Introduction
Conversational recruiting has been emerging as a recent trend in the hiring industry.
But the practice itself is much older. It taps into an innate human desire for forming connections.
The essence of conversational recruiting boils down to letting recruiters do what they do best: build relationships.
I’ve also included a list of inexpensive recruiting ideas below.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of 10 best practices that will help you make the most out of conversational recruiting:
What is Conversational Recruiting
Unlike traditional recruiting, conversational recruiting shifts the focus away from administrative tasks like filling out applications.
Instead, it puts the emphasis on getting to know applicants, their skills and experiences, and understanding how they fit the company culture in more of an informal conversation with potential candidates.
This lets recruiters engage candidates in a more personal and authentic way.
Effective Candidate Engagement Practices
The goal of conversational recruiting is to build a relationship with the candidate while at the same time gauging how qualified they are for the job opening.
For example, teams who take a conversational recruiting strategy are more likely to ask open-ended questions which give applicants more freedom to express themselves.
These kinds of questions allow recruiters to gain a better understanding of the candidate’s experience, skills and interests, as well as build a rapport with them.
The result is often a more informed decision on whether the candidate is a good fit for the role and organization.
The Benefits of Conversational Recruiting
One of the greatest benefits of conversational recruiting is that it lets recruiters spend more time using their strengths.
Most of the time this means more time and energy for building relationships and making expert hiring decisions.
For example, recruiters who have strong interpersonal skills can create a more positive experience for the applicant, creating an emotional connection that traditional methods simply can’t achieve.
This in turn leads to better candidate engagement and retention rates.
Additionally, with the advancements in recruiting software, recruiters can now offload most of the time-consuming mechanical work to computers.
An example of this are automated conversations which can help streamline the early process of getting to know a candidate’s skills and experiences.
That way recruiters can spend the more time with each applicant creating a positive and more equitable candidate experience.
The Challenges
While conversational recruiting has many benefits, it does come with its own set of challenges.
For example, talent acquisition teams must shift their mindset from the very well-practiced, traditional recruitment process.
A quick example of this is how recruiters must be able to come up with questions and follow-up questions to keep the conversation engaging, rather than relying solely on boilerplate questions.
Plus, as conversational recruiting takes place over digital platforms like text messages and video calls, recruiters must also adapt their communication style for these mediums.
Additionally, in order for conversations to be successful, recruiters must also have strong communication skills and be able to create a trusting environment where candidates feel comfortable expressing themselves.
Finally, teams need the right tools and processes in place such as video interviews and automated conversations.
Not all teams have hired and trained their teams in these ways. And there therefore not prepared to do these things.
Conversational Recruiting Best Practices
Start Small
If you’re not already using conversational recruiting, consider starting small.
You can do this by creating a small email outreach campaign, with up to 50 people.
This will help make the first steps easier to set up and manage.
It will also let you get results faster and tweak your approach on the fly.
Then, decide what you want to accomplish with your campaign.
Is it to generate more awareness? Or to introduce your company to potential candidates?
Once you have an idea of what you want to achieve you can start creating conversations.
Use Automated Conversations
Automated conversations are a great way to streamline the process of engaging with applicants and getting to know their skills and experiences.
These conversations can be triggered by a specific event or action, such as an applicant submitting an application.
It can then automatically send messages to the applicants with questions about their career ambitions and preferences.
Or, it can be used to send out messages to people who have accepted offers, to help onboard them and keep those new hires engaged, excited, and prepared for their first day.
The goal is to create conversations that are going beyond basic questions, and instead focus on getting to know the applicant in an engaging and meaningful way.
Explore Multiple Channels
When it comes to conversational recruiting, diversity is key.
Using multiple channels will let you reach out to a variety of potential candidates you might otherwise miss.
First, you should take a look at emails.
This is a communication channel you’re already well versed with and should be the easiest to use to set up conversational recruiting.
After that, focus on social media platforms, like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
These will let you strengthen your candidate network while being easily sourced by automated hiring software.
Finally, to make the most you can of automation, consider setting up and using chatbots as described above.
Improve Your Emails
The number-one hurdle to using email for conversational recruiting is a lack of valuable information.
Emails like these more often than not just end up in the spam folder without even being opened.
If you want to offer candidates more value, stay away from overly-designed email templates.
Ironically, these will make your email look even less personal.
Stick to a basic template and write the email as if you were writing to your friend or coworker.
This will help you achieve the main goal of conversational recruiting: building relationships.
