by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting
Yesterday we learned cognitive strain hinders the recruiting process and makes it feel like you’re pushing your prospects uphill.
When individuals migrate to a place of cognitive ease, they become less vigilant and suspicious of your ideas and suggestions.
So, how do you get your recruiting prospects to make this transition?
Daniel Kahneman, outlines a number of ideas in his best-selling book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. Here are the three most relevant ideas that apply to the recruiting process.
Familiarity: The more familiar a person becomes with a topic or idea, the less threatening it feels. Craft your messages in terms the prospect is accustomed to hearing. Also, connect yourself to ideas and people they find familiar.
Repetition: Geico repeats its famous “you can save 15% or more on car insurance by switching to Geico” so many times it makes consumers believe buying car insurance is about picking the company with the lowest price. Frequent contact with those in your recruiting funnel makes it seem normal to hear from you. Repeating a common message makes listening feel automatic.
Relatedness: Common experiences cause people to let down their guard. Connecting on personal experiences (ex. my parents owned a lake house too) or common cultural references (ex. do you feel like you’re being voted off the island?) help a person feel understood.
Skilled hiring managers and recruiters are effective at leading their prospects to a place of cognitive ease.
Once there, the recruiting process flows downhill.
