When recruiting for open positions at your company, you are looking for the very best, but it’s important to recognize that top candidates are only on the market for a very limited amount of time, which doesn’t always align with the speed of your hiring process. You have a small window to capture their attention and with increased competition in today’s job market, it’s more important than ever to leave candidates with a positive impression after each touch point with your business. 

Inevitably, you won’t extend an offer to the majority of the candidates that apply with your company, but it’s still essential that candidates have as engaging and pleasant an experience as possible throughout the process.

The way you treat candidates during the recruitment process will influence how they view your company in the future and what they say about their experience to others. According to a survey from career builder, 22% of job seekers said that if they have a poor experience with a business, during the recruitment process, then they will advise other candidates not to apply with that business.

The most common candidate engagement issues include:

• Long application process
• Lack of communication
• Extended hiring time
• One-way communication – candidates are unable to contact the recruiter
• Not being told if they have been removed from consideration

There are a number of candidate engagement strategies you can use to ensure that your company is putting its best foot forward, and making sure that talented candidates don’t move on to other opportunities before you have a chance to extend an offer.

Some key candidate engagement strategies include:

1. Communicating with candidates throughout the process, even if there are delays
2. Providing feedback after interviews, both to those who receive an offer and those who don’t
3. Making sure your job postings are accurate and up-to-date
4. Managing expectations from the start so that candidates are not caught off guard by any step in your process

Communication

One of the most important candidate engagement strategies is communication. Candidates should never feel like they are in the dark about where they stand in your process. If there are delays, communicate them. If you’re going to be making a decision soon, let your candidates know. The more information you can provide, the better.

Candidate Feedback

Another key candidate engagement strategy is to provide feedback, both to those who receive an offer and those who don’t. This shows that you value your candidates’ time and want to help them improve for future opportunities. It also reinforces your company’s commitment to transparency.

Accurate Job Postings

Your job postings should be accurate and up-to-date. Candidates should never feel misled about a role or the expectations of the position. This can damage your employer brand and make it more difficult to attract top talent in the future.

Managing Expectations

From the beginning of the recruitment process, you should manage candidate expectations so that there are no surprises further down the line. Candidates should know what to expect in terms of timeline, interview format, and next steps. This helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that candidates have a positive experience throughout.

We can all agree that a positive candidate experience results in increased candidate engagement, but with this rising demand for increased touch points and communication with candidates, the strain on hiring teams with limited resources can be overwhelming. With increased competition and demand for more communication with candidates, more and more businesses are turning to AI tools to help streamline their recruitment process.

PandoLogic offers a bundled recruitment marketing solution that utilizes artificial intelligence to find and feature your job listings in the most optimal places on the web, based on your candidate criteria. Then it can screen candidate resumes and manage communication using conversational AI chat. With little upfront lift from your team, PandoLogic’s AI tools can increase your effectiveness, improve candidate engagement, and alleviate the unnecessary burden of additional touchpoints on your hiring teams.

Candidate engagement strategies are essential for any company that wants to attract and retain top talent. By communicating regularly, providing feedback, keeping job postings accurate, and managing expectations, you can ensure that your company is putting its best foot forward and leaving candidates with a positive impression.

By following these simple candidate engagement strategies, you can make sure that your company is doing everything it can to attract and retain top talent.