Recruiters are some of the greatest contributors to organizational success. They help companies secure the best talent and job seekers find their ideal workplace.
But despite your noble intentions as a recruiter, you might have found that there isn’t much trust going around. We’ve found that many recruiters find it difficult to earn candidates’ and employers’ trust.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to influence the narrative. We can’t fundamentally change how job seekers see recruiters. But you can influence how applicants see you, and secure their trust on a personal level.
And that’s what we’re going to discuss in this article.
Why don’t candidates trust recruiters?
We prefer to approach this question as: why don’t candidates trust you yet.
And the answer to this can be a number of reasons. The candidate could have had a bad prior experience with another recruiter. Or they could be suspicious by nature. Or they might be giving in to unconscious biases.
After talking to several tech recruiters, we found that the following reasons are typically why candidates struggle to trust you.
They’re suspicious of your motives
A typical tech recruitment process involves three parties; the employee, the employer, and the tech recruiter. There are only two parties if the recruiter is in-house.
Good recruiters aim for a triple-win situation, where all parties benefit. The employer onboards the best hire, the job seeker receives an excellent opportunity, and the recruiter has successfully delivered on their promise.
But candidates may doubt your motives. And these suspicions are to be expected – it’s not unreasonable for an applicant to, say, suspect that a recruiter may be looking to fill a role quickly due to time constraints.
So, it’s important for recruiters to first be sincere and prioritize the right goals. And it’s equally important to convey your sincere intentions to job seekers; convince them that your singular goal is to find the best ‘fit’ for both the employer and applicant.
They don’t believe their interests are protected
We mentioned that good recruiters strive to achieve triple-win situations, where all parties benefit. But candidates might suspect that you’re prioritizing the employer’s benefits, or your own, over the job seeker’s.
This problem stems from distrust and is thus resolved by gaining your applicant’s trust. Unfortunately, as you’d imagine, this is easier said than done. However, understanding an applicant’s reservations and suspicions means you can address and remedy them.
One of the simplest ways to show candidates you care about their interests, is to show them you care about their interests. Ask them about their goals and interests, and about their ideal workplace. Ask them what workplace culture appeals to them.
They doubt your competency
Unfortunately, many tech recruiters who aren’t from technical backgrounds face this challenge. You don’t need to be a great software developer to hire one, but candidates might feel otherwise. They may doubt your ability to vet them on merit and to distinguish between different applicants.
Tamara, a recruiter we interviewed from CLARK, expressed this to be one of the greatest challenges in tech recruitment:
“One of the biggest challenges I have experienced in tech recruitment is establishing credibility with candidates and internal stakeholders (hiring managers).”
We do believe tech recruiters can benefit from having a basic understanding of technical fundamentals, such as programming basics. However, it’s impractical and perhaps impossible to expect recruiters to be well-versed in the specifics of each role they’re recruiting for.
Fortunately, recruiters can help bridge this gap by engaging in-house team members, e.g. for advice in defining job descriptions and even conducting panel interviews. Moreover, thanks to developments in recruitment technology, recruiters without robust tech knowledge can leverage skills assessment tests to comprehensively evaluate candidates.
How recruiters can establish trust with candidates
The first step in tackling any problem is recognizing the problem. Now that we have covered some reasons for the distrust of recruiters among tech candidates, we can formally move on to the next step: how you can overcome these challenges.
Share the complete details of the recruitment process
Earlier, we discussed how applicants might doubt your motives and competency. You can foster trust with job seekers and establish credibility by giving them a breakdown of the recruitment process.
Let applicants know about the testing procedure, including:
- How many rounds to expect
- How they’ll be evaluated
- When and where interviews/tests will take place
- The duration of the decision period
Being transparent not only helps candidates directly by helping them stay prepared, but also showcases the authenticity of your recruitment process.
Show candidates how you value merit, and how your tech recruitment process reflects it.
Keep communication clear and transparent
Coming back to our previous point, it’s also important to convey the job details from the very start. This makes the process transparent, earns recruiters the candidates’ trust, and helps find the best fit for the tech company.
Thus, one of your earliest courses of action in the recruitment process should be to outline requirements. Craft a tech job description and outline clear expectations for your ideal talent persona. In this stage, you can benefit from engaging internal team members and taking their input. Other details to iron out include the pay grade, working hours, timetable, workload, vacation, sick leaves, insurance, and benefits.
When it comes to this transparency, recruiters shouldn’t shy away from communicating the downsides of the job as well. Additionally, the way you share these details should be clear and concise to avoid any possible misunderstandings.
Act as an advisor; don’t try to sell
Presenting a job opportunity as a sales pitch is a sure-fire way to lose your applicant’s trust. Because even the best offers are rarely perfect, and job seekers know this.
Earlier, we discussed how recruiters might doubt your motives and suspect you’ll prioritize the employers’ benefits over theirs. So, these are apprehensions you’ll need to address and resolve.
And one of the best ways to address these concerns is, to be honest with candidates and impartially vet their job prospects. Give them a clear breakdown of how each opportunity aligns with their goals and preferences, and the pros and cons of each.
The takeaway here is to never sell a job opportunity. Instead, present candidates with a fair perspective so they can make an informed decision about how to proceed.
Respect their time
If candidates don’t believe that you respect their time, they’ll struggle to trust you. So when you engage with job seekers, make it clear that you value their time and are genuinely looking to help them.
