In most cases, and for most job openings, recruiters want to secure top industry talent for their open roles. Why? Beyond being the most qualified or suitable person for the position, top performers come packaged with an array of benefits that can give organizations a competitive advantage, improve company culture and help develop organizational leadership.
But attracting and retaining the most befitting employees is easier said than done. So, what exactly are the best ways to ensure you’re attracting the most qualified individuals? And, what does an effective and successful recruitment strategy look like?
Here, we’re breaking down the basics required of a solid recruitment strategy to ensure you’re getting your money’s worth not just out of your newly recruited, talented employees but your hiring efforts, too.
The Basis of a Strong Recruitment Strategy
There’s more to attracting, sourcing and securing top talent than simply posting a job listing. Even if it’s well-written and alluring, there are always others that are more so. This can be especially challenging for smaller organizations looking to get on the same playing field as their larger corporate counterparts.
Hiring managers must not only curate their job listings to a tee but also their strategies to identify and attract those most suited for a particular role. If you’re unsure where to start, or where it went wrong for your organization, start with these seven recruiting basics and get them right:
1. Identify Your Needs
You can’t fill a ravine with water and expect it to be as easily traversed on foot then if there were a bridge instead. Before you go looking for candidates, you first need to identify what you need to help your organization succeed.
This involves collaborating with relevant stakeholders to:
Define job requirements and expectations.
Clearly understand the specific skills, experience and qualities desired from the ideal candidate.
Once everyone is aligned on the best way to proceed, you can start building the hiring bridge.
2. Attracting Qualified Candidates
To attract the right people, you need to create compelling job descriptions and employer branding strategies. This includes, but is not limited to:
Clearly stating the company’s values.
Effectively communicating your culture.
Identifying and making evident the growth opportunities with your organization.
Doing these three tasks the right way will help you attract high-caliber candidates.
3. Sourcing Qualified Candidates
In a perfect world, highly qualified candidates seeking employment would deliver themselves straight to your front door. Unfortunately, hiring isn’t that easy and, oftentimes, top talent needs to be head-hunted. Hiring managers should leverage various sourcing channels, including job boards, social media platforms, professional networks and even industry-specific events, to proactively seek out qualified candidates. A passive candidate is someone who isn’t actively searching for new opportunities but would be happy to entertain an attractive offer.
What Do Top Candidates Want From Organizations?
Before jumping into more concentrated efforts that will help you land top talent, let’s take a look at what job seekers actually want from their prospective organizations. While fair and just compensation is still highly important for a lot of candidates, especially top talent, other elements are equally, if not more important.
For example, a recent study revealed that 91 percent of new hires who received quality culture training felt more connected to the organization than those who didn’t—underscoring the importance of a healthy, active culture for new and prospective hires. Culture training involves educating and familiarizing new hires with the values, norms, beliefs and behaviors of your company’s culture. It’s not just about learning the job tasks or responsibilities; it’s about understanding the organization’s ethos and how to thrive within it.
This often involves training about how to effectively handle challenges within the organization and be a strong leader, as well as expectations for collaboration; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and more.
Beyond culture training, here are a few more nice-to-haves in today’s market that can bolster your organization as one worthy of employing the most talented candidates in your industry:
Evident opportunities for professional development
Strong work-life balance
Open and honest communication
How To Attract Top Talent
Great, so we know how to get the basics right and what job seekers truly want from their prospective companies. Now, let’s streamline, optimize and condense everything we’ve learned into one actionable checklist that will surely help you secure the right people for the jobs at hand.
You attract what you exude. When your brand communicates enticing qualities like excellence, transparency and drive, you’ll inevitably entice like-minded people who wish to work for such a strong, reputable company.
In terms of recruiting, here are a few to-do’s:
Define your employer value proposition (EVP): Identify what makes your company unique as an employer.
Craft a brand message: Develop a clear, concise and compelling message that communicates your EVP to potential candidates.
Build a strong online presence: Leverage social media platforms to share employee stories, company achievements and behind-the-scenes glimpses of your workplace.
Provide an exceptional candidate experience: Ensure a seamless and positive experience for each and every potential candidate throughout the recruitment process — which translates into a better employee experience if you play your cards correctly.
Invest in employee well-being: Prioritize employee well-being by providing work-life balance initiatives, mental health support and wellness programs.
