Mémoire of a HR manager

When I first started thinking about a topic to share, I thought of sharing something different than anything related to recruitment. Later, having a few interview talks and reading a few HR related articles, I decide to linger a bit along this subject and ask some of the questions I have for both my colleagues and candidates.

Every day great experts are sharing tens of articles on most common mistakes in CVs, steps to take before, during and after an interview, the necessity of doing good homework in order to successfully prepare for an interview and the job itself, etc. There is so much information available nowadays from the recruitment professionals themselves on how to best approach any recruitment and selection process, I started wondering: why does the quality of applications and a candidate’s performance before, during and after an interview talk, at least from my experience, is hardly improving? Are we, HR professionals, addressing our concerns in an appropriate, accessible and clear way? What can we do better in order to have a bigger impact in terms of successfully delivering our messages?

My main concern is a candidate’s underestimation (I assume it is this) on the necessity of good research on the organisation, the position itself and the recruiter. In every third application I am addressed as Mr. Bosenko (though I am female). Especially, being Mr. Bosenko does not find peace in my head when a candidate writes that they are very passionate about research and see their career in the field of research. Why not to research me? Since my picture is on the organisation’s website, it might also give a certain indication on how well the research on the organisation was done.

Why does it happen more and more often that a candidate starts their application with “Dear Sir/Madam” or “Dear recruitment professional”? Are we going or have already gone into a new trend where addressing the recruiter by their name is not relevant and does is not show that a candidate did not do their homework? Also, I quite often face poor homework done on the organisation itself: candidates do not know and or cannot explain what the organisation does, what the services provided to the clients are, etc. Sometimes when I ask if a candidate did have a look at our website, I get a response: I did two weeks ago (and that is why I no longer remember what the organisation is about). This approach is applicable for both the core team and internship positions.

Dear colleagues, to which extent do you pay attention to such things and what does good or less good homework tell you about a candidate, if it does tell anything? Dear candidates, what can we, as HR professionals, do to help you better prepare for and perform in an interview talk?

By Liubovi Bosenko
Liubovi Bosenko joined HiiL Innovating Justice as a Human Resources Consultant in 2010. Currently, she is the HR Manager at HiiL.