What is your favorite childhood memory? - Going to my aunt’s and uncle’s pool with family.
Dogs or cats? - Dogs
Tea or coffee? -Coffee
Your 3 heroes
1. My Current recruiting manager
2. My husband - Who teaches me to have that human perspective. My normal tendency is to be judgemental. But for me to overcome that has been really important. You don't know what the other person is going through. Compassion is needed. Sometimes, when I get anxious or lose my control, he grounds me.
3. My mom because she gave me a great work ethic. She volunteered at our church. I am a lot like her.
Favorite book - The bible. It helps in every aspect of life.
Favorite movie - The Princess Bride ( First date movie )
Lindsay loves processes.
She gets a different kind of a high when a big task is broken down into smaller pieces. She loves to destroy the ‘complex’, and create the ‘simple’. And let us not even get started on how much she loves to be organized.
But… but… but…
Before you become judgemental and categorise her into the bucket of someone who is serious, very organized and someone without a human side and emotions, let me stop you right there.
Actually, it’s quite the opposite.
Interestingly, Lindsay loves interacting with people. And more importantly she loves helping them.
I mean, how often do we see this combination of 2 extreme qualities!
Her job is intense. There is pressure. The targets are high.
“How do you deal with the intensity?”, I asked.
She laughed.
“It does get pretty intense, right?”
“There are days when my phone, my skype, my emails...everything is ringing at the same time. It’s crazy.”
“But I will tell you what, ‘Being organized’ really helps! “
Lindsay likes to be on top of things. She is constantly in touch with the recruiters, candidates and the processes that are being implemented.
Lindsay starts her day by scheduling time-sensitive things, after which she gets to the other stuff.
“How does your recruitment process look like?”, I asked.
“Oh well, for me, it all starts with the intention of building relationships!”
I immediately jumped in.
“Hang on”, I said. “Why would you want to build relationships with a candidate?”
And this was the turning point in the conversation.
Lindsay does not believe in playing the short-term, selfish game that many recruiters play. She has no interest in pushing candidates towards a job which doesn’t fit them.
For her, it equally matters if the job is a good fit for the candidate. She wants to figure out if the candidate would still be happy in that job after 6 months.
Pretty, unusual right?
In a world which is this fast-paced, where recruiters are really concerned about meeting their targets, I was talking to someone who actually cared about the candidate experience.
Lindays regularly keeps in touch with these candidates, talks to them on a regular basis. She wants to know how they are doing in their career, and if everything is working out for them - both personally and professionally.
I was intrigued and wanted her to elaborate further.
Lindsay feels that there is a surplus of jobs, but enough candidates.
“The candidates drive the market, not the other way round.”
“So it doesn’t make any sense to me to engage in a short-term strategy, where the focus is on the requirement and not on the candidate. In fact, I am in touch with the candidates long after that. I follow up with them and ask how they are doing in their new role.”
“It may happen that there would not be any opening which suits the candidate”, Lindsay added, “But hey… who knows what kind of opportunities might open up 6 months later!”
Considering how difficult it is to find candidates, I believe that this is an excellent strategy.
Instead of looking at “more candidate”, is there a possibility that we spare a thought for the assets that we already own?
Also, most of the recruiters, when they get into it… know that they are playing a long game. Some of them might recruit for the rest of their life. So why not build relationships?
“If you can connect with them, they remember you. And they can come back get in touch with you later.”, said Lindsay.
Lindsay feels that “Empathy” is the key. While interacting with the candidates, she makes sure, that she deploys enough empathy to understand their side of things.
Lindsay told me that she learned this from her manager. “My manager says, ‘You don't know what happened in their life today. So take a step back and get some perspective.’
Trust matters.
In the world of recruitment, we need to have each other’s back.
Not just recruiters, but also the candidates.
This is a principle that Lindsay follows.
And hence she hates it when the candidates lie on the resume.
Sometimes I just say “Look, I don't think everything on your resume is accurate. Do you want to be honest with me?”
You walk away from a dishonest relationship.
Only if you serve them, things will work out for you in the long-run.
In a world, where are driven by the scarcity mindset, where we are extremely concerned with the deadlines and our targets, Lindsay is doing something which is quite remarkable.
She is caring for the candidate. :)
Something for all of us to learn from?
