You Had Me From Hello

For the life of me I can't remember the name of the Tom Cruise movie where he is a sports agent, Cuba Gooding Jr is his one and only client and he is "looking for the money!"  I even just watched it again this weekend. Anyway, towards the end, he is standing in Renee Z's living room, basically apologizing for being a man, and she stops him and says, "you had me from hello."

A man (or woman) walks into HR . . .  .and does so for a reason. He (or she) wants something, probably a job, and guess what, we want something too - employees. Do we have him from hello? If the location of the HR Office was not well marked or the elevator broken, probably not. If there wasn't anyone to greet her, probably not. If she is at your office because no one returned her calls, definitely not.

First impressions mean so much and to not be too cliché, we never get a second chance to make a good first impression. In HR, we are in the business of first impressions. Does a job applicant leave your office feeling like your organization is a place they want to work or do they leave the application behind as they head for the stairs?

I read a post called the "Candidate Experience" and referenced it below (my technological learning leap for the day). As the author asks, is your organization focused on the candidate experience? The candidate experience starts at first contact and we may not have an experience to assess if we are not able to "get them at hello."