2. Write Compelling and Detailed Job Descriptions
No one wants to be left guessing after reading a job description. Clear, compelling posting should include:
A clear title that’s representative of the role.
An engaging overview of the job.
Key responsibilities.
Requirements and necessary qualifications.
Salary information.
Expected working hours.
Information about company culture.
3. Use More Than One Sourcing Channel
Casting a wide net is key to attracting more talent. The larger your sample size, the more likely you are to catch qualified candidates. This is especially important for small businesses that, by default, aren’t on the same playing field as their larger counterparts.
To do this effectively, post your job openings on popular job boards, industry-specific websites and social media platforms to maximize visibility. But, instead of doing all of this manually, use an applicant tracking system that can cast the net for you.
4. Offer Competitive and Creative Benefits
According to research by the Harvard Business Review, 60 percent of employees say the cost of going into the office outweighs the pros. That being said, one of the most important benefits employers can offer in 2024—beyond insurance and the like—is a well-balanced hybrid working model.
This and other creative benefits, such as student loan assistance programs, more paid time off and funding for professional development are all attractive incentives for today’s workforce.
5. Emphasize Career Development
According to a 2023 study by LinkedIn Learning, providing learning opportunities is the number one strategy for retaining top talent employers can use. This is important because, when you secure top talent, you want them to stick around.
For recruiting, this means:
Highlighting growth opportunities from the get-go
Building attractive and effective training and career development programs
Actively encouraging continuous learning
Providing adequate mentorship and coaching
Conducting performance reviews and providing actionable feedback
6. Commit To Continuous Improvement
You don’t have to get recruiting right on the very first try. Each organization is different, and depending on the type of industry you’re operating in and what your ideal candidate looks like, your recruiting strategy can change. But that’s the beauty of it!
The easier you can make the hiring process on yourself, the quicker you can adapt your recruiting strategy to fit the needs of diverse candidates — no matter where they are in the talent pipeline.
Streamline Your Hiring Process For Success in Securing Top Talent
From candidate sourcing to retaining top talent, Applicantstack makes it easy to quickly scale your team or fill niche roles without any of the hassle associated with traditional, drawn-out hiring practices. Text-to-apply functionally puts control back in candidates’ hands: While they continue their job search, you can start reviewing resumes.
These features, and many more, are what make Applicantstack the premier choice for streamlining your hiring process to attract the most high-quality candidates for your team. Interested? Try it for free today.
Connecting job seekers with hiring managers happens in a variety of ways. Word-of-mouth, networking, promoting from within, cold calling: these are all tried-and-true methods to find candidates for open positions. The speed of technological advancement has changed the hiring landscape and demands that hiring managers look to new methods to reach a wider audience.
According to a survey done by The Cambridge Jobs Board, 85 percent of job seekers reject the popular recruiting websites that bombard with relentless messages and impersonal communication. Those disenchanted job seekers may be uniquely prepared to be reached by thoughtful and powerful recruitment marketing.
Does Advertising Jobs Online Work?
Online job marketing is a $36 billion dollar industry. The sector has seen a 15 percent increase in growth since 2015. So how can your business claim a piece of that hiring pie? Go where the people spend a huge majority of their time.
Online advertising for recruitment requires a diverse skillset: some marketing knowledge, some recruiting knowledge, and the ability to sell your company to a wide variety of eyeballs. Done well, your ad may reach an active job seeker and a disenchanted worker who becomes inspired to make a job switch.
Kepios estimates that 62.3 percent of the global population are active consumers of social media. That’s an astronomical pool to pull from. Even if your small business is really only looking to cover a smaller region of job seekers, that stat suggests your recruiting pool will be active social media users.
Statistics to Know About Your Recruiting Pool
Before you jump headfirst into creating paid advertising, consider defining the non-negotiables for your recruiting pool. This way your ads can be sure to reach out to the right candidates. You can identify metrics with market research, surveys, and analytics. In the modern world, personal data is valuable currency. Here are some of the many metrics to identify and tailor your ad dollars to the right pool.
Where are they located? Is the position remote? Is it in-person? You might want to tailor your ad to specific time zones or even cities to reach candidates who are able to meet this criteria.
Education level required. This metric can help you choose which social media platforms to use; ones tailored mainly to teenagers won’t give you candidates with a required Bachelor’s degree.
