February 2, 2023

How social trust impacts recruiting

Has your company ever struggled to find suitable candidates? You're not alone. In fact, it's a common problem, but what if I told you that the solution could be as simple as building social trust?

In this blog post, we'll explore how social trust can impact your recruiting efforts and what you can do to improve trust within your organization. By the end, you'll better understand how social trust can help you attract top talent. let's get started!

First, let’s explore the effect of a poor candidate experience and how it hits home.

As a father of 4 children, I guide my kids with a gentle hand and encourage each of them to explore life on their terms. My 21 yr old son is very focused on starting his career and has a huge drive to succeed. I have given advice (as needed) around his career search and navigating the application process when asked - so much of his pursuit of employment is his to own.

He recently was in an interview process with a sizeable financial employer here in Boston and was out of his mind with excitement. He had completed several interviews, take a skills test, and received feedback that employment was close. This had a massive positive impact on his psyche, and I was happy to see him so excited about work.

And then the recruiting black hole came in…

My son's first issue was an interview appointment that was not kept - with no communication from the employer. Then came a very vague email with no explanation, and finally - the deafening silence all applicants fear most.

The impact of this silence was taken very personally - I found my son sitting early one morning very sad and deeply thought about what was wrong with him - what did he do wrong, what skill is he missing - in a nutshell - why he was being ghosted.

As a person who has been in Recruiting and HR Tech for a long time (I am not stating how long on purpose!!) I sat with him and tried to explain that the role he was applying for, while very critical, was a junior role - and often hired at volume.

I explained that recruiters are often moving fast, understaffed, and focused on the task at hand. He was probably in a funnel for several positions that had been filled before he could be hired. Meaning there might have been ten seats, and they hired ten people - and unfortunately, he was an applicant 11+, and once the role was filled - the team moved on.

We reviewed his background - how strong it is and how well he would do in a similar role. He slowly lifted his head from the pain he was in and thanked me for help - and then he smiled and said, “Dad, this is what your new company fixes!!!!’ He is right - game-changing candidate experience is the goal of Greetr.

Now - while he moved past the emotional impact of how he was treated, let me tell you thet impact was not forgotten. I walked by my son’s hacking command center while he was in a large group of his friends (20+), and all of them were tearing this employer to shreds - not only don’t try and work there but to never invest with them and to tell every friend they have never to apply.

The Damage is done - social distrust has been achieved!

What is social trust, and its importance?

Social trust is defined as the willingness of individuals to have confidence in and rely upon others when making decisions or navigating a situation. In recent years, social trust has become increasingly important in our society, with its impact on our economy, government systems, and more being studied and analyzed.

The Edelman Trust Barometer is one index that aims to measure levels of social trust within a given society. Through extensive research using surveys and interviews with educated citizens worldwide, the barometer identifies key public trust areas – including people's trust in business and government – and ranks countries according to these results.

As you look at the results from 2022 - there are a few key areas to understand. First, the number of people who feel they are being misled in crucial areas is dramatically rising.

You can see in the results above many people feel we are being misled by societal leaders In fact 63% of people feel business leaders are misleading them - and this is a growing concern YoY. However, this challenge with trust is creating positive change in several key areas, such as salary transparency and equitable pay for all.

Pay transparency is an amazing and needed change - but it is the beginning of a need for companies to provide clear, transparent, and personal messaging to anyone who expresses interest in an open role.

How does social trust impact recruiting?

Social trust plays a significant role in the recruiting process and provides an essential backdrop for efforts to build relationships with potential hires. In addition, applicants want clarity from recruiters so they can make informed decisions about any given role.

Remember the definition: “individuals want to have confidence in, and rely upon, others when making decisions.“

When candidates sense their concerns will be considered, they are more likely to proactively engage with recruitment teams. Again, transparency and honesty are enablers of success here — when an employer show early and consistent respect for the candidate's interest by providing clear answers, it can lead to amazing changes.

Building a personal relationship by answering questions in real-time and clearly outlining expectations will foster social trust and create a fantastic candidate experience and a game-changing Employer Brand.

This investment in social trust is critical in recruitment efforts today; it helps build relationships before any employment agreement is ever made. Therefore, social trust is an investment in solidifying any potential employer-employee relationship.

People will WANT TO WORK FOR YOU!!!

Employers build a successful talent pipeline by emphasizing transparency throughout the process. In addition, this model demonstrates their commitment to potential employees and current employees who value that their organization practices humane hiring standards that emphasize strong social trust fostered by truthfulness and integrity.

Ultimately this creates a cycle of faithful employee retention due to its organizational commitment to building trusting relationships with potential new hires at every stage of the hiring process and for all the roles you are hiring.

Employees will stay - YOU WILL REDUCE TURNOVER…

Creating social trust at your company

Now that we have explored social trust and how it drives recruiting performance, the question that I feel is relevant is: "Why are employers struggling in this area?

Organizations have invested in several technologies to improve their ability to source and engage applicants. The growth of separate platforms has created many exciting opportunities for integration to be more straightforward, for recruiters to optimize workflow, and to fill a hiring funnel faster. But often, the journey and benefits of enabling technologies focus on getting a candidate to apply..

Let’s look at the applicant engagement model - I break it into two distinct segments of focus;

• Click-to-Apply: meaning the process of getting a candidate to apply for an open role and become an applicant
• Apply-to-Hire: meaning the process of building a personal relationship with the applicant to bring them into the organization as an employee.

When you review the first segment, Click-to-Apply has many recruiting technology providers working diligently to improve conversion rates. Indeed, Ziprecruiter, LinkedIn, or the employer’s ATS system, for example, focus on creating a candidate experience that fosters an application - it's key to their success.

Social trust is paramount in the 2nd focus for candidate engagement, where the applicant needs clear, personalized information to help them gain the confidence and excitement required to accept an offer - especially if you are in any competitive hiring market. Without trust, an applicant may take another competing offer for a marginal difference in compensation.

Challenge time!

The effort required to make a meaningful, personal connection with your applicants is not achievable. Consider all the different tasks your recruiting team is assigned, processes underway, and desperate roles being filled.

Simply stated, the recruitment process and team are running at max capacity - and asking them to manually create a solution to deliver the required focus for each applicant is only a reasonable request with the use of enabling technology.

This is precisely why my Son had such a terrible experience - and why I am so excited for the following!

Enter Greetr.io!

Greetr is a fantastic candidate engagement solution that delivers personalized communication to each applicant based on the role they applied for, their career tenure, and the interview process stages. Greetr enables your Employer Brand to soar, create social trust, and meet hiring goals.

Welcome to Greetr. We are just getting started — check out our website at www.greetr.io — and join us on our journey to solve the candidate experience.