Over the last year as a career coach, I have helped dozens of job seekers on their path to finding employment. Here are a few tips I would like to share based on the experience I have had with everyone from administrative assistants and tradesmen to professionals and executives.
Improving the hiring process for applicants can have a significant and positive impact. Not just to future hires of your organization, but also as brand ambassadors for people that never get an interview.
1 Streamline the Process
Use your applicant tracking system to gather only the information necessary to make the hiring decision and automate as much as possible. Enable "easy apply" or parsing the resume to fill in the application details. Your HR staff and recruiters are fully equipped to source, vet, and interview candidates, but what about your hiring managers? They need to be trained and familiar with legal stipulations and ethical interview guidelines, in addition to understanding the best practices for assessing qualifications. Decide ahead of time what people need to interview the candidate and minimize the times they need to come back for another interview. Your good candidates probably already have a job and making excuses to keep leaving it is probably not easy.
These steps can reduce your time-to-hire, minimize lost employee productivity due to a lengthy interview process, leave a better impression, and give the applicant a better experience.
2 Prioritize Candidate Communication
Keeping candidates informed at every step of the process, from application receipt to final decision, can significantly improve the applicant experience. Leaving interested prospects hanging will turn them off your company and toward another. Even if it’s just to check in and say, “Hey, no news yet!” Elite candidates are likely fielding multiple offers or are at least on the radar of other organizations. If they haven’t heard from you in a while or don’t have an idea of when they can expect to hear from you, they’re not going to wait around. Automated updates, clear timelines for feedback, and prompt communication about changes can prevent candidates from feeling ignored or undervalued.
Transparency builds a positive brand image and increases the likelihood that top candidates will accept offers and recommend the company to others.
3 Provide Clear Job Descriptions
Most job descriptions are paragraphs and paragraphs of intimidation. Applicants are less likely to apply to jobs that include unnecessary details, such as certifications you’re willing to train for or secondary responsibilities. This will drastically narrow your talent pool and may prolong your candidate search, costing you additional time and resources. Not only that, but with a narrow talent pool, you will struggle to hire a diverse and inclusive team that reflects your community and the customers you serve.
Tighten up your job descriptions to increase the breadth and quality of applicants.
4 Lean on Your Current Employees
Turn to your existing team members to boost your recruitment efforts without racking up costs. Communicate the open roles to your employees. Offering employees the opportunity to apply before formally starting to recruit shows your team members that you value them and support their career advancement. They either may be interested in the opportunities or know someone who would be a good fit. When you engage your current workforce in your recruitment strategy it can boost employee engagement. Good people know good people. Build an internal employer branding team and leverage the people in your organization as recruiters by tapping into their digital networks.
Have your job posting easily visible to your employees and make it easy for them to share with their friends or on social media.
5 Offer Feedback
Providing candidates who reach the interview stage with actionable feedback, regardless of the outcome, can turn even rejected applicants into advocates for the company. This practice shows respect for the effort applicants put into their applications and can improve the company’s employer brand, making it more attractive to future candidates.
Providing valuable feedback can turn applicants into advocates.
By adopting these practices, a company can enhance its attractiveness as an employer, widen its access to a diverse talent pool, and improve its overall hiring quality. This, in turn, can lead to better employee retention, higher job satisfaction among employees, and a stronger, more positive company culture.
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