As a negotiation skills speaker and negotiation skills consultant, I have noticed a troublesome trend in the modern-day hiring process. This trend should be reversed as a matter of priority especially in the current labor market which is anything but predictable. It goes to the matter of the hiring and interviewing process.
What is your image?
In my keynote talks on negotiation and the hiring process, I like to ask hiring managers, HR professionals and management, if they like their companies?
“Well, of course we do,” they exclaim.
Then why, I often ask aloud, don’t you allow that enthusiasm to spill over into the interviewing process? Why are you so matter-of-fact in exploring the virtues of your company? Why don’t you talk-up your products or outstanding staff; your commitment to diversity and corporate social responsibility? For despite the virtues, when it comes to hiring practices, there is often a reluctance – or forgetfulness when it comes to putting organizations in the best possible light.
Lessons learned, sometimes too late
By this time, nearly every hiring manager in America is familiar with the so-called “Great Resignation.” Hundreds of thousands of workers walked off jobs in reaction to a number of long-standing grievances. In many cases, they were right. Organizations had no choice but to reset and make improvements.
However, a trend that did not get as much attention were the tens of thousands of workers hired by new companies, who never even made it to their first day on the job. The trend left many hiring professionals scratching their heads in disbelief. They could not figure out what they had done wrong. As a negotiation skills speaker and negotiation skills consultant, I have arrived at a pretty good conclusion as to what had happened.
In interviewing, every organization seeks (obviously) to hire the best people and put them in the best possible position to succeed. Nevertheless, after both observing and talking with numerous HR professionals and managers, I have detected a trend of these fine people completely underselling the virtues of the organization.
Hiring the best people has become a negotiation process as never before as the competition for finding the best people has never been more intense. What many hiring managers working for exceptional companies have discovered, is that in their under-stated, sometimes super, even-keeled manner, they failed to create any excitement about their companies.
While as a negotiation skills expert I understand the fine line HR departments must walk these days, there has never been an admonition placed on generating a certain amount of enthusiasm for the hiring company. If the face of the company, those hiring and interviewing are fearful about extolling the virtues of the organization, why would anyone want to work there?
Enthusiasm is contagious, and whether the negotiation is for a new product or process or employee, there must be a sense of pride, ownership and shared vision instilled into the conversation. It must be remembered that ultimately you are negotiating a company image. If where you work is a good place to work, flaunt it!
To contact Mike Hourigan, Negotiation Skills Keynote Speaker, for an in-person or virtual presentation, please call. Contact Mike today at (704) 875-3030 or fill out the form below.
