Surefire Ways to Engage Candidates from the Get-Go

Recruiters have a lot on their plate. Between sourcing, screening, coordinating interviews, running background checks, how do they find time in their day to engage with each and every candidate that comes through? The answer is: they don’t. And that lack of communication can be harmful to your employer brand and candidate pipeline, especially considering that 80% of candidates say they wouldn't reapply to a company that didn't notify them of their application status. To avoid tarnishing your employer brand with a negative candidate experience, here are 3 ways to engage your candidates from the very beginning.

1. Follow up on Everything

The first mistake that any employer can make during their candidate experience is by not following up, whether it’s following up to an email or to an application that’s been submitted. While manual follow-ups can be time-consuming, consider setting up automated follow-ups. For example, when a candidate submits their application, set up an automated email to acknowledge that you’ve received their resume. Another opportunity for an automated email is after a candidate goes through an interview. Consider sending them an automated email or SMS asking how it went and if they have any questions. Doing this acknowledges the candidates and lets them know that you’re here for them.

2. Don’t Forget to Follow Through

Did you tell a candidate that you’ll send them additional information in the next 24 hours? Or maybe you told them they’ll hear about their interview results in 2 days. Whichever the case, don’t forget to follow through. The hiring process is a candidate’s first impression of your employer brand, and if they feel like they’ve just been ignored, there’s a good chance that they won’t be coming back to the company any time soon, if ever.

Similar to manual follow-ups, following through can be time-consuming. To streamline the process, consider putting together a bank of answers that you can easily pull from. If one candidate has asked a question, there’s a good chance that another candidate will ask the same question or something similar in the future. A more advanced option would be leveraging conversational AI to answer these questions.

3. Communicate in a Timely Manner

This ought to be a no-brainer, but it’s more common than you think for recruiters to leave candidates waiting. A survey by LinkedIn found that top talent only stays on the market for 10 days, so you need to move fast if you’ve got candidates that you want to move along in the process. Even if a candidate is still in the early stages of the hiring process and they sent you an email with a question, it would be in everyone’s best interest to respond quickly. You don’t want that candidate to be “the one who got away.”

Communication is paramount when it comes to recruiting. While recruiters may not have all the time on their hands, you can help alleviate some of the administrative tasks by automating some tasks such as communication. Conversational AI can help take care of all of these 3 processes so that no candidate goes unnoticed.