Study each and every single email you send.
Take Advantage of Chatbots
If you want to make your outreach campaign as efficient as possible, you can even automate certain parts of conversational recruiting.
Automated chatbots will engage with candidates, simulation the flow of a regular conversation.
Chatbots may feel impersonal, but when you realize the potential for scalability and cost-saving, you might think differently.
Chatbots can help you quickly answer basic questions from candidates, filter out unsuitable candidates, and even schedule interviews.
They can significantly reduce the time spent on outreach while maintaining a personalized experience.
Just be sure to make it clear when a conversation is with a chatbot, and not with an actual person.
That way you can avoid any misunderstandings or confusion.
Once you find the perfect candidate for the job, you can even use chatbots to help onboard new hires.
This way you can leave a great first impression and keep your newly hired employees engaged, excited and prepared for their first day.
Use Social Media
With social media being practically built for starting conversations, it’s surprising it isn’t used more when it comes to conversational recruiting.
First, you must commit.
Remember, when using social media as part of your conversational recruiting strategy you’re trying to connect with potential applicants on a more personal level.
That means not just sending out generic messages but actually engaging in conversations to show them you care.
To make the most of it, don’t just post job openings on your social media accounts.
Stay up to date with your posts and activities and respond to people who react accordingly.
Consider every post as the start of a conversation.
Sure, you can and should start conversations about open positions, but also consider posting news about your company and industry.
This way you can engage passive candidates who might not be looking for a job at that point.
This all takes time. Which not every team is prepared to do.
Set Up Online Events
Using online hiring events such as career fairs is a great way to bring candidates together with recruiters, managers, and employees and allow them to have conversations.
You can even combine this approach with chatbots to make sure no one feels left out.
Setting up events like these will let your recruiters build relationships with qualified candidates and will require far less time and money than an in-person networking event.
Also, this way you can cover a wider range of topics, from the specifics of job openings to things like company culture.
And if you’re not ready to host your own, you can also join existing online events to get the word out about your company.
You can find inexpensive, even free webinars, virtual panels, and career fairs to join.
Just Google the fields you’re hiring in and “online events” and you’ll find plenty of opportunities.
Mobile and Texting
With more and more focus on mobile when it comes to job searches (or simply browsing the web), you need to make sure candidates can also reach you there.
First, you should make sure your job postings are available and easy to browse on mobile.
Most teams make the mistake of thinking mobile-optimized is enough, when it’s not.
The challenge for you is twofold: making sure the content is optimized for mobile, and that candidates can reach out to you from their phones with messages or calls.
You should consider adding a message feature on your website that lets people contact you easily without leaving their device.
You can also make use of texting to keep in touch with candidates and provide them with updates.
Texting is a great way to maintain the conversation, as it’s convenient for both you and the candidates.
Plus, it saves time compared to email or other more traditional messages.
Be Quick to Respond
This should go without saying, but responding to candidate questions in real-time should be your number one priority.
Especially if the candidate is engaging directly with a recruiter – you want to be able to provide valuable information as quickly as possible.
Have Something Worthwhile to Say
With the spread of automation in the hiring process, candidates understand that they can’t expect human-on-human communication every step of the way.
Because of this, it’s even more important to make sure your candidates have access to any valuable information they might need.
This should be on top of the information already included in the job posting.
One way to do this is to make sure once a chatbot is unable to answer a more complex question, it redirects the candidate to a recruiter.
This way you can both answer the candidate’s question in more detail and foster a stronger relationship with a more high-touch approach.
Track and Optimize
Setting up conversational hiring is only half the work.
Now that you’re reaching out to the candidates over a range of different channels, you need to track and analyze the results of your effort.
This is the main reason conversational recruiting strategies end after a few months.
Without tracking, it’s difficult to see what is working and what isn’t.
At which point it’s virtually impossible to know if you should invest more in it.
Measuring will get a clear picture of the most effective channels, as well as the ones falling behind.
This will help you optimize your approach and achieve even better results.
Conclusion
Conversational recruiting is the next major step for the hiring industry.
It will help you attract top talent while building a network of relationships you can fall back to for any future job openings.
Follow the guidelines above to get the most out of conversational recruiting, and you will not only attract the best candidates but make sure that they stay with your company for years to come.
The essence of conversational recruiting boils down to letting recruiters do what they do best: build connections. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of 10 best practices that will help you make the most out of conversational recruiting.