Where do they spend their time online? Tools like the Pew Research Center can give valuable insight into where various demographic groups spend time online.
Specific interests associated with your brand. Knowing candidates’ interests can help you parlay that positive association and experience into work.
How to Craft a Compelling Recruiting Ad
Follow these steps to craft a more appealing ad for recruiting.
Start with this question: What does the job seeker want to know? This requires understanding some basic metrics which you can acquire from each individual social channel you’re using.
Choose the right platform. Use statistics and demographic information to make sure you’re targeting the ideal candidate.
Deliver a punchy message within the first 10 seconds of the ad. Use graphics and word choices that define the value proposition for the viewer immediately. Give just enough information about your company to inspire further engagement.
Focus on SEO. What keywords will put this ad in front of the right eyes?
Define the Call to Action: “Click to learn more” or “Click to apply” for example.
Link the ad to a landing page that is also easily scannable and inviting. Include clear descriptions of requirements, instructions for applying, and information about company culture.
Critically evaluate your conversion data to figure out where you need to make tweaks to the ad itself or to the platforms where you share it.
Online Advertising Platforms to Consider
When you’re trying to stretch your advertising dollar, it’s important to know the pros and cons of the popular online platforms for reaching your targeted audience. Pew provides some important insight:
LinkedIn is more popular among those with advanced degrees. 51 percent of adults said they have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher, compared to 10 percent with a high school diploma or less.
Pinterest is used by more women (46 percent) than men (16 percent).
YouTube is the most widely used app by people of all ages: 95 percent of adults age 18 to 29 use it, 91 percent of those age 30 to 49, and 83 percent of those age 50 to 64.
Facebook has the lowest usage from adults age 18 to 29 at 70 percent, with the highest engagement coming from the 30 to 49 age bracket at 77 percent
Instagram users in America are 52 percent Hispanic, 49 percent Black, and 35 percent White.
Snapchat is almost entirely the domain of young people, with 65 percent of adults age 18 to 29 compared to 24 percent of those 30 to 49.
YouTube and Facebook are nearly equally used by urban, suburban, and rural Americans.
The data suggests that the majority of users visit their platforms of choice every day.
Demographics are a great place to start. After that, most social media sites provide very robust report options that can be customized to the specific metrics that are most helpful for your hiring process. Meta offers stats like reach, impressions, frequency, and clicks among many others. On YouTube, metrics include view rate and if the video was played to 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent.
Manage Your Applicants With ApplicantStack
The sheer volume of reported metrics can be overwhelming to parse and sort. A tool which ties these important metrics to individual candidates helps connect this important work with humans that can fill your open positions. Within ApplicantStack, you can record the results of your marketing recruiting efforts. Each metric becomes a potential valued member of your team. You can also take advantage of the integration with Indeed to utilize the Sponsored Jobs feature and get in front of a wider audience.
One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is referred to as “the great resignation.” During this time, which began in 2021, employees resigned from their positions en masse. According to some estimates, more than 50 million employees voluntarily left their roles, resulting in a mad scramble for talent.
Some of the factors driving the mass resignation event included a desire for enhanced flexibility, particularly in scheduling, remote or hybrid work, and higher pay. But a percentage of these individuals regretted their decision, resulting in an attempt to return to the company they left behind.
Embracing returning team members was a 2023 hiring trend we discussed on our blog. Now we’re diving into why these employees want to come back, what to consider and the benefits of welcoming them into the fold.
What is a ‘Boomerang’ Employee?
The term “boomerang employee” refers to someone who left their role and came back to the organization. Considering that the average employee tenure with a company is about five years, it makes sense that they might return to a company they worked for previously during their approximate 40-year professional run.
Why Employees Might Return to Previous Employers
A significant portion of those who quit their jobs believe that the previous role was better than their current one. People in this situation might be more excited about a return to their previous employer, which can boost morale and strengthen the company culture.
Other factors influencing decisions to return to previous employers include life situation changes, such as having children or caring for an ill family member or exploring another industry. An employee might choose to pursue a passion, taking time away from work during that period. Some people work seasonally, while others relocate temporarily based on climate conditions. These situations can all lead to boomerang employees.
