The talent engagement process begins right after a candidate hits the apply button. Sending updates on the status of their application will keep them engaged with your organisation. You can automate emails to send them updates, connect on social media, give them feedback, and allow them to ask questions.
Why is candidate engagement during the recruitment process important?
You would not want to drive away candidates due to poor engagement. Hence, it is important to think of talent engagement in recruitment. Communicate with the applicants through email, text, video conferencing or face-to-face. It keeps the candidates engaged with your organisation and develops familiarity. Employers can benefit from talent engagement in many ways, some of which are:
- Boosts candidate’s interest
- Reduce chances of candidate drop-off
- Candidates are open to your outreach in the future
How to improve candidate engagement?
Use the following tips to engage passive candidates and job seekers actively searching for jobs:
1. Strengthen your employer branding
Employer branding significantly affects the talent engagement process. Top contenders determines whether or not they want to consider employment based on the company’s reputation. Candidates who have heard good things about your organisation will likely choose you over other job opportunities.
One of the proven ways to build strong employer branding is by using an applicant tracking system. An ATS in recruitment boosts employer branding by:
- Speeding up the recruitment process
- Enhancing the candidate experience
- Encouraging employee referral
2. Emphasise candidate’s growth opportunities in job descriptions
You can get the candidates excited about working with you by highlighting how the offered role will help them learn and grow. You can talk about mentoring, regular training, and professional development opportunities to engage talented candidates.
3. Provide a hiring timeline
Providing the candidates with a defined timeline with briefs on what happens at every stage will help engage the candidate. It will make them aware and excited about each stage that follows.
Sticking to the timeline will also ensure efficient and timely hiring.
4. Send updates on the candidate’s application status
Sending quick responses on application submission and during the later stages of the recruitment process builds trust and loyalty in the candidate’s mind. They are inclined to believe in you. Share updates if they get shortlisted, and tell them where they are in the hiring process and when they should expect a response.
5. Keep the hiring process short and effective
A hiring timeline, effective communication and responding faster will ensure a short and effective hiring process.
Keeping candidates engaged for a longer time could be a task. Moreover, if you delay responding to applications, talented candidates may find other job opportunities. Hence, keeping the hiring process short and effective will help engage candidates better.
6. Use an ATS: Manage the hiring experience
With an applicant tracking system, you can see where candidates are in the hiring process, automate communication and hence send updates to many candidates at a time to keep all of them engaged.
You can use an ATS to manage the hiring experience by generating custom reports and analysing metrics:
- Length of the hiring process
- Interview experience
- Candidate drop-off
7. Engage passive candidates on social media
Activity on social media is another effective way to keep potential candidates engaged and excited about working with your organisation. Some effective ways you can engage with the potential candidate are:
- Talking about your company’s story
- Posting day-to-day experience at your workplace
- Sharing pictures of happy employees
- Talking about the amazing work culture
- Sharing employee’s testimonials
If you lack engagement with the talent you want to hire, you must start revisiting your strategies. Consider investing in an applicant tracking system like PyjamaHR to track qualified candidates better, use in-built templates for updating many applicants at a time, conduct effective interviews and many more to have a short and effective hiring process.
