A not-so-great thing tends to happen to a lot of recruiters when they’ve been in the game for a while: tunnel vision. I experience it daily.

When you’re wading through hundreds of profiles, you need to be somewhat objective when evaluating the different skills and qualities a potential candidate can bring to an organization. But let’s not forget what it’s like to be on the other side of the table. Candidates are complex human beings, not data sets. Though we all love a good candidate report, it’s important to not lose track of the sensitive nature of what we do.

So how do we combat the dreaded tunnel vision effect? I have another word for you: empathy.

Adding a heaping dose of kindness to your recruiting process doesn’t just impact your candidates’ experience with your company — it could also impact your ability to find the right match.

You’ll understand your candidates better

While a resume holds a lot of information, it’s missing a lot of emotional data. As Amy McDonald writes, “You have to get to know your candidate and client beyond what is on their resume in order to understand what motivates them.”

For instance, at some point or another, you’ve probably been “rejected” by a “perfect” candidate.

But I put those words in quotation marks for a reason. When you think back to that situation, is it possible that the candidate might’ve had doubts about the role that you missed? The more you get to know your candidates and learn from these experiences, the more you’ll be able to spot the warning signs in the future.

You’ll build powerful relationships with your candidates

I like to think of all experiences as learning opportunities, good and bad. This is why it’s important to not just reflect on the losses but also the wins. When you figure out what motivates a successful candidate, the things they like and where they’re at in life, the better you’ll get at placing future candidates in roles and companies that really light their fire.

Plus, whether a candidate lands a job with your company or not, that relationship still matters — both for your personal brand and your employer’s. You will no doubt connect with them again in the future and you never know when a perfect opportunity may come up for them in the future. And let’s be honest, nobody wants a spurned candidate wreaking havoc on their company’s Glassdoor profile.

You’ll help your candidates perform better

As recruiters, we don’t have a lot of time to evaluate resumes. On average, we spend about six seconds on each one. That’s a shocking reality. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to a lot of assumptions.

No months listed on their resume? They’re definitely hiding some job-hopping.

Career gaps? They’re probably out of the loop.

But what if we took the time to dig a little deeper? Ask more questions when we get a response we don’t like? Perhaps the issues that affected a candidate’s performance at a previous employer wouldn’t exist if they landed a job at the company you’re recruiting for. This is why recruiting for skills and potential rather than on-paper experience is so key.

And let’s say you learn more about a candidate you were on the fence about and decide to push them through. Now you can help coach them and give them some tips on how they can avoid making a poor impression come interview time.

At the end of the day, I believe our goal as recruiters is to have meaningful conversations and to seek to understand those we’re having conversations with. Empathy is a critical piece of that puzzle. If we don’t take the time to put ourselves in our candidates’ shoes, we might be missing out on some truly amazing hires.