What are emotional contracts and can they build engagement in the hiring process?
Something that our HR leaders need to start thinking about, is the emotional contract between the candidate and the employer company as part of any recruitment process, regardless of the seniority of the role being hired for.
Increasing the acceptance of your employment offers
I have no statistics to back this, yet, but years of experience indicate that the companies who protect this emotional contract, increase their ratio of employment offers to acceptances. I suspect they also secure more engaged employees from the outset which in turn must improve their ratios of retention during the critical on-boarding and probation periods.
I will share some examples of what I mean in my reference to the "emotional contract".
Candidate A is going through the hiring process. The hiring manager provides detailed and balanced feedback after each interview stage, and does so within a working day of each interview. At all times the candidate knows what the hiring process will contain and what timeframes will apply. The candidate has multiple chances to explore the pros and cons of this potential role and employer. Salary and package expectations of both parties have been discussed from the outset. An employment offer is made by the promised timeframe and is in line with exactly the terms discussed throughout the process.
The candidate feels valued, respected for their time, and admires the efficiency of the hiring process. Both parties have been impressed by the professionalism of the other. There are no surprises or protracted negotiations – both parties feel like a win-win situation has been achieved. The emotional contract is strong.
Versus this:
Candidate B is going through the hiring process. The hiring manager provides limited or no feedback, leaving the recruiting partner to “fudge” feedback in order to keep the candidate engaged and committed. The candidate waits patiently at first and then with any or all of concern, annoyance, anger, and indifference. The interview schedule if it exists, doesn’t run to plan. The candidate is jumping through hoops to show interest, but it’s a one way love affair – the candidate answers a bunch of detailed questions about themselves but gets minimal chance to ask probing questions of the company interviewers. The candidate invariably likens the hiring chaos to the decision making (or lack of) culture in the company. The high performance candidate may even withdraw from the application process – after all when their skills and experience are in demand, why waste time with a prospective employer who cannot be bothered to play their part in the courtship.
If it comes to a time where the candidate has remained persistently in the process and receives a job offer; there’s a high chance that they’ll try their luck with negotiations on salary, and may even use the offer as a counter to their existing or other potential employers – after all they have no emotional contract to the company who hasn’t shown them efficiency, respect or professionalism, so they have no emotional obligation to accept employment there. Worse still, the candidate may accept the offer but then be easily lured away by another company with whom they've got a stronger emotional contract.
I know of literally hundreds of examples ranging from these extremes and everything in between.
Hiring leaders need to take every opportunity to build engagement
Just last week for instance, in the course of preparing a formal employment offer, the HR hiring leader directed me to ask a series of additional questions to that candidate about his home and family life. Perfectly understandable given an international relocation was involved. But the comment from the hiring leader threw me – “I want you to ask the questions, because I don’t want to get too personal at this stage”.
Frankly, if the potential boss of this person is uncomfortable in “getting personal”, isn’t that a missed opportunity to build on the emotional contract between the candidate and the prospective employer?
A quick flick through any recent Gallup or Harvard or Forbes research publications shows that people repeatedly resign (and join) because of their bosses. We have no doubt that the personal connection between a potential new joiner, and their hiring leader must be an important factor.
In this instance, the questions needing answers, weren’t so sensitive or intrusive that the hiring leader could feel the opening of discrimination risk if the offer went sour. In actual fact, the questions showed care, compassion, and an understanding of the need to balance new home and family integration with professional life in a new country.
It wasn’t a situation where there was limited chemistry between the hiring leader and the candidate. Nor was the hiring leader so short on time or over committed on travel as to not be able to connect directly with the candidate. The company culture isn’t hierarchical, and the hiring leader is actually a very experienced, accomplished and well respected HR professional, and not someone whom I would regard as lazy for their responsibilities within a hiring process.
We know from our own long experiences, that when hiring leader can competently be directly involved in the employment offer process, there is additional emotional contract gain from them being able to answer questions immediately and reiterate to the candidate why that person is valued, and confirm the excitement of getting to work together. On this basis then, it would have really wowed the candidate that his potential boss wanted to chat about how to structure a package that accommodated the candidate’s unique personal circumstances.
As it happens, I already knew the answers (because we're so thorough with our own candidate relationships). But I am left scratching my head about yet another hiring leader missing this opportunity to capitalise on a strong emotional contract within the hiring process.
People buy people after all…… I’d love to hear of any analysis you might have done on this topic and to hear what improvements you and your company are working on to strengthen these paperless contracts. Aside from the immediate impact on the success of any hire, what damage does a poor emotional contract do to your own professional reputation and company brand?
About the Author
Ian Mael is valued across his HR network for his diligent communications and authentic partnerships. As the leader for interim HR executive hires at Carter Morris, he brings over 15 years of recruitment experience for multi sector hires within demanding deadlines for the full range of specialist roles within the HR profession.