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It is generally said that the best candidates are on the market for only 10 days (about 1 and a half weeks). But the average time to hire can go up to 24 days (about 3 and a half weeks). This is one of the main reasons why it is essential to keep up the standards of candidate engagement because how you treat them will influence how they’ll view you and your company in the future.
Having potential candidates feel satisfied with your recruitment process– whether you hire them or not- is considered an important task and a top priority for Talent Acquisition teams. According to a study by ONREC, almost 60% of job seekers revealed they had negative experiences during the recruitment process and, over 60% of them were likely to share their bad experiences online and publicly, hurting the employer’s brand reputation irrevocably.
What Exactly Is Candidate Engagement?
It is a process where the talent acquisition team is continuously in touch with the entire candidate pool via email, text or directly during the staffing process, regardless of whether you hire them or not.
There are three main functional areas involved in candidate engagement–
- People- who is responsible for candidate engagement and the audiences.
- Process- Strategy to keep up with the candidate engagement.
- Technology- Tools we engage, to boost candidate engagement.
The Ideal Vision Vs the Reality
The Vision
Have you ever met a senior recruiter or a staffing agency owner who thinks candidate relationships aren’t the key to helping move the business forward? We haven’t. In an ideal world, the candidate engagement process goes somewhat like this- Candidates are sourced, categorized and nurtured until they are a good fit for the position. And this is an ongoing loop.
Along with a good engagement strategy, it is imperative to have the right automation software that facilitates engagement in the background while stocking up candidates who, when they fit the criteria like visiting certain pages or applying for an open position by clicking on emails or messages.
This is not something you can achieve overnight. But a solid candidate engagement strategy can reduce the dependency of staff firms on job boards and develop an engaged pool of talent that can reap ongoing rewards in the long run.
The Reality
The reality of candidate engagement is that there isn’t any once the candidate is sourced. Let us explain. Imagine that you sourced around 20 candidates for a job order. Out of the 20, you manage to get a hold of 5 of them, out of which you submit 2, with only one of them landing an interview. What happened to the other 15? You forgot! Why? You got busy with another job order.
Don’t worry, it’s not a big mistake, and it is ok if it happens because it’s quite common in staffing industries to witness the absence of an engagement plan in order. Candidates have been overlooked and lost leading to wasted opportunities and expenses.
Who is Responsible for Candidate Engagement?
Before moving on to understand ways in which you can improve candidate engagement, you need to know who is in on it!
While the question seems pretty straight forward, it needs certain looking into. Certainly, the responsibility of candidate engagement lies with both the internal staff and the candidate.
So, how do they Contribute to Candidate Engagement?
Internal staff
The internal staff usually has good marketing experience and a clear understanding of the journey of the potential candidate in the company. The process begins with sending the candidates an email or a text message, depending on their position in the recruitment stage of the lifecycle.
Once the task is through, recruiters don’t bother to go back and check as they are alerted by notifications as and when a candidate clicks and opens an email or applies for the job.
Candidates
Candidates are a significant part of the candidate engagement plan for obvious reasons. To create an effective candidate engagement plan, you should start by segregating candidates into different segments depending on categories and interests.
Remember, relevancy matters the most. For example, a management professional should get messages containing management jobs and an accountant should receive job alerts related to accountancy.
Quite simple to do! Isnt it? But it seems easier said than done. Nailing these fundamental elements helps build a compelling roadmap for the future.
Bottom line
It’s not about the ones involved in the plan. It’s about finding the right ones to run the program to improve its effectiveness. Usually, Understanding and executing their duties is where the target gets missed.
Why is Candidate Engagement Essential?
A potential candidate’s opinion or view of your company can have a massive impact on your business. When candidates feel mistreated, ignored or undervalued at any point during the recruitment process, it adds to their distrust of your brand, influencing their view of your company negatively.
To keep up your brand’s reputation and prevent poor word of mouth, and bad reviews leading to narrowing your recruiting funnel, HR departments must be cautious about mistreating the candidates.
When you have a solid candidate engagement plan in position, you also reap benefits like-
- Reduced time to fill the open job positions
- The cost saved per hire
- Heightened brand reputation
How to Improve Candidate Engagement?
Remember to treat candidates like individuals first. The key to effective candidate engagement is to treat candidates right, give them what they want and make them feel comfortable throughout the process. Remember that a candidate who feels comfortable during the process will also put his best foot forward.
A responsive hiring process will help create more opportunities to engage candidates and aid in crafting a positive experience.
Here are a few ways you can create good candidate engagement-
1. Make the candidate want to work for your company
Strengthening your brand is the first step. Even before you have applicants, build some strength into your brand. A good brand attracts better applicants. To help candidates engage with your company, give them all the information they need to know to pick you over anyone else.
A strong and positive social media presence creates a great impression of your brand in the prospective candidate’s mind. Showing posts portraying the satisfaction and happiness quotients of existing employees in your company and how much your company gives back to the community positions your brand in a better light.
2. Keep up constant communication
Whether the application is at its first stage or the final one, whether the candidate is selected or not, as a recruiter, make sure you respond. As simple as that. Staying in touch is not that hard. Also, not responding is considered one of the most prominent red flags by the candidates.
Automating routine messages like “Thank you”, “sorry we won’t be moving ahead with your application” or “Congratulations on making it to the next round”, is not that hard. Better yet, if your ATS provides you with details about the candidate’s shortcomings, you can even automate responses to include them in your replies.
3. Keep them in the loop- give a definitive timeline
Nobody likes to be kept in the dark. Your candidates will surely want to know where they stand- concerning the open position they applied for. You know how fast you want to fill your available roles, so make sure they know it too, by automating updates in all the follow-up emails you send to the candidates.
Of course, you can’t give them the exact time and dates from the beginning, but you can at least let them know what they can expect in specific timeframes during the process.
4. Make use of technology to ease your candidate engagement actions
Nobody expects the recruiter to personally reply to all the questions a candidate might have asked about the company’s position, opportunities etc. via emails. But it helps to factor in that we are a society that is more receptive to automated systems, trying to find our answers. Incorporating bots can fill gaps that you anticipate while adding to your engagement. A response of any form goes a long way in supporting your efforts of having a successful candidate engagement.
5. Create crisp, to-the-point, but an engaging process
A lengthy application is a big turn-off because, commonly, who wants to read so much? And especially now, when applications are bespoken to specific jobs due to ATS keyword searches and selections, there is a greater, more comprehensive need for optimization.
- Create an incentivized practice that excites and gets your candidates motivated as well as retains their interest.
- Include relevant assessments and questionnaires that are relevant to the role you are trying to fill.
6. Collect feedback
This is one of the most critical aspects of the recruitment process. Every candidate appreciates feedback- whether or not they are selected. Knowing about their shortcomings will not only help them in their future efforts but will also ingrain a good impression of your company’s culture. It’s been discovered that same-day feedback is most respected if a recruiter can supply it.
To enable this, you should choose your tech carefully, as it will facilitate you with the data you require and automate certain parts of the recruitment.
To Conclude:
It’s hard to improve candidate engagement during periods of high-volume hiring. But with the right software, you can automate most of your tasks, which helps keep candidate engagement alive.
While the process can be overwhelming, remember that candidates are individuals and not just numbers on your huge list. Showing them, you care and respect their time and profile will directly reflect your company’s good culture that showcases your brand as a reputable one.
