The relationship between candidate and recruiter is a two-way street. Avoid having to have a West Side Story-style dance battle over that street by finding out how to create your own "candidate creed", outlining how you as a recruiter are going to advocate for them, and what your candidate needs to do to hold up their end of the bargain.

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Hi, and welcome to the Talent Trade.

This is Stephanie Maas, partner with Thinking Ahead Executive Search.

Today I want to talk to you about a candidate creed.

This is a short verbal agreement, not upholdable in the court of law, but just an agreement between you and the candidates that you work with that hopefully set the stage for an easier By the way, one of my favorite things to ask candidates when I get them on the phone is to ask them, Hey, what has been your experience working with recruiters in the past?

This is so incredibly telling.

You're going to get one of three responses.

One, I've never worked with a recruiter, which isn't good or bad, but just an indication you're probably going to have to do a lot of teaching and leading because they don't know what they don't know about working with a search firm, especially not with you.

Two, they're going to tell you great things, which again is fantastic.

Note them, make sure you do them because they're telling you these are the things that I liked or they're going to give you horror stories.

Again, super great information.

It's going to tell you what to make sure that you don't do.

Typically I like to do a candidate creed when I am done doing a profile.

See another episode of the talent trade for profiling candidates, but a candidate creed.

I personally like it to be rather casual, but I definitely want buy in.

So typically you've probably spent the last 30 minutes talking about their skillset, their compensation, their motivation to make a move.

And we've had some pretty personal dialogue, conversation, exchange of information.

Before I let them go, I'll say, Hey, real quick, before I let you go, I know different folks have had different experiences working with recruiters.

And I just wanted to let you know what you can expect from me and what I'm going to ask of you in return.

How does that sound?

And they go, yeah, okay, fine.

Whatever.

First and foremost.

I'm going to be honest and I'm going to shoot you straight.

If you bomb an interview, it'll be painful for me to tell you, but I'm going to tell you if you're number two in the hiring hierarchy, I'm going to be honest with you.

Hey, they're going to go after the number one candidate.

You're number two.

You know, if things don't work out with number one, which they often don't, they'd like to come back to you if it's okay, or they're going to make another hire in 90 days.

They'd like to keep you in consideration.

So I'm always going to be honest.

I'm going to shoot you straight.

Number two is I'm always going to give you timely feedback.

I hear this more than anything else from candidates that they hate when recruiters don't get back to them.

They don't know how they did an interview.

They don't know where things stand.

They hate being ghosted by a recruiter.

So, good, bad, or indifferent, if I have any information, I promise I'm going to communicate that to you in a timely manner.

Just so you know, timely for me is typically within 24 hours, but often sooner.

The third thing that you're going to be able to expect from me is no pressure.

My career, my year.

It's not going to be made or broken if you take this job.

If you're interested, I will be your advocate and do everything I can to help you be the candidate of choice.

If you are not, we are going to bow out gracefully, protect your reputation, and I'll call you on the next one.

My kids don't need you to take this job for them to have a great Christmas.

So you're never going to get pressure from me.

If it's right for you and your family, and you can tell me that it's right, I'll help you navigate the challenges of making a change, but you got to be the one that tells me this is what you want to do.

Fourth, I will let you know where you stand at all times.

So you can best process the information to make a principle based decision.

And then lastly, as long as you want the job, I'll be your advocate.

Anytime you don't, we'll stop the process.

And we'll move on to whatever's next.

How does that sound?

Does that sound fair?

And go, okay, if I could, there's a couple of things I'd like to ask of you.

One, just be honest with me, shoot me straight.

Let me know where your head is at and why to communicate your interests with me.

There's going to be a time and a place to negotiate, play hard to get all these different things, but it's not between you and me.

It's kind of like that scene with Jerry Maguire when he's talking to Kuba Gooden Juger and he's like, help me help you.

Yes, I get paid by the client, but candidates are my lifeblood.

Without them, I cannot deliver to my clients.

So it's critical that you and I have a really good relationship.

So I just need you to let me know your interest in the opportunity and the timing.

Number three, I'm going to ask that you keep me aware of any changes in your situation.

Whether it be other opportunities that come up, anything that happens in your current role, that changes, you know, anything at all.

I'll try and ask every time we talk, if there's anything new or different, but sometimes I do forget.

So I'm going to ask your help that you just keep me aware of anything new or different on your end.

And then lastly, I believe that this is a partnership for the long haul and not that I want you to jump around, but I always do want to be a valuable resource for you.

And I believe this is the beginning of the partnership.

So let's just treat each other accordingly.

And again, if anything changes, no harm, no foul.

Just like you hated being ghosted by recruiters.

We don't love it either.

Just let me know what's going on.

And I promise I'll always be able to take it well.

Sound good.

And that is the candidate creed or candidate agreement or whatever you want to call it.

Again, I know folks that like to be really hard and firm and you better do this or I'm going to drop you.

That's not my world.

My candidates would be like, okay, bye Felicia.

So if that's your style and it works, Hey, stick with it.

But if that style makes you slightly uncomfortable, like it does me find a style, a way to communicate this, but it gets their buy in.

That you guys are working together on this.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the talent trade.