The Benefits of Embracing Returning Employees
There are certainly benefits that come along with embracing former team members who want to rejoin the company. Some of these advantages include:
Familiarity with the expectations, responsibilities and job overall
A well-established relationship with the employer, which can boost retention and loyalty
An increased likelihood of understanding and aligning with the company culture
A less time-consuming onboarding process
Depending on their reasoning for leaving and what they did during the period away, returning employees may bring additional viewpoints and skills that can benefit your company.
Considerations of Rehiring Boomerang Employees
Of course, not every employee who resigned from their role will be a good fit to return. It’s worth considering what they will bring to the team and whether their presence will benefit the organization.
If a former employee left on a negative note, a return could create bad feelings in the workplace. Even remote workers may have trouble with tasks that involve collaboration or delegation from an individual who spoke negatively about the company or participated in other toxic behaviors.
Make sure to consider other applicants before determining whether the previous team member is the best fit. It’s easy to overlook well-qualified candidates when someone who is already trained and familiar with the processes requests to come back.
Understand why the employee chose to leave to get a sense of whether they will be happy working for the company once again. If they felt dissatisfied with aspects of business leadership or team workflows, they might become a higher flight risk if their concerns haven’t been resolved.
Maximize Your Hiring Efforts with ApplicantStack
Whether you choose to bring back boomerang employees or widen the search to include a range of candidates, ApplicantStack can make the hiring process go more smoothly. It includes tools to make communication with candidates easier, keeping everyone on the same page. Plus, you can share your open positions on multiple job posting sites with a single click to cast a wider net.
The ever-changing job market demands that businesses of all sizes adapt to find the best candidates in the hiring pool. Speed of hiring can make or break a job seeker’s experience with your company. According to The Society of Human Resource Management, it can take between 24 and 36 days from application to offer, numbers that can seem daunting to a company looking to grow and fill open positions.
A thoughtful analysis of your company’s hiring practices can reveal some places where you might be unknowingly hitting the brakes. Here are some steps to help you speed up the hiring process.
Write Thorough Job Descriptions
Attract top talent through honest and accurate job descriptions. Especially if you’re recycling previous descriptions, examine the language for vague clichés or missing responsibilities. Make sure benefits and compensation are clear, and that you give some information about company culture or unique things about your business.
Most people can figure out what it’s like to work at Apple, but the features that make your small business special may not be as easy to find on Reddit or Glassdoor. Let your description act as a marketing tool. It needs to attract candidates fast. Don’t let precious days pass between posting and receiving applicants.
Update Your Social Media and Website
Once you’ve piqued a candidate’s interest, their next step is likely checking you out on social media and your website. It’s easy to lose an interesting candidate who gets turned off because your last Instagram post is two years old or your website still features an announcement about Covid closures. Social media is useful for helping people understand your company culture, highlighting products or initiatives, and even advertising for open positions. It’s good for your public-facing media to not look abandoned.
Scrutinize Your Application Process
When was the last time someone from your company test-drove the application process? An internal review can reveal sections where a potential candidate may get bogged down. Make sure your tech works properly at each step. If you encourage applications through a web form, check that all the information transfers to the right people in a timely manner. Give job seekers details like what kind of documents are preferred or allowed, any file size limitations, or required information. Try to identify points in the process where someone might get discouraged or abandon it altogether. A clear and simple experience means an expansion of your pool and the ability to act quickly.
Invest in Automation Technology
You’ve got a brilliant job description and a streamlined application process: now what to do with all the data? Automation technology like ApplicantStack helps you avoid an overwhelmed inbox or a messy spreadsheet. Open jobs are laid out in an easy-to-view grid with many ways to proceed from there. Sort candidates by referral source, suitability rating, and dates to keep on top of interview scheduling, contacts, and overall view of your candidate pool. You can set tasks and deadlines that ensure nobody falls through the cracks. Handle simultaneous hiring timelines with ease, cutting down significantly on time to hire.
Keep an Open Mind for Potential
Qualifications for a job are the gold standard for advancing a candidate through to the next step. But the job pool may be full of underqualified people (on paper) who may fit in well with your company culture. Putting them on the back burner or dismissing them outright while waiting for the perfect candidate can waste precious time. Valuing potential can be very productive to the hiring process. If a person gives you every indication they’re capable of learning and adapting to something new, it might be worth giving them an opportunity sooner rather than later.
