After 14 years as an interview and career coach the feedback I regularly receive suggests that a high percentage of HR staff are more back office administrators than front office leaders in communication and relationship building.

Polling the experiences of our jobs seekers with HR Managers, Recruiters and Senior Management Interview Panels, we compiled a list of their key negative experiences across 7 different industries.

From the candidates perspective:

• The recruiter doesn’t understand my experience or how it applies to the role.
• The recruiter really doesn’t care about me / communicate with me.
• The recruiter asked a set of generic questions.
• The HR manager was not approachable or communicative.
• The HR manager asked more than one very similar question.
• The HR manager did all the talking.
• The interview panel disagreed on what they wanted from a candidate.
• The interview panel was confrontational.
• The interview panel was made up of staff who were junior to my role.

Businesses can learn from this feedback. Reduce the costs of hiring the wrong person by doing a little extra training with their HR staff on how to conduct interviews, make personal connections, draw out key personality traits and motivations, resulting in hiring the right candidate.

An interview conducted well, but even a candidate being rejected properly, with respect and a little personal touch does wonders for a companies’ image and will attract great candidates in future.

For more information on training for HR Staff, please don’t hesitate to contact us.