Date: 06/11/2018
I was being entertained. I was at a stand at the Expo and the complaint went something like this, “They expect a salary of £50k but they can’t be bothered to turn up on time in the morning.”
I collect stories like this. It helps me explain to young people what they need to do if they want to impress potential employers and what they must avoid doing because it would be a complete turn off.
Unreliability is a pet hate of most employers. But how well do we business people perform when it comes to reliability? Based on stories I collect from job candidates, I’m sorry to say that the answer is, “not at all well.”
One of the questions I’m frequently asked by young people goes something like this, “I went for a job interview nearly two weeks ago and I still haven’t heard anything. What should I do?”
All job candidates have a right to expect that, at the end of an interview, they will be told when they can expect to be informed as to whether they got the job or not.
We all know that in business, life is what happens when you have other plans. It’s not your fault that a colleague has been taken ill and you’ve been asked to takeover negotiations for a contract that’s reached critical stage. It’s not your fault that an elderly relative has passed away and you need to take time off to attend the funeral…which is in Northumberland. You didn’t see these things coming. You couldn’t have.
No, but that doesn’t absolve us from the promise we made that we’d let the candidates know “by next Wednesday.” We have a P.A. She can let them know what’s happening. That’s what she’s there for.
It’s just not fair to leave candidates hovering around, not knowing where they stand or what to do next. They fear being perceived as putting pressure on you if they ring up to find out what’s going on? They fear being perceived as having lost interest if they don’t? Poor souls are left feeling as if they’ll be wrong whatever they do.
Let’s give job candidates a break, shall we? If they can’t rely on our reliability, what right have we to complain about theirs?
Barry Jackson. Company Director, Aspire Academy.
www.aspire-academy.net.
barry@aspire-academy.net
07795-288490