How Recruiters Can Create Great Candidate Engagement Strategies

 

 

The recruiting and hiring process is now one that doesn’t stop when a candidate is offered a job or began when they apply. It’s a fluid process that’s undefined, hard to track and even harder to understand how, why and what job seekers are drawn to when they finally apply. Recruiters must create opportunities for candidate conversation, curiosity and research long before a job opening becomes available where they fit the bill. Mainly because good candidates aren’t looking for one and done job opportunities. They don’t want just a paycheck. They want training, advancement and a work experience that leads to new things.

 

The recruiting and hiring process has to become more proactive as job seekers are tired of being bombarded, stalked and instant message to death by random recruiters. They want to be in control of their own career and that starts with four key candidate engagement strategies.

 

The sales process has changed and that goes for recruiting to the candidate apply to. Recruiters have to create opportunities for conversation, research and engagement with more marketing and less selling. This means using using specific and unique channels to specific the candidate population. The channels depend on who, where, why and how the candidate you are targeting. This starts with research, asking questions and understanding the ideal job seeker you are trying to reach.

 

While the increase in marketing makes for a larger number of initial candidate conversations as job seekers feel out your company, the candidate spends more time self-qualifying before they apply for your opening decreasing the actual number of applications you must sort and process before hiring. The increase in marketing and initial conversations provides a secondary benefit which is the growing of a group of very loyal brand ambassadors and friends of the brand who will champion your workplace and products you offer simultaneously.

 

Suspect to candidate conversion is tricky. It takes time and effort to understand what tips the scales and turns a suspect to a candidate prospect, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility especially with the most recent Candidate Experience Awards demonstrates that nearly 60% of candidates research and follow a company prior to establishing a pattern of buying commitment by applying for a job opening.

 

It’s no secret that data and metrics are the key to great business decision making. Companies and recruiting teams must be focused on the metrics needed to mold, shape and support the success and failures of your recruiting efforts. How you measure your success and sources depends on your end recruiting game. Are you taking a proactive recruiting approach to building relationships and your talent network? If so you, what success looks like depends on your ultimate end game. Are you cultivating relationships and building a candidate pipeline for the long term or are you looking for a single candidate for your job opening today?

 

Conversations, engagement and messages should be deliberate starting with recruiting focus groups, research and information gathered in understanding your own candidate recruiting process. This means planning, plotting and building your candidate touches that are customized for each individual job title and position you are recruiting for. Instead of broadcasting the widest net using what I can spray and pray practices, establish relationships touches and engagements to reach your candidate audience. It’s the best long term strategy for successful recruiting.

 

The touch cycle can be a combination of automated, programmed and custom engagements that are focused and pre-programmed ensuring that your recruiting team isn’t stuck wading through the black hole soul sucking wasteland of social media.

 

I recommend creating a list of commonly asked questions or FAQ’s with a series of commonly asked questions and responses that are pre-populated to created a unified voice that’s timely. This way your recruiters can be focused and unified in their efforts ensuring maximum productivity because not every recruiter loves email marketing or social media and yet it’s one of the best engagement and human touch cycle practices to employ. In the world of performance of now, you can’t afford to wait.