Article: How to tackle renege among candidates?

Talent Acquisition

How to tackle renege among candidates?

The elusive lag period between the date of job offer and joining date is a black box for organizations. What do companies need to do to ensure that candidates dont drop off?
How to tackle renege among candidates?

Reneging or going back on a promise and not turning up for the ‘job offered’ is becoming a harsh reality for the organizations today. Potential employees reneging carries multiple risks and implications- organizations incur losses in terms of time and money spent on the recruitment of the potential job seekers, entire recruitment cycle restarts, and business suffers as demands are not fulfilled in a timely manner. The case of reneging is more prevalent in the IT companies and especially among the younger workforce. Since it is an era of disruptions and fierce competition where organizations rival to procure the best of the talents- losing out on the potential candidates who were rigorously interviewed, assessed and eventually offered a job is certainly a big no! So, let’s delve into some of the ways to tackle the challenge of ‘renege’ among potential candidates.

Project the ‘right’ company brand: People take great pride in associating themselves with the organization which boasts of great culture and values. Emphasizing organization's achievements, mission and aspects of its exciting working environment can help candidates perceive the organization in a positive light. Furthermore, organizations which put in great efforts to define its culture, norms, and values and share the same with the potential candidates are perceived as better places to work with and thus decrease the chances of reneging. 

Impart ‘clarity’ to the candidates: People often seek ‘clarity’ and ‘meaning’ in what they undertake. Recruitment team members should try to make job description and candidate’s profile as clear as possible so that candidates know beforehand what exactly they are getting into. At the same time, aspects related to compensation and benefits and other legal clauses should be made clear to them. They should be asked in case they have any doubts and the same should be removed as early as possible.

Build a strong relationship with candidates: It is possible and in fact advisable to build a strong relationship with the potential candidates even before they join the company.  It can be achieved by assigning them mentors or ‘buddies’ who will interact with the candidates with the purpose of easing out their anxieties and doubts (if any) about the organization and their role and responsibilities. These conversations are mostly informal in nature and thus are taken well by the candidates. Recruitment team members can also invite candidates to some company function or to some networking event like offsite or a visit to any Business Unit. It will give candidates a sneak peak about the company, work, and the people.

Communication is the key: Recruitment is a comprehensive process which might take several weeks or months, hence it is important to stay connected with the candidates as closely as possible so that they don’t lose hopes and interest during the lag period. At the same time, recruitment team should include candidates in selective internal communications where they are informed about various developments happening at the company. It’s much likely that there’ll be some aspects that will inspire and entice them to join. It will also give candidates the feeling of being a part of the organization.  It will further expose them to the corporate language and some of the ways of working before they actually start contributing. 

Leveraging on the big data to predict ‘renege’: Organizations can utilize the huge amount of data available to them to predict about reneging. For an instance, Accenture, by leveraging big data has created a mechanism to filter ‘renege’ candidates. Certain attributes were identified of people who seemed to have high ‘renege’ probability and at the same time, they also worked on creating an index for ‘high-quality hiring’ which indicates how a high potential looks like. As mentioned earlier, in this era of disruptions, technology will play a huge role in determining and streamlining the various people related process. So it’s good to start early and think about leveraging big data to predict various people related trends.

Assessing candidates for ‘organization-fit’: Recruitment is a complex and comprehensive process which entails several rounds of assessments and interviews. However, organizations need to put in more rigorous efforts to better assess the candidates for their motivational and organizational fit. There is a need to understand what motivates employees and what values they bring to the table- do their value align with that of the organization? Do they believe in organization’s vision and mission? And are they ready to work towards the common organizational goals? Furthermore, the younger workforce has different needs and preferences which should be taken into account at the beginning itself so that it doesn’t pose any challenge later on at the time of the joining. 

Though predicting about ‘renege’ candidates with utmost accuracy will always be a challenge, however, putting some amount of concerted efforts towards understanding ‘what attracts candidates and what puts them off’ will give organizations good insights around tackling the problem of reneging. So let’s gear up and seize the opportunity to convert ‘first impression into a lasting, positive impression’. 

This article is written in partnership with MISB Bocconi 

MISB Bocconi, located in Mumbai, is the world’s only offshore presence of Università Bocconi, one of Europe’s premier universities. Founded in 2012, MISB Bocconi offers Post-Graduate program in Business and Executive Education, designed and taught by the faculty of SDA Bocconi, Milan, Italy

MISB Bocconi’s key differentiator lies in the wide-ranging practical and academic expertise of the SDA Bocconi faculty; pro-active learning pedagogies include industry interaction, job-oriented internships, and projects to prepare students for global leadership. International exposure is integral to the program through the dual campus student exchange between Milan and Mumbai.

 

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, Recruitment

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