With the increasing sophistication of CRM systems, your history with a company is easily found and remembered. It doesn’t matter if management is different or HR has changed, your history is still there. All they have to do is go into their computer to see every interaction they have had with you. Your previous actions, good and bad, absolutely have an impact on their hiring decisions today.
New Management
In industries with limited competition, we often times try to help people move from one company to another within the same industry. Usually, that candidate has either worked at or interviewed with the competitor previously. Normally, most times, the employer will understand why the employee left or chose the role with the competitor. But…BUT…how you handled that decision, what you told the company, what you may have said to management is still going to be remembered.
While last year employees would tell me they didn’t care what an employer thought of them, that could be the very reason they are unemployed today. Today, we are not in the same hiring market we saw early last year. Employers are more cautious in their hiring. With inflation and significant economic uncertainty today, employers are much more cautious in their hiring decisions. This is not to say they are not willing to be competitive in wages and benefits. What this means to say is that they are looking for right fit first and foremost for the role. How you interacted with them previously matters.
Recruiters/HR Representatives
Today, we know there are anywhere between 10.5 million and 11 million jobs available. In the past two years, employees, generally speaking, have been able to have multiple options for roles if they are looking in the right salary range, with the right work experience. To find great candidates, recruiters, including those in HR, have had to work doubly hard to try and fill positions. But, from our perspective, we see that changing today.
As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing employers become more cautious in their hiring. While you may have ghosted an employer for an interview in 2021, they aren’t giving you a second chance in 2023. I believe the change has to do with our economic uncertainty. With inflation skyrocketing over the past year, employers are feeling a much stronger pressure to make sure they are finding the right person. They are becoming more risk adverse. Today I see employees hiring only when they believe they found the right person. It’s less about growth and more about fit. They want to bring in great employees and usually they are willing to pay for it. What they are not willing to do is take a risk on a person who treated them poorly the first time.
Reality Check
As we started 2023, we have seen a few candidates who have changed their requirements in the middle of the hiring process. In all cases, those roles have disappeared for those candidates, even when they have backtracked and realized they may have asked for too much. While this type of behavior hasn’t been unusual for the past two years, that is changing now.
To be clear, I am not including positions that may have been changed or altered in the hiring process to better fit the skills of the individual. I am talking about people who have gone through the process and know what the parameters of the role are
How you treat employers today, may be the determining factor in getting interviews tomorrow. However, this is also true for companies. Employees are looking at your Google reviews, or Glassdoor reviews. Your “history” matters too.
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