IES Blog

The power of word-of-mouth

Posted on September 13th, 2013 Read time: 1 minutes

Recruiters should know that retail customers are more likely to trust reviews from friends, family and Internet users more than promotional material. This is relevant to those in the staffing community because sourcing talent has many things in common with marketing a product. Every interview is as much the candidate evaluating the company as the hiring manager sizing up the candidate, for example. In the Internet age, word-of-mouth commentary on companies and staffing firms is an every day occurrence. Recruiters should prepare themselves to be put on display and ensure the comments on their firms are positive

To work toward great reviews, recruiters should treat every interaction in the recruitment process as though the candidate will post about their experience on social media. While not everyone will do so, it is best to assume they most likely will. This means treating prospective hires, whether permanent or temporary workers, with respect at all times. This is already best practice in recruiting, but may be a good reminder for professionals of how public everything is in the digital world. It is necessary to consider how people may perceive an interaction once it goes public, as it may very well do. Paying close attention to how they treat every applicant can help recruiters receive positive word-of-mouth for their organizations.

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