Emotional Hiring & Recruitment - A Concept
Emotional Hiring or Emotional Recruitment is a concept that is going to challenge the current hiring process and will bring paradigm shift in the way recruitment is done in organisations. Going by the current trend of attrition in major organisations, one can comfortably say that the fault lies in the recruitment. Current hiring process and the kind of pressure that Human Resource team go through for filling up the vacancy is one of the reasons that organisations are facing heavy attrition in the first two years of the employee life cycle.
There is a clear cut link between the employee retention and the way he/she was inducted in the organization, this includes the interview process as well. Most organisations follow a well defined and structured hiring and recruitment process that starts from scrutinising resume, conducting psychometric assessments, written test and Competency Based Interview. Seemingly this has become a global practice with few sector or industry specific exceptions.
Let us Understand Emotional Recruitment - Hiring
To better differentiate the two process, first let’s get the basic overview of the existing hiring process that is largely accepted and being in practice. This process is quite stable, and robust and also giving the desired outcomes.
Existing Recruitment & Hiring Process:
Step 1 : Resume Shortlisting manually or with the help of software.
Step 2: Candidate/s are invited or asked to appear for a written assessment (in case of technical job) or Online Psychometric assessment is being administered.
Step 3: Shortlisted candidates are invited for initial screening. Over the telephone or over the video call, or face to face. This depends on various factors including the cost of travel for candidate.
Step 4: Selected candidate is being forwarded for further rounds of interviews.
Emotional Recruitment & Hiring - recommended process
Assessment - An experience to cherish
8 out 10 written assessments have been scary for most individuals, irrespective of the age and designation. The whole idea is NOT TO scare BUT to know their hidden behaviour pattern and their technical knowledge in some cases. Interviewer must ensure that he provides fearless experience to candidates while they attempt the assessment. Avoid unnecessary pressure by repeatedly announcing the rules and time line etc.
Initial Interview -provide comforting environment
This is where the real ‘Interview Experience’ starts. It has been noted that 7 out of 10 Interviewers are habitual of spreading fear and scare, by asking tough questions and making candidate feel sweating. They think this way they will reinforce the seriousness about the job role. Emotional Hiring is suggesting to build a constructive environment during the preliminary interview. Even research has proven that comforting the environment, better the creativity.Scary the experience lesser the originality during interview.
Competency Based Interview- Add Emotional aspects
Emotional Hiring is an additional approach which is complementing to C.B.I. (Competency Based Interview). In fact, it gel so well with the over all questioning system that interviewer can have 360 degree view of the candidate. The secret lies in ‘asking’ ’emotional questions’ that bring out the totality of the candidate. There are 4 major stages in ‘Emotional Hiring’
1. Build Human Connection
2. Build Social Connection
3. Build Emotional Connection
4. Build Trust & Credibility
Emotional hiring - time to train the HR managers
As the time is changing and we all are evolving to new normal, the recruitment and hiring as a process need overall shift. Organisations and their CEOs/CHROs may not find it as significant as compare to their main business line, however this is a sure way to ensure better candidate and longer retention span along with higher productivity. Emotional Hiring ensures that the manager you hire will put his/her best as it is easy to relate with emotions of an organisations.
What is required is a systematic shift in hiring process to Emotional Hiring Process. Train the HR Managers, Functional Managers and those who are conducting interviews in organisations.
Download Emotional Hiring Manual here.
