Stop Telling Candidates What You Want

COVID changed how candidates look at jobs, work, and employers. The rise of AI added yet another layer. Together, they’ve changed how people think about the future of their work, the importance of their roles, and whether any opportunity today will matter tomorrow.

If the people you need are evaluating opportunities differently than they did, why are you still recruiting the same way you always have?

Bottom line – the recruiting environment has dramatically changed.

Too many workers—employed and unemployed alike—are still trying to find stability after years of job loss, workplace disruption, and uncertainty they neither expected nor controlled. After repeatedly seeing circumstances overturn promises they once believed, many have become far more skeptical of what employers say. As a result, attracting the right people has become significantly more difficult.

The evidence is everywhere. Open roles sit longer. Candidates hesitate, disappear, or accept and keep looking. New hires are hesitant, unwilling to fully commit. Managers and staff feel the pressure, customers feel the inconsistency, and leadership feels the drag.

 The pain is real. Navigating this recruiting environment is what businesses need to be better at doing now.

Recruitments continue to focus on what the organization wants: qualifications, experience, responsibilities, and results expected. That information matters, and it answers the employer’s questions, NOT the candidate’s.

Last month I argued that the people you need don’t need you. While that’s still true, the bigger problem is that many prospective candidates have been trained to stop trusting what employers tell them.

Organizations have spent years teaching candidates to be skeptical.

For far too long, candidates have listened to organizations promise stability and then eliminate positions. They have experienced employers talk about culture, values, and accountability while tolerating behavior that contradicts all three. They have heard employers make recruiting promises only to discover that the reality looked very different from the inside.

Candidates have learned to ignore the message and now ask “Can I trust what I’m being told?”, “Will this opportunity still make sense a year from now?”, and “Is this an organization I can see myself being part of?” Questions most recruiting messages still never attempt to answer.

Attracting the right people starts when organizations stop focusing on what they need and start offering what the right candidates are looking for.

The goal is not to find applicants. The goal is to help the right people recognize an opportunity that aligns with who they are, what they care about, and what they want from their work.

When that happens, recruiting stops being an exercise how to get applications and starts becoming an exercise in creating genuine interest.

I repeat, If the people you need are evaluating opportunities differently than they did, why are you still recruiting the same way you always have?

While you can’t control the labor market, you can control your messaging. The people you need aren’t rejecting your opportunities; they’re ignoring a message about what matters to your organization, not what matters to them. You’re unintentionally telling the right people to ignore you.

If you'd like to explore what’s driving your staffing challenges, let's spend 20 minutes determining whether recruiting is the problem or a symptom of something else your organization needs to address.

Questions? Email larry@mandelberg.biz. Want a copy of my book/framework? Businesses Don’t Fail, They Commit Suicide — how to survive success and thrive in good times and bad

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