Candidates are no longer satisfied with vague job descriptions, impersonal emails, and being left in the dark about important hiring decisions. Candidates today want a more personalized interaction throughout the recruiting process, and in this candidate focused job market, they’re able to demand one.
In fact, one in three prospective employees wants to receive more detailed information about the job opportunity, company, and have more frequent human interaction, according to the paper “Making the Connection: Best Practice in Candidate Experience,” from ManpowerGroup Solutions Recruitment Process Outsourcing.
These findings are especially important for employers trying to hire top talent or hire multiple candidates in the near future. If a candidate has a bad hiring experience with your company, there is a good chance they will share this information either on the internet on sites like Glassdoor, or with coworkers and friends in the industry. Instead of potentially getting candidate referrals, their poor experience will instead discourage candidates from applying to your company and may even earn your company a bad reputation.
Also, if you’re looking to build a candidate pipeline for future hires, it’s important that each candidate has a positive experience with the recruiter or hiring manager. Even if you can’t hire a particular candidate right now, you may have an opening in the near future and don’t want to burn any bridges.
The best way to get more candidate referrals, build a candidate pipeline, and earn a good reputation is to make your hiring process more personalized for candidates. There are three ways you can alter your process to ensure candidates have a positive experience and are able to get all the information they need.
Detailed Job Description
Oftentimes, the first interaction a candidate has with your company is through your job description. Too often I see extremely vague job descriptions or overly complicated job descriptions. Both of these descriptions will automatically give the candidate a negative impression about your company, and may even discourage them from applying. A candidate needs to be able to get a real sense of both the company and the job during this first encounter and be able to convince them to apply for the position. Try using engaging headers and formatting to catch the eye of job seekers. Also, using a video or other graphical images can also help give candidates a better understanding of your company’s culture. If your job description just looks like every other generic job posting then top talent will be less likely to apply for the position.
Customized Emails
Recruiters and hiring managers often have hundreds of candidates applying to a single open position, not to mention the database of thousands of candidates they can pull from to. With this large volume of potential hires, it can be hard to personalize each email, but there are ways to segment your audience using a CRM or ATS, and make each email or job blast more customized. For example, you can segment lists of people by location or industry, and then send targeted emails when you have a new job opening that matches their description. Also, in many email software programs, you can insert the candidates first and last name so it sounds more personal. Finally, pay attention to the wording and content of your emails. For example, sending an email that says you have personally reached out to them because of their industry background will encourage more responses than just a mass email about a job alert that is not even located in their state.
More Human Interaction
Reaching out to candidates on a regular basis throughout the hiring process is one of the best things you can do to make a candidate’s experience more positive. Even if you don’t have any new updates about the hiring decision, you should call the candidates and let them know that. Even a simple email that just says you wanted to say hello but don’t have any news will make a candidate feel more at ease. Finally, make sure to let a candidate know as soon as possible when they’re out of the process. Don’t just leave them hanging without any decision or reasoning. Be honest about why they weren’t a fit for the position. For example, if a candidate wasn’t a cultural fit, then call them and let them know right away. Candidates will appreciate you responding quickly and honestly.
Creating a more customized hiring process can help encourage candidate referrals, build a pipeline of future hires, and earn your company a good reputation. Consider adding the three strategies mentioned above to your hiring process and see how a personalized candidate experience is worth the extra effort.
