First line of attack
First impressions in recruitment
I’m enjoying Jayke Annan’s LinkedIn series on first lines in books. Check them out.
If one were to peruse a book, whether on a shelf or bookshop, an intriguing first line is a better hook than the description on the cover.
I wonder how many people bought The Gunslinger because “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
Stephen King was already famous by 1982, though it was published in short story forms a few years prior - a big brand helps of course, much like those shiny employer jewels in the crown.
Are you the jewel in the crown in your employment marketplace?
Jayke’s fine point is the importance of that first line in job advertising.
If every advert starts with,
“Here at Bircham Wyatt Recruitment we are excited to recruit for…”
or
“I’m excited to be recruiting for my favourite client…”
why would anyone read further, unless they were already hooked by:
Job title
Salary
Location
When salary and location are unclear, even they aren’t selling points.
It’s no wonder many people thought ‘adverts don’t work’, even before the great brAIn drAIn over the last couple of years.
I fill around half of my public vacancies from adverts. My opening lines aren’t nearly as exciting as Jayke’s or Matt’s for that matter, let alone Mitch’s, yet many of these were deemed hard-to-fill by the employer.
I’m mindful that the best way to encourage reading of a second line, is to evoke curiosity, speak to the ideal candidate directly, speak to their pain, or lack of problem awareness. Whatever it is, led by what the vacancy can offer, or by other factors related to your reader.
On Wednesday, I was speaking to a candidate about an urgent common skills role.
This candidate is out of work, and highly suitable. He said to me he was excited for our call, because my initial LinkedIn DM felt more human than every other recruiter contact he’s had.
Maybe he was just buttering me up, though again that thought always goes through my head.
Without the right first impression - a message focused on him and his needs - what guarantee is there of a response? It was a simple message - 53 words long. No personalisation - just a question and an offer.
While nothing’s guaranteed in the white noise of recruitment, it’s on us to maximise the odds of a reply with the right wording.
Each interaction feeds into the other, bringing people forward for the right reasons.
Some call it candidate experience.
First impressions count. That gut instinct at interview, or any other walk of recruitment, is hard to deny, even with an awareness of halo and devil bias.
It’s no different for candidates.
Every interaction they have informs their next step, and recruitment for them is a series of first impressions -
The first line of advert (below or above the line, in writing or voice)
The first interaction with a recruiter
The job description
The first interaction with an employer
Their joy of experiencing Workday for the first time (other ATS are available)
Walking up to reception, or waiting in a Teams lobby
Their first experience after the interview
Their first meeting with other people in the team
Their first experience of your job offer, what you did after
Their first day, week, month, probation review
How’s retention looking?
Once you realise that everything has a first impression, you may see the importance each step, and in between, has for the candidate.
Perhaps not so important in a common skill or business as usual hiring process, when if one person doesn’t get it, the next one will.
But when recruitment has impact, and you need to get it right first time, those other firsts are crucial.
And when you have a system that gets these firsts right, you lose nothing by doing it for every vacancy.
Each is a sign of what to follow, and when you get it wrong, that ideal candidate may never get to the ending.
Unless you’re me, and you sometimes check out the last line of a book before you even start reading.
Regards,
Greg
P.s.