What is Conversational Recruiting
Unlike traditional recruiting, conversational recruiting shifts the focus away from administrative tasks such as filling out applications and towards a more informal conversation with potential candidates.
This lets recruiters engage candidates in a more personal and authentic way. The goal is to build a relationship with the candidate while at the same time gauging how qualified they are for the job opening.
The Benefits of Conversational Recruiting
One of the greatest benefits of conversational recruiting is that it lets recruiters put their biggest strengths on display. With the advancements in recruiting software, recruiters can now offload most of the time-consuming mechanical work to computers. This allows them more time and energy for building relationships and making expert hiring decisions.
Conversational Recruiting Best Practices
Start Small
If you’re not already using conversational recruiting, consider starting small. You can do this by creating a small email outreach campaign, with up to 50 people. This will help make the first steps easier to set up and manage. It will also let you get results faster and tweak your approach on the fly.
Explore Multiple Channels
When it comes to conversational recruiting, diversity is key. Using multiple channels will let you reach out to a variety of potential candidates you might otherwise miss.
First, you should take a look at emails. This is a communication channel you’re already well versed with and should be the easiest to use to set up conversational recruiting.
After that, focus on social media platforms, like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. These will let you strengthen your candidate network while being easily sourced by automated hiring software.
Finally, to make the most you can of automation, consider setting up and using chatbots.
Make the Most out of Emails
The number-one hurdle to using email for conversational recruiting is a lack of valuable information. Emails like these more often than not just end up in the spam folder without even being opened.
If you want to offer candidates more value, stay away from overly-designed email templates. Ironically, these will make your email look even less personal. Stick to a basic template and write the email as if you were writing to your friend or coworker. This will help you achieve the main goal of conversational recruiting: building relationships.
Take Advantage of Chatbots
If you want to make your outreach campaign as efficient as possible, you can even automate certain parts of conversational recruiting. Automated chatbots will engage with candidates, simulation the flow of a regular conversation.
Once you find the perfect candidate for the job, you should still engage with other candidates so you could keep them in your talent pool for any future openings. Chatbots can help by regularly engaging candidates and starting conversations.
Use Social Media
With social media being practically built for starting conversations, it’s surprising it isn’t used more when it comes to conversational recruiting. To make the most of it, don’t just post job openings on your social media accounts. Consider every post as the start of a conversation.
Sure, you can and should start conversations about open positions, but also consider posting news about your company and industry. This way you can engage passive candidates who might not be looking for a job at that point.
Set Up Online Events
Using online hiring events such as career fairs is a great way to bring candidates together with recruiters, managers, and employees and allow them to have conversations. You can even combine this approach with chatbots to make sure no one feels left out.
Setting up events like these will let your recruiters build relationships with qualified candidates and will require far less time and money than an in-person networking event. Also, this way you can cover a wider range of topics, from the specifics of job openings to things like company culture.
Mobile and Texting
With more and more focus on mobile when it comes to job searches (or simply browsing the web), you need to make sure candidates can also reach you there. First, you should make sure your job postings are available and easy to browse on mobile. But when it comes to conversational recruiting, you will also need to integrate texting into your outreach campaign. A good way to do this is by using chatbots equipped with predictive learning. They can engage with the candidates via text and will deliver personalized responses to keep the conversation going.
Be Quick to Respond
This should go without saying, but responding to candidate questions in real-time should be your number one priority. Especially if the candidate is engaging directly with a recruiter – you want to be able to provide valuable information as quickly as possible.
Have Something Worthwhile to Say
With the spread of automation in the hiring process, candidates understand that they can’t expect human-on-human communication every step of the way. Because of this, it’s even more important to make sure your candidates have access to any valuable information they might need. This should be on top of the information already included in the job posting.
One way to do this is to make sure once a chatbot is unable to answer a more complex question, it redirects the candidate to a recruiter. This way you can both answer the candidate’s question in more detail and foster a stronger relationship with a more high-touch approach.
Track and Optimize
Setting up conversational hiring is only half the work. Now that you’re reaching out to the candidates over a range of different channels, you need to track and analyze the results of your effort. This way you will get a clear picture of the most effective channels, as well as the ones falling behind. This will help you optimize your approach and achieve even better results.
Conversational recruiting is the next major step for the hiring industry. It will help you attract top talent while building a network of relationships you can fall back to for any future job openings. Follow the guidelines above to get the most out of conversational recruiting, and you will not only attract the best candidates but make sure that they stay with your company for years to come.
