable if you are a properly trained recruiter. The implementation of technology has created applicant pools too large to reach out to each person individually, and when the strategic communication plan is not known by leadership, or this is not included in the metrics there should never be a question of why there are no candidates to fill roles. Any talent professional who takes the time out of a person's life with an interview and will not follow up even to say they will receive a system generated email should not be in the recruiter role as they simply do not know basic recruiting 101.
Communication and relationship building creates long term trust in the process, when you have a strategic communication recruiting plan you do not have to worry about talent pools or buy candidates. Leaders need to understand the communication strategy built into a recruiting workflow. aka the application process built into an ATS to understand metrics and KPIs from dashboards. There should be a minimum of 3 - 4 system generated emails built into the ATS, as well there should be an email address and phone number available for candidates to contact a recruiter or the recruiting department in postings and career sites, not only to follow up but for best practice and compliance for candidates who need an accommodation to complete the application. Recruiters need to be trained to call people back, send a follow up email, we cannot always tell every detail, but we can provide basic information and a respectful response. If you are looking for candidates, it is as simple as going to any social media site post on recruiting follow up. The job seekers posting about their candidate experiences or lack of are being honest.
The majority of processes, sites and recruiters I have been in communication with in one form or another truly lack follow up and this equates to a break down in relationship. Communication is critical to connection, why I assess the talent acquisition process of any organization I am involved with. I look for strategic communication in emails, responses, phone calls, chats, etc., however the most impactful form of communication will always be a real connection this is where long term relationships are built. I will always recommend improving this part of the recruiting process, it is critical.