Gone are the days when recruiting was considered filling the open positions in a company. Today, it is all about the human experience, precisely candidate experience. The way you make your candidates feel matters a lot in this day and age as it affects your company’s brand and the decision of your future employees. Finding and hiring the top talent is difficult in this competitive market already; paying no heed to candidates’ experience only hurts you in the long run.
Now comes the question: So, how should I improve candidate experience? Candidate Follow-Up. The candidate follow-up has become a crucial step in the recruitment process lately. A good follow-up can promote your employment brand, whereas the worst case is no follow-up. To help you keep up and boost your employer brand, we’ve listed 6 best and effective candidate follow-up strategies. Before we jump into that, let’s see what candidate follow-up is in simple terms.
What is Candidate Follow-Up?
Candidate follow-up is the action of communicating with applicants before and after the interview process, answering their questions related to the job, and updating them whether or not they are hired.
Whether you are going to hire that candidate or not, follow up after the interview is a crucial part of your hiring process. Although it takes some time, it’s all worth it.
Let’s understand more about why candidate follow-up is worth the extra effort.
Why is candidate follow-up important?
People remember how you made them feel.
It’s as simple as that! Candidate experience has become more critical than ever. Your candidates will remember how you treat them: whether you have updated them about the interview status promptly or ignored them. The market has become more transparent with the evolution of feedback-sharing sites like Glassdoor. The chances are high that they speak negatively about your company if you don’t treat them well. In contrast, following up with them in each stage of the recruitment process creates a positive impression on your company and makes them think highly of your brand.
Poor candidate experience damages your reputation.
As per a LinkedIn survey, 83% of candidates said an interview experience could change their minds about a company they once liked. This number warns companies to rethink their recruitment process. Moreover, your future employees will check for reviews before considering you. So, you should make applicants talk about you positively, maintaining good relationships with them whether they were hired or not.
Applicants want truth more than void.
The other basic yet most important reason why you should follow up with candidates is that they want the truth- good or bad. Being honest and letting them know the status in a reasonable time will positively impact you. Positive word-of-mouth can bring invisible yet significant results to your company.
Okay, enough said. Now, let’s quickly get into how to build effective candidate follow-up strategies.
6 Effective Candidate Follow Up Strategies
1. Train your recruiters
Train your recruiters or HR team to catch up with the latest recruiting trends and explain the importance of follow-up and candidate experience. You can assign a dedicated team member to guide the candidates throughout the recruitment process. This way, applicants feel more valued and know more about your company before they attend the interview.
Robert Half survey shows that 46% of respondents said lack of follow-up in the first two weeks after the interview drops their interest in the job. As stated earlier, recruiting is no more just filling the vacant positions; it is more about building an employment brand. The top talent pool is limited, and your competitors are already stalking the best talent. Ignoring the trends may let potential candidates slip through your fingers.
2. Thank them for applying
Applicants spend a good amount of time applying for your post, filling necessary details and, before all, editing their resume to impress you. So, be respectful of their time and send a thank you email and appreciate their time. Following up with them right after receiving their applications will greatly impact your employment brand.
3. Respect their time
Whether the interview was awkward or boring or you didn’t like the candidate for many reasons, don’t leave them guessing. Like said, they have spent their time on you too, so update their status promptly. This also cuts the interview loop, and you won’t be disturbed by calls asking for updates. Respecting their time also saves your time.
4. Email unqualified candidates
When you reach out to candidates to tell them they are not the best fit for the role, be straightforward, honest, but not rude. Provide them the feedback you have got from the interviewer. Email is the best way to getting back to unqualified candidates. It is both time-efficient and easy on the heart.
5. Make them feel valued; be transparent
Follow up candidates that were not hired and provide them with a piece of useful information. Tell them the best things they did in the interview and areas of opportunities. Encourage them to prepare well and reapply in the near future. Also, don’t hesitate to tell them that you would consider their profile for future openings or a different role if they fit.
If the interview process is delayed due to reorganization or budget issues or whatever the reason, be transparent and update them about when they can expect your call.
6. Connect with rock stars over call
The best way to follow up with hired candidates is to connect with them over the phone. This makes them feel personal about your company. A proper follow-up strengthens relationships between candidates, recruiters, and the brand, emphasize it.
Letting the candidates know if they were not hired is a basic thing. After all, you have chased them before arranging an interview. Send personalized emails to improve candidate experience, you can use a mass mailing tool to save time. This also makes you stand out from your competitors. However, before everything, make sure your interaction with the candidates is flawless. Even a misspelling can damage an employer’s credibility.
Own the above strategies and build your own candidate follow-up techniques to create a unique employer brand identity in the market.
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