Human Resources Professionals

For an overseas candidate, or a candidate who travels extensively for his or her current job, being accessible to a human resources recruiter by cell phone can make the hiring process a lot easier.

For some, the cell phone is the way to go, as the technology has advanced to the point where “it’s totally transparent to me,” says William Cogswell, employment manager at Biogen, Inc., a global biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA.

Cogswell does “an awful lot” of international recruiting, and the bulk of his recruiting calls are made to cell phones. His recruiting managers travel on the road quite a bit, and they too are primarily connected with him, and with their candidates, via cell.

But most human resources and hiring executives say they prefer to talk to their candidates on landlines. Part of the reason is that most HR pros do not get cell phones from their workplaces – if they use a cell, it’s usually their personal number, about which they’re understandably private. Even Cogswell does not get a cell phone from his employer – he uses a dedicated mobile phone of his choosing, for which the company reimburses him.

Also, many still assert that good, reliable cell phone service is not yet available, so they prefer a candidate does not use a cell phone as the primary means of contact unless absolutely necessary.

Despite all this, cell phones in the hiring arena, especially internationally, are a given. Candidates “prefer the flexibility and confidentiality of dealing with us on a cell phone,” says Maura Kane, director of human resources for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Inc., White Plains, NY. But “if a candidate is going to use a cell phone, one would hope he or she is in a private area, isn’t distracted, and is easy to hear,” says Paul Marchand, director of corporate recruiting at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., New York.

Wisely, candidates who travel a lot “typically use their cells as their ‘home’ phones,” which makes it easier to touch base with them, Marchand says.

Candidates, he adds, should keep on top of cell phone voice mail, and make sure to pick it up and return the calls, as they should with any primary contact number.

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© 2004 Heyman Associates, Inc.