“Now You See Me- Now You Don’t”

Picture this scenario: Your great candidate has arrived for his interview, and you escort him to the hiring manager’s office. The hiring manager opens the door with a puzzled look on her face and says “I don’t have an interview on my calendar today”. She continues, “It’s not a good time right now, so you need to re-schedule” and rushes off. This dialogue occurs in the presence of this excellent candidate that you have invested valuable time sourcing, screening, and selling on your great organization. Do you think he will re-schedule or will he just interview at another facility and potentially accept an offer there? We all know that you only get once chance to make a good impression. In this scenario, you may very well have lost this candidate (hence the title of this post).

As healthcare recruiters, a scenario like this is certainly not best practice. However; the unfortunate reality is that it does occasionally occur. I have had this experience in my recruitment career, and it was very awkward. Fortunately, I was able to do some service recovery in that situation, re-schedule the candidate, and ultimate make a hire.
Does anyone else have a similar experience to share?

Angela Pointer,
Nurse Recruiter- Duke University Hospital
NAHCR Social Media Committee Chair