Lasting Impression…

I had a meeting with the chairperson of a conglomerate at 3.30 pm.  After completing due formalities of security, I had reported sharp at  3.20 p.m. at the meeting room. While I was settling down in the meeting room, I gazed upon vision and values of the organization, my cell phone rang and it was of the chairperson for whom I was waiting. She said, “Please excuse me, I will be reaching at 3.31”.

I was completely shocked by her gesture, she was so concerned about the timing of the meeting and respected my time as well. I would not have uttered a single word even though she could have reached late by couple of minutes. As this is usually custom and popularly termed as ‘fashionably late’. I was astonished by her sense of commitment even before our first meeting.  

While driving down to my office after the meeting, the same thought of her punctuality was pestering me and I could recollect incidences wherein I failed to honor my time commitments, especially when interviewing the candidates at junior to mid-level. I started introspecting and could think of common mistakes in the process of recruitment.    

Actually, recruitment is really a tiring process, those who are in to talent acquisition would second my views. The hiring manager ( the manger who wants to fill up a position in his/ her department / function) has got fixed concepts about the candidature and many a times  those are beyond the standard job description.

Scanning many CVs, checking with JDs, evaluating budget and getting shortlisting from the concerned hiring manager, checking interest of the shortlisted candidate and arranging interview! On a piece of paper, it seems to be pretty straight forward and logical process but consumes a lot of time to reach to the stage of interview scheduling. Then, either the calendar of the manager is booked or the candidate is unavailable at the time slot of the manager and this puts an extra pressure on the person handling the acquisition process.

In general, the mindset of the hiring manager/s  observed as #

“ Let the candidate wait.. I have business priority”

“ HR doesn’t have any work but to push for interviews.. “

“ So what ? I have had also waited during those days .. “

“ If candidate needs a job, he will wait! Else, he is not so serious ..”

In fact, the very need of filling up the vacant position is forgotten in such scenarios.  The organization, the department, the function and the manager are in equal need of a right person at right position in a quickest possible way.  Consequently, in many cases, even though one is able to convince the reason, interviews get delayed.

If we look from the candidate’s perspective,  s/he has to prepare himself/herself for the interview. Study about the prospective organization, google out many things, fight for the leave with current manager to attend the interview, if outstation, travel through various modes of transport and keep the spirit high to face the interview. Having said this, many times , the candidate experiences the state of anxiety.

Considering the same, imagine if the interview process does not get kick off at the scheduled time ?  Result ?  Chaos !!  Candidate’s performance may get impacted due to such delays , higher rate of rejection by hiring manager/s  and last but not the least, such incidences impacts the reputation of the organization negatively !!

These are tiny instances, but commitment to the organization does not necessarily mean the volumes, the numbers etc. Commitment is far above than this and demonstrated in every action of the manager, be it at the operational level or at interpersonal communication level. The moment it reflects in the behavior of each employee, whether the candidate is selected or not, but as an organization we are successful to create a “Lasting Impression “ !