Yewandu Jinadu: What Does Professionalism Mean For a Talent Acquisition Specialist?

Some weeks ago, I started a conversation in an HR Group for Recruiters and HRs in Tech on how it was very unprofessional for a recruiter to write a job description, including the names of the companies they would like the talents to come from. One will think it is common sense to know that your job as a recruiter is to leverage your skills to source for talents or skillfully poach from companies doing similar things, not to openly call out those companies in your job advert.

Some people were curious to know why it was not professional. To be honest, there is no rulebook for professionalism in the Human Resource space, sometimes you have to use common sense to know what is right or wrong that would not make others uncomfortable. Unfortunately, some newbies in the Talent Acquisition and Human Resources field have grown to learn the wrong things based on what they have seen their colleagues do which, in turn, soils the reputation of the profession.

Rome was not built in a day and a lot of us learned the right things after doing things wrongly for a long time. Let me share 5 things Talent Acquisition Professionals should not do:

Write Sloppy Job Descriptions

The quality of your job description will impact the quality of the candidates that apply to your role. You need to ensure you have captured the essence of the role in your writeups and not wait for people to ask you endless questions before updating it. Some job descriptions can attract passive candidates because the role expectation is written in a way that those candidates can imagine themselves in the role.

Not Being Prepared for Interviews

I believe that recruiters should have a form of template for how their interviews would run. Before the interview, you should have studied the job description and written down potential questions you will ask the candidate. Your introduction during an interview should be uniform and detailed, and your questions should be well structured. Else, you lose the attention and interest of the candidate.

Disregard Candidate Experience

Every Talent Acquisition Professional should prioritise quality, from the application process to communication during interview scheduling, to the main interview to the offer letter to onboarding. A lot of good candidates find the application process tiring because you’re asking them to repeat something that’s on their CV already or your questions are too many. Remember, your reputation can attract passive candidates

Ghost Candidates

I understand how overwhelming it can be to give feedback to a lot of candidates, especially when you’re handling multiple roles. I may have offended some people in the past and I know some of your employers are currently not empowering Talent Acquisition Professionals by purchasing a technology that will make the process seamless. There is one thing to be constrained and another thing to believe you do not owe candidates feedback. You owe everyone whom you have contacted (post application) feedback. Even if you forget, when they reach out to you, please do not ignore them. But please prioritise feedback so that they can have closure.

Ignore Your Personal Development

The job market is rapidly changing and there are evolving strategies that will impact the success of your job. A lot of recruiters were not properly trained. They just told you what to do and you figured it out along the way. Invest in your personal development. For example, there is a popular trainer on LinkedIn Learning called Barbara Bruno, you can pay for some of her courses and upskill. There are other paid and free resources you can use to upskill so please research.

I decided to take out time to write this for an entry-level Talent Acquisition Specialist looking to remain professional and follow best practices. Did someone say thank you?

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