At Sprint we are fortunate enough to recruit for some of the best businesses in the market (not that we’re bias at all). However, though we know they’re great and we tell our candidates that they are great, we always remind our clients to remember that in an interview situation, the candidate is interviewing them as well!

It is important for business owners and line managers to remember that as an interviewer, it is also your responsibility to get the candidate excited about the role/company etc. You can’t always rely on your brand to attract the right potential employees to your business. The way that you engage with the candidate and the level of interest that you show in them as a person could determine whether they choose another role over the one you’re offering when it comes to the crunch!

Clients often say that an hour interview is such a short period of time to try and decipher if a candidate is going to be right for their business, but remember, it’s the same for the candidate too! They want to know that you will care about them, foster learning and development and provide them with opportunities to create a true career path for themselves.

Often employers are so focused on “testing” a candidate that they forget to engage with them. I can’t tell you how many times we have had clients come back to us telling us how they really “put the candidate under pressure” or “threw the candidate a curve ball”, or “had their interview poker face on”. When the employer then comes back wishing to offer the candidate, they are often miffed that candidate declines the role because they didn’t get a good vibe from their interviewer and they felt disengaged with the process.

Yes – it’s true that there are a lot of candidates on the market at the moment, but the top quality, hard working, loyal candidates, that most employers seek are still hard to find! If a candidate is sitting in front of you, ticking all the boxes, then it would be such a shame to miss out on them simply because you were trying to trip them up, rather than engaging with them.

Chances are, if you think they are fantastic, other employers will too! So don’t miss the opportunity to tell them how amazing their life is going to be if they choose you. At the end of day, given multiple options, candidates will most likely choose the employer that;

• Was friendly in the interview and made them feel comfortable
• Showed genuine interest in them and their development
• Moved quickly
• Gave the impression that they would really add value to their business and that they were excited to have them on board.

Yes, it may very well be your brand that made a candidate apply in the first place, but as they sit in front of you in an interview situation… all nervous and excited… subconsciously (or sometimes even consciously) they are waiting for you to sell your company back to them.