Employers' Service

This service is for those employers who are recruiting directly from the market and not using recruitment firms to do so on their behalf. The drive for efficiency in getting the right resources for your business or organisation is paramount. But the process is frustrating and the behaviour of the candidates is poor, driving delays and costs. But the drivers for these behaviours are complex and are often a result of poor practices (in general) in the recruitment processes we see today. This is a vicious circle of automation by employers to drive down costs and gaming by the candidates to make progress in a dehumanised process.

See more information below or choose to subscribe from our Employers' Service at the bottom of this page and start to drive better behaviours back into the process.

A new commitment to better behaviours

Bringing the recruitment process up to a better standard requires commitment from both the employer and the potential employee. The recruitment process today has entered a vicious circle and a race to the bottom. While employers believe recruitment is about efficiency, the drive for automation is tremendous. The result of highly automated processes is dehumanising and for employers, the outcomes are poor. When the employers drive the candidates into a dehumanising automated process, the candidates respond with gaming the system which leads to more inefficiencies for the employer who automates further. Have you experienced the following?

Do not meet the criteria

Candidates applying for roles that they are totally unsuited for. Filling the process with CVs that have to be looked at, assessed and then rejected. Forces an automated process, dehumanises the process for all candidates, not only the timewasters.

Fishing trips

The candidates that are still employed and clearly going on a fishing trip to see if there are other roles they might like. Often driven by an injustice in current employer (overlooked for promotion, feels under paid or under appreciated). The candidate attempts to secure an offer purely as a negotiation lever for their current role. Completely wastes the time of the employer, processes must be rerun. The embarrassing conversation where you have to offer the role to a 2nd place candidate ('we are sorry we rejected you, we would now like to make you an offer, you really are the right person for the job after all'). Candidates on fishing trips are very hard to spot.

Unrealistic salary expectations

You will have met many of these. Late in the recruitment process you find the candidate was on £40K and now wants £80K, or worse, the candidate is on £80K and you are disclosing the role is only up to £40K. They drive for the upper limit of salary. Some then reject any offers based upon salary expectation. There are many causes for this including failure of the employer to publicise salary ranges for the role and also for the candidate to have unrealistic expectations and demands late in the process. Both results in significant time and money wasted.

CVs

The CV is an art form. Some can write in ways that legitimately make them look good, or even better than they are. Some are simply works of fiction. It is hard to see the wood for the trees. Some are written exceptionally well and also works of fiction. These are the most dangerous. The CV issues are extensive. The risk is that you will shortlist only on CVs on the whole and this means that many good candidates are thrown out early while the CV fakers make it through to later stages. Relying upon CVs to sift is a risky approach as AI and candidates get better at writing great works of fiction.

Notice periods

The candidate who is available at 1 months notice but later on, after offer, that was based upon holiday entitlement and in fact the notice period is 3 months. Do you wait? Do you reverse the offer and start again? The need for urgency is often driven by poor planning and unrealistic expectations on the employers part as to how long a well run process takes. Pressures to reduce the time result in a change in behaviours by candidates who have to bend reality to even make it through the early stages of your process.

References

These are a double edged sword. On the one hand they are the only real way to legitimately test what a candidate has told you on the CV and in interview. On the other hand, they are fraught with liability issues. Many employers refuse to give any real detailed information about a previous employee and stick to start date, end date facts. So it is ever harder to rely upon references to validate an employees past.

Clear Benefits

By committing to improve your recruitment processes you will benefit from:

Improved reputation

When attracting the best candidates, your reputation is everything. Treat everyone humanely in the process and it says lots about what it will be like to work for you. Thereby attracting the best.

Improved outcomes

While it is clear that some of the commitments will drive up costs, the improved outcomes will more than compensate.

Loyalty

Candidates hired through a humane process will have more loyalty than those put through the mill.

Better Candidates

Those candidates that take the extra step of subscribing and committing demonstrate a clear ethical behaviour before they even get interviewed.

Respect

With employment under pressure, more candidates will be looking for fewer and fewer roles. Those employers who embrace good behaviours will earn respect and this will pay dividends when times get better.

Value for money

Subscriptions and membership is value for money. You will simply get better outcomes from your recruitment processes.

You commit to ...

1 / Clear, open and honest job adverts.

You want the best people, we know that, but do not dress up the role to be something more than it is. Remember, if you are not open about the role, how can you expect the candidates to be open about themselves? This cycle of escalating deceit to overcome progressively poorer behaviours on both sides is a race to the bottom.

2 / Realistic salary expectations

Publish the salary range. Virtually nothing causes frustration from candidates more than not being able to determine what a role could pay. The result is simply that you will be inundated with CVs whose candidates would not otherwise apply if they knew the salary range. Everyone knows why this poor practice is done. Nobody likes it and it is not clear that it even creates the results the proponents claim. This is a key commitment.

3 / The role is genuine

You commit to not running recruitment processes for the sake of internal protocols and rules about fair and open competition. If you have a person you want to hire, do not pull large numbers of candidates through a process where there was no hope of success just to be seen to be running a recruitment competition.

4 / No fishing trips

You commit to only advertising real roles which will be recruited as advertised if the right candidate is found. No fishing trips to gather CVs for your database or potential future roles to test the market and gather potential candidates for the future.

5 / Realism in the job criteria

Probably the second biggest complaint in recruitment is the unrealistic criteria. We have all witnessed the advert, must have 25 years experience in XYZ, must be able to lead teams of 10,000, must be able to speak 3 languages fluently, must have 2 degrees and a PHD, must be able to start tomorrow, pays minimum wage.
You commit to (and stick to the spirit, not the words),

Minimise the essential criteria. Realise qualifications are not always the answer (in many fields) and experience counts for a lot.

