How to Keep Job Candidates Interested in your Organization
Acquiring employees with the right skills, experiences, and traits to join your association is a crucial part of the hiring process, but it’s only the first step. Once you’ve built a pool of interested candidates, you need to maintain their interest in your organization. Otherwise, they might take their talent elsewhere, making the process feel more frantic for your team.
However, you can relieve your team’s stress and make the hiring process go smoothly by keeping your most promising candidates engaged. In this guide, we’ll explore how you can keep candidates interested in your association from the initial application stage to onboarding.
1. Create consistent communication cadences.
Over half of all candidates abandon potential job opportunities due to poor communication from the employer. Stand out from the crowd by implementing clear communication cadences in your recruitment process. Here are some ways to master candidate communication:
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Use AI. Whether you use it to automatically send messages or to create a chatbot that can answer frequently asked questions, AI is an invaluable tool for managing communications. Plus, it’s becoming a more popular feature included with many modern software solutions.
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Leverage mobile-friendly channels. Chances are, your candidates are busy and on the move. Use channels that can reach them at any time or place, such as email, text, and phone calls.
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Use a standard timeline. Your candidates are more likely to stay engaged with a process and timeline they can rely on. Create a standard recruitment schedule for each role so candidates know when they’ll hear back about next steps for each stage. If you need to adjust the timeline unexpectedly, be sure to let the candidates know your revised date as soon as possible.
While crafting your communication cadences, remember to customize all of your messages using candidate data to make a great impression and help candidates feel valued.
2. Provide updates on your association.
Ultimately, candidates want to be part of an organization that has a great reputation and achieves real outcomes. So, as your association achieves new milestones, you can share updates and accomplishments with your candidates as part of your recruitment marketing and engagement efforts.
For instance, let’s say your association just ran a fundraising campaign that culminated in a black-tie gala and auction. Once you tally the total amount raised, you can let your candidates know that you now have more funding to support relevant areas of your association either via marketing messages, your website, or through interviews.
This update could excite industrious candidates because it demonstrates your budget’s flexibility to fuel new ventures. Or, perhaps you recently had record attendance at your annual conference. This shows your organization’s reputation as a thought leader in the space and can influence how candidates perceive you.
3. Use candidate relationship management software.
Your association likely already uses software to communicate with members, colleagues, and other stakeholders, but it helps to use software that’s specifically designed for engaging candidates throughout the hiring process. According to Lever, candidate relationship management (CRM) software allows your association to:
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Automate messaging. The right CRM software can give you peace of mind by automatically sending messages, such as interview reminders or skills test deadlines.
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Receive notifications. Ensure you never miss a beat by leveraging your CRM’s notification features. They allow you to promptly respond to candidate questions and stay on top of any pressing updates.
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Move candidates through your recruitment funnel. A CRM can save candidate information profiles that allow you to move them through a visual representation of your funnel so you always understand where everyone stands.
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Make decisions quickly. Making an offer before another recruiter can make the difference between a candidate accepting or rejecting your association. With all of your candidate data in one place, you can make efficient hiring decisions that help you secure your top prospects
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Organize talent with tags. Even if a candidate isn’t right for your association right now, that doesn’t mean they’ll never be a good fit. Organize talent with tags that represent their relationship with your association so you can easily draw upon passive talent pools in the future.
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Identify ideal fits for open roles. You can configure your CRM software to provide recommendations for each role based on tailored criteria, allowing you to bypass less qualified candidates in favor of the best fits.
To pick the best CRM software for your association, assess the gaps in your current hiring strategy and find solutions that meet these needs. Then, leverage free demos and assess any fees to ensure the platform you choose is worthwhile and fits within your budget.
4. Develop a unique recruitment process.
Recruitment can be a stressful and high-stakes process for your applicants. However, you can make it worth their while by giving your recruitment process some unique pizzazz. Here are some examples of unique recruitment processes to inspire your association:
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Nontraditional interview formats. Possibly the most stressful part of the recruitment process is interviewing with your team. Take the pressure off your candidates by making it a valuable experience with group discussions or problem-solving exercises.
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Day-in-the life chat. Interviewing with your CEO or head of recruitment can be intimidating. Involve additional team members who can facilitate an informal check-in call called a “day-in-the-life chat” to help your candidates feel at ease. Considering members are such a major part of how your association functions, you could even involve them in the hiring process by having them conduct video calls to answer any candidate questions about the membership experience.
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Themed events. Let’s say you have a group of candidates you’ve extended an employment offer to. Allow them to experience the heart of your organization by hosting a mixer with staff, members, and other relevant stakeholders. You can even theme it to your association’s niche to connect with your candidates’ skills and passions.
Whichever ideas you choose, ensure you have the resources to support your idea. For instance, you might want to set a budget for themed recruitment events so you can give candidates a great experience without breaking the bank.
Remember, your best resources for honing your candidate engagement strategy are insights from your candidates themselves. Ask candidates who either successfully completed the process and became new hires, candidates who progressed through but didn’t get hired, and candidates who dropped out before the end for their opinions. Then, you can use their opinions to continually shape and improve your approach over time.