4 Leadership Podcasts That Will Improve Your Candidate Experience
It’s safe to say podcasts have taken millennials by storm. From daily news to murder mysteries, many people find podcasts provide a convenient source of knowledge or entertainment on a variety of different topics. Podcasts are also extremely popular when on the go. More than half of podcast listeners tune in at work, at the gym, or when commuting.
Podcasts can be greatly inspirational for today’s recruiting professionals and can also improve the hiring experience. Not only can they keep your candidates engaged throughout the hiring process, they can also help you rethink the traditional interview format and approach hiring in a new light.
Here are four great podcasts we recommend to improve your candidate experience.
The Forbes Interview
The Forbes Interview is a great way to get inside the minds of today’s most innovative thinkers. Forbes senior editor Steven Bertoni interviews leaders in business, culture, media and technology for this podcast, asking them about the “big ideas” driving their decisions.
The insights of leaders like 23andMe’s Anne Wojcicki, Panera Bread’s Ron Shaich, and Olympian Michael Phelps (to name just a few of Bertoni’s well-known guests) can provide a great point of reference when conducting your next interview. What values, morals, or inspirations does your candidate share with these business leaders? Are they able to communicate a vision or strategy in the same way? Understanding some key attributes of successful leaders and seeking them out in your candidates can help you recruit talent that possesses the foundations for organizational success.
We recommend this episode with Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. Hurd speaks to his role as CEO and voices some of his challenges as a leader during the discussion. Describing specific challenges and resolutions is a common prompt you might use in an interview. Listen to how Hurd describes his challenges and the unique ways in which he resolves them — you might find your candidates problem solve the same way.
This Is Your Life
This is Your Life, hosted by Michael Hyatt, is one of the top-rated leadership podcasts, and it’s easy to see why. Hyatt’s podcast informs today’s workforce on how to win at work, succeed at life, and lead with confidence. He often touches on including leadership, productivity, influence, personal development, and goal-setting in his show. Though Hyatt is no longer creating This Is Your Life, you can also listen to his newest podcast, Lead to Win. For young professionals, Hyatt offers impactful advice that can easily be transferred to any sort of workplace. From specific tasks like building an email list to more general skills like improving your productivity, This Is Your Life covers a vast range of useful topics.
There are hundreds of episodes, so if you’re not sure where to start, we recommend this episode, “6 Strategies to Become a Better Conversationalist.” Even those who’ve conducted thousands of interviews can attest that fostering engaging conversation is often difficult. Taking the time to improve your conversational skills can be extremely helpful when trying to hire top talent. Learning how to maneuver the dialogue to provoke rich and meaningful discussions gives you a chance to get to know your candidates better, and it can also encourage them to dive deeper into their thoughts and experiences.
Hire Up
Hire Up, hosted by John Beck, is a podcast covering “everything HR.” Beck talks with experts from diverse specializations about the latest news, interviews and updates in HR. In addition, Beck often talks about Occupational DNA, or ODNA, a method of DNA profiling that aims to match individuals with positions based on their unique characteristics. It’s most commonly used for employee selection and placement, promotion fit and succession planning coaching.
If you’re interested in learning more about Occupational DNA, Beck discusses it in detail on his second episode of Hire Up. Beck shares how the ODNA process can enhance job matching and improve how new hires are trained. If you’d rather tune into an episode with a different focus, we recommend this episode, “Listening Matters.” The ability to listen effectively is a crucial component of the hiring process, so it’s important to hone your skills.
2 Guys on Your Head
In 2 Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke discuss scientific insights into human psychology; from nostalgia to mindfulness. One of the best parts of 2 Guys on Your Head is its length — each episode is just seven minutes long. It’s a great resource for quick inspiration. This podcast is more psychology-focused than the others we’ve recommended, but understanding the various facets of human behavior is extremely beneficial when selecting candidates. Markman and Duke discuss the scientific evidence behind data processing, self-confidence, and even attention spans, which can all be effective in determining a candidate’s fit for a position. It can also be helpful to share these behavior-style determinants when sharing with a candidate why they were or weren’t the best fit.
Because 2 Guys on Your Head is so short, you can listen to several episodes in one sitting. Try scrolling through their available episodes to select a few behaviors that are most meaningful to your organization. For example, this episode on negotiation might be useful if you’re looking to hire a lawyer or salesperson, whereas this episode on kindness might be better suited for hiring a teacher or nurse.
What podcasts do you listen to to improve the candidate experience? Let us know in the comments below.
Author bio: Amanda is a Contributor to Enlightened Digital and software engineer from the one, the only New York City. When she’s not trying to find the best record store in the city, you can find her curling up to watch some Netflix with her Puggle, Hendrix.