Be realistic in what you are asking for. Do not over ask and do not spread the net too wide. The candidate should be able to look at the role description and decide accurately whether they could do the role.

Be realistic about any real red lines. In so many cases we have spoken to employers who have long lists of 'essential' criteria only to find most are actually desirable. Make explicit - do not apply if ....

6 / Recruitment is not free consultancy

You commit to not treating candidates as free consultancy. Report after report is made about organisations who simply ask candidates to present solutions to their problems. While this is tempting, it leaves a very bitter taste in the candidate's mouth and damages your reputation. Only use entirely hypothetical scenarios (do not game this) if you want your candidates to do some work on something.

7 / Commit to a 2 lane process

We can guarantee your organisation is missing out on some great candidates. Internally, your organisation will look to develop its existing employees who are ready to step up to the next level. But in recruitment, it is pretty much the case that if you have not done the role before at that level, you will not get this one. Generally this happens because of over asks on essential criteria. You miss out on all the candidates screened out as they don't currently fit the essential criteria. As a result, you get way more CVs from people who feel they are ready for a step up but maybe not have the experience you require in essential criteria. They are then generally filtered out in an automated process.
Your commitment is to run an explicit 2 lane process and be explicit to the candidates who apply.
Lane 1 - apply for the role stating you meet the essential criteria.
Lane 2 - apply for the role under lane 2 stating you do not meet the essential criteria but could step up to do the role in question.

You will achieve 2 things from this commitment. The first is pre-sorted candidates, secondly, avoid the automatic rejection of the lane 2 candidates.
Lane 2 candidates may provide a better outcome. More grateful employee for getting the chance (showing you believe in them) and a reduced set of CVs which will be easier to manage.

8 / Speak to all applicants

This is perhaps the key commitment of all of your commitments. The dehumanisation of the process through automation. There are so many tales of people whose CVs were rejected but managed to badger their way through to actually meet or speak to someone only to find they were the perfect match.
CVs are notoriously difficult to assess. They only talk really of experience. They do not say anything about the person, their intelligence or wisdom, their cultural fit with your organisation, their work ethic, their dedication to their employers, their new ideas, their approach to problem solving.
And yet, those experienced in interviewing (and in may cases novices) can quite easily draw some conclusions in the first 5 minutes of an interview.

The commitment you will make is to speak to all Candidates Matter applicants as a minimum. This will be at least a 5 minute conversation with the decision maker prior to any decision to exclude from the process. This need not be an interview, but a simple conversation to talk to the candidate about the role or themselves.

Yes, we accept this is a huge commitment but Candidates Matter is about putting people first. You will be surprised how positive the experience is for both sides.

9 / Applicants Data

Do you know how invasive it feels for candidates when they apply for a job and not only have to provide the CV (an acceptable necessity) but complete what seems endless personal questions about religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and so on. This, often before a CV can even be sent (or during the application process). This is a deeply disturbing trend. The GDPR regulations are clear about need. Why such extensive information is needed before even deciding whether a candidate is suitable for interview? Furthermore, how can candidates be sure their application is not subject to positive or negative discrimination? Such information is not necessary for the decisions required and debatable whether such information is required until later stages.
Finally, the candidates rejected face the prospects that large numbers of organisations have gathered personal information and not know how to get it removed or what will be done with it in practice.

Under this commitment, you agree not to gather such personal information until such a time that it is demonstrably necessary (and necessity does not include a need for analysis on your performance against diversity targets for applicants.
The second part is the commitment to automatically delete all candidate data should the candidate be rejected at any stage of the process. The only exception to this should be where the rejected candidate is explicitly asked if they would like to keep their data with that employee for future roles and the candidate explicitly states this is acceptable. This should not be a tick box on a form, this must be an explicit question and explicit answer.

10 / Notice periods

Notice periods are a tricky to navigate. At Candidates Matter we require all member candidates to be completely honest about notice periods. We ask the same commitment from you.
The setting of unrealistic notice periods causes a cycle of issues. Where you ask for someone to start in 1 month only to find your recruitment process takes 2 months and all the candidates on 2 months notice fail to apply. Be realistic about notice periods. State what you will actually accept and be ethical. You expect your employees to give you reasonable notice periods, expect other employers to do the same. Forcing candidates into artificially low start times generates deceit to try and get a job (not be honest about notice periods in reality).
Your commitment here is key. While it is clear many roles are needed with some urgency, tread carefully.

11 / Applicant feedback

Most candidates have shown a desire and a commitment to your business/organisation through applying to your job advert. They are often committing to travel expense, time and effort to do what they can to be successful. Sadly, only one candidate can get the role and therefore many will be unsuccessful.
You commit to providing a detailed feedback on why a candidate did not succeed, ideally verbally in a feedback session. Humanise the process. Even 5 minutes will build respect for your business and this will be noted and your reputation improved. Feedback enables an unsuccessful candidate to grow, to learn and the investment in your process would then be repaid in improving their chances next time.

Candidates Matter is about changing behaviours and standards in the recruitment process. To do this, both sides need to commit to new ways of working. By subscribing to the employers service you are committing to the following rules of conduct. Breaches of these rules can result in fines and or the removal of your membership from the service.

What do you get with your subscription?

We will allow you to put your Candidates Matter membership logo and details onto your web site, social media and any job adverts. This way your candidates will know you have high standards and are an employer who cares about people. We will send you the logos etc. with your membership details.
You can report candidates who have Candidates Matter subscriptions who you believe violate their commitments. (see candidates landing page).
You can verify the membership of any Candidates Matter candidate to ensure they are legitimate members.
Candidates can verify your membership. This is limited to informing them that your membership is live.
We can audit (if necessary) the recruitment processes you are involved in and fine or cancel membership of candidates that are not adhering to the commitments.

Report candidate behaviours that breach their commitments

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