Good First Impressions are Critical When Courting Relocation Candidates

Having returned from spending the Christmas holidays with my family in Kentucky, I took a quick 15-minute cab ride from the Fort Lauderdale airport to my house. I settled into the backseat and grabbed one of the South Florida visitor’s guides from the seat in front of me. As I flipped through the little book, I came across the profile for Yellow Cab’s “Driver of the Month.”

“Jean” was a pleasant looking, salt and pepper-haired woman, originally from St. Louis. According to her bio she has been driving a cab for the past 8 years and loves her job – so much that she spends much of her free time at the library researching the history of Fort Lauderdale and learning about the landmarks just so that she can hold interesting conversations with all the out of town visitors she meets. Jean is so popular that the bulk of her passengers are serial vacationers that call her directly to pick them up and drive them around while they’re in town.

My cab driver barely acknowledged me from the time he picked me till the time he dropped me off, and when he did it was in broken and muddled English. I wasn’t offended or put-off primarily because I’ve come to expect and tolerate “less-than-spectacular” customer service, but if I had my choice I would have much rather spent my 15 minutes (and subsequent tip) with Jean. Those first-time visitors that are fortunate enough to land Jean as their tour guide must have dramatically different first impressions of our city compared to those people, like me, that ended up with a driver who could care less about whether or not I enjoyed my Yellow Cab experience.

I began thinking about those candidates that travel to different cities across the country to interview for positions that would ultimately require a relocation if they are offered (and accept) the position. Which leads me to the question: To what lengths are companies going to ensure that their out of town candidates have a positive experience from the time they arrive at the airport until they’re ready to board and head back home? The message that’s generally conveyed to most candidates is, in so many words, “We’ll book your flight and hotel, but as far as everything else is concerned, you’re on your own.” Sure, the employer will typically reimburse them for the cab rides to and from the interviews and dinner the night before, but who is going out of their way to make sure they don’t feel like a stranger in a strange land?

I received an email the other day from a business professional in the Midwest recalling his first experience to South Florida. The HR manager at the company where he was interviewing told him to go ahead and book his hotel, reserve his rental car and keep all food receipts and they would reimburse him after the interview. Despite it being peak tourist season he was able to find a reasonably priced hotel online that was only a couple of miles from their corporate offices. However, having never been south of Orlando, he was completely unaware that the hotel was located in one of the roughest areas of Miami. He said he was so uncomfortable just driving to the hotel that once he arrived he didn’t even venture out to have dinner, opting instead for the safety and security of the hotel vending machines.

He concisely summed up the whole experience at the end of his email: “Miami sucks.”

He made his decision on the position before he ever went to the interview, which is incredibly unfortunate because Miami does not, in fact, suck. It’s a great place to live, but like every city, big or small, it has areas that I can almost guarantee are not going to show up in on the Travel Channel.

Every company needs a designated “Jean” that will be responsible for not only managing the details of your candidate’s trip, but making sure they feel welcome and looked after, so that they can easily imagine themselves transitioning to their new “home.” There is enough stress involved in preparing for the interview without having to worry about whether or not you’re going to get mugged from the hotel to your rental car. Hey, they’re in town trying to impress you; I would advise you to do the same.

So to all the South Florida business owners and hiring managers out there, if you’ve got candidates coming in town for interviews and lack the internal manpower to show them a good time, give me a call. If I’m not available, I’ll have the real Jean go pick them up.

Comments

[Website Development in Surrey]

Interesting,
Thats a problem nowadays, people cannot get help from people who should be able to help them as they have somehow fell into a job title without even the correct language skills, But think about it... jeans day must be alot more fun that the poor guys that cannot hold a conversation...
Thanks for writing about it