Some ways to show candidates that you respect their time are:
- If you have told the candidate that you would call them at a particular time, follow through and call them on time.
- Have a schedule and stick to it. Organizing interviews at the last minute can make candidates anxious and hurt their chance to prepare.
- Leverage technology to avoid forgetting. Forgetting is only human, but you can set reminders and schedule meetings in your calendar to make sure candidates have your proper attention.
Share honest feedback
Candidates appreciate feedback, and more than half of those who receive it will continue a relationship with your company. Giving feedback builds trust with job seekers by giving credibility to your decision and showing you care enough to help them improve professionally.
So when applicants succeed, give them feedback. And when they fail, share feedback with them, too. Let them know how they can improve and what they did well, so they can better prepare for future opportunities.
In addition to giving honest feedback, it’s also important to make sure you share it in time. Don’t leave applicants hanging and keep them in the loop about their performance.
Prioritize the candidate experience
The candidate experience shapes the lens with which applicants view you and the employer. A positive candidate experience helps you establish credibility and build trust with applicants, and a poor experience can dissolve any trust between you.
So, it’s crucial to consider the candidate’s experience at each stage of the recruitment process. Craft job descriptions that are relevant, informative, and clear. Conduct assessments that are fair and merit-based. Evaluate applicants without prejudice and share feedback with them.
A good candidate experience shapes an applicant’s first and last impression of you. So if you intend to keep them in your talent pool, do not neglect their experience.
Leverage technology, thoughtfully
Technology is advancing rapidly, which is a big reason why tech recruitment is increasingly challenging. But while technological advancements contribute to recruiting challenges, they can also help you streamline the recruitment process. Online calendars, automated emails, and tech recruitment platforms are just some examples of software that can make your life easier.
However, it’s important not to get carried away and to avoid using technology for the sake of it. Only turn to technology if it can meaningfully benefit your recruitment process, and technology should never replace genuine recruitment initiatives.
SHRM.SCP’s talent acquisition expert, Jeremy Eskenazi, expressed this sentiment nicely,
“Don’t use tech as a crutch. Knowing how to use technology is important, but you still have to pick up the phone.”
Stay current with trends and technology
Social media has become a primary channel for job seeking and recruitment. More than a decade ago, this was not the case.
Recruitment trends evolve in response. When job seekers start vetting companies and seeking opportunities in new ways, recruiters respond accordingly. For example, as LinkedIn grew and became ‘the’ social media platform for professionals, recruiters embraced InMail and paid campaigns to reach their ideal talent personas.
But how does staying current help you build trust with candidates? It might not help you directly earn their trust, but it influences your own credibility. If you’re current and well-versed in the latest and best recruitment practices, it reflects your competency.
Moreover, social media in particular empowers recruiters to showcase their expertise and nurture their talent pool, increasing their credibility.
Hopper’s Senior Technical Recruiter, Len Syriaque, shared his thoughts on staying current:
“Staying current with technology is always a challenge. I am a member of several online groups which share ideas and explain the latest and greatest tech trends. It’s a great way to ask questions and interact with tech professionals worldwide.”
Len also talks about resumes moving towards NFTs as the world adapts better to cryptocurrencies. He believes that such a shift would allow the candidates to better showcase their skills and have ‘ownership of their careers.’ So recruiters should be prepared to respond in turn.
Nurture relationships with your talent pool
Networking is perhaps a recruiter’s strongest suit. A strong network can help you fill roles better and more accurately.
As a recruiter, you may find many exceptional applicants that are not ideal for a given role. They may not succeed in the application process, but their talents are still valuable. And so you might benefit from keeping them in your talent pool.
A talent pool is your own network of applicants, job seekers, and talent that you’ve interacted and formed relationships with over the years. Nurturing your talent pool helps you gain credibility not only with them, but with new applicants too.
Personal branding is one of the most powerful assets of the modern day. By nurturing your talent pool and establishing yourself as a recruitment authority, you can strengthen your standing as a competent tech recruiter.
However, you will need to go the extra mile to nurture your pool. This may entail, sending helpful material to your existing talent pool, attending recruitment drives and events, and even documenting talent personas and their skill sets so you can help fill new roles better.
Have a clear plan for diversity
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in tech recruitment refer to attracting more underrepresented candidates. With the more accepting and inclusive world, recruiters need to have clear D&I goals, especially because more job seekers than ever are now interested in the D&I initiatives.
Munira Ali from Microsoft shared her actionable advice:
“I believe taking out biasness and eliminating stereotypes in interviews is a problem being faced across the industries. Companies need to build strategies for hiring and setting diversity goals and use technology to implement those goals, not the other way round… .”
Thus, it’s important for recruiters to work with companies that are intentional about diversity and inclusion. Organizations should have clear goals to improve diversity in race, gender, age, disabilities, etc.
Moreover, it’s important to identify areas of potential bias and discrimination in the recruitment process and eliminate them. Recruitment bias is not necessarily conscious – it can be unconscious too, and often is. That makes it more difficult to detect. If you’re unsure about where to start, you might benefit from reading up on the different ways to reduce unconscious hiring bias.
Be intentional about building trust
Trust forms the foundation for any relationship, professional or personal. And relationships with your talent pool can be both – you can be a trusted advisor and good friends.
When you’re recruiting candidates and engaging job seekers, first remember that your intentions are sincere; you’re genuinely looking to help the applicant. The next step is to convince candidates of this – take conscious steps to show them that you have their interests are a priority. Trust will follow.