Avoid a Drawn-Out Interview Process
Hiring managers and job seekers are equally invested in the time to hire from first interaction. Along with scrutinizing your job descriptions and hiring protocols, consider the effectiveness of your interview practices. In the modern job market, phone calls and videoconferencing are ideal for preliminary interviews. They save time and travel expenses and serve as a useful tool for first impressions and determining next steps.
The ability to conduct multiple interviews in a day means faster movement through the process and gives in-person priority to serious candidates. Faster decisions also means faster communication with your candidates, which can keep them engaged and at lower risk of ghosting you or dropping out of contention.
Keep Communication Open
Notifying candidates about their place in the process ensures an open dialogue that benefits both sides, even if the end result isn’t an offer. Looking for a job usually means a fair amount of uncertainty as a candidate juggles companies’ various application and interview processes. Clear communication about next steps and dates is always welcome. A well-timed email of assurance in between can go a long way in showing your company’s interest.
With texting capabilities built right in, ApplicantStack supports your company’s efforts to communicate and meet candidates where they are—on their phones.
Issue Offers Quickly
Once the hiring managers have made a decision, issue the offer as soon as possible. Every day that passes with a candidate waiting for an answer is a day lost to the process and an opportunity for them to become discouraged by your process or take another job. Even if you decide not to extend an offer, a prompt rejection shows you respect the candidate’s time.
Set Internal Deadlines
Depending on the size of your business, you may have people wearing multiple hats of management and hiring. Organization is crucial to keep the process moving, especially with unforeseen circumstances that inevitably pop up. ApplicantStack includes candidate management functionality, reminding you of deadlines you’ve set and allowing other members of your team to help. It clearly lays out the hiring priorities in a way that makes it simple to spread out the work and keep the process moving efficiently while ensuring everyone involved stays on the same page.
Adapting to changes in the job market demands adaptability from hiring managers. Modern technology gives companies the tools to speed up the hiring process and fill open positions with engaged and enthusiastic workers.
In this blog, we’re discussing some of the top challenges a new remote employee might face with virtual onboarding and how organizations can help set them up for success—starting as early in the process as the job posting.
What Is Remote Onboarding?
Onboarding remote employees requires a few key elements, such as introducing, integrating and orienting a worker with a company’s culture, policies and procedures. This happens either entirely or partially through virtual means, rather than in person.
Remote workers have become much more typical over the last handful of years, with approximately 22 million employed adults working from home 100 percent of the time. With the rise of remote work and distributed teams, many companies have had to adapt their traditional onboarding processes. The process usually involves using various digital tools and platforms to facilitate orientation sessions, training modules, meetings, access to company resources and documentation and more.
Even remote onboarding, which you’d expect to be a fairly uniform process across the board given the inherent limitations, can look different from one organization to the next. However, there are a few main components and onboarding best practices that are to be expected, such as:
Virtual orientation sessions: Introduction to company culture, values, mission and policies through online presentations or videos.
Digital training materials: Access to online courses, tutorials and documentation to learn about job responsibilities, software tools and processes.
Virtual meetings: Scheduled video calls with managers, remote team members and HR representatives to discuss job expectations, goals and performance evaluation criteria.
Digital communication channels: Utilizing email, instant messaging platforms and project management tools for ongoing communication, collaboration and feedback.
Remote access to resources: Provision of necessary equipment, software and access to company databases.
Regular check-ins: Scheduled virtual meetings to assess progress, address concerns and provide additional support as needed.
These could be considered the bare minimum requirements of an onboarding plan. However, to reap the benefits of a truly effective strategy, including better employee retention and a more meaningful employee experience, it’s important to understand common challenges first.
Top Challenges With Remote Onboarding
Surprisingly, only about 12 percent of employees in the U.S. say that their organizations have a good onboarding process — so getting virtual onboarding right can really set you apart from your competition. With an ever-expanding remote workforce, being able to adapt to this new normal will only strengthen company culture over time.
Remote onboarding isn’t without its challenges, just like its face-to-face counterpart. To facilitate the most meaningful remote onboarding experience for new employees, being aware of common challenges is key to developing strategies to overcome them and can help both you and remote hires succeed.
For context, here are a few typical challenges with remote onboarding processes:
Technological barriers
Some candidates, especially older generations, may not be as comfortable with certain technologies as others. Remote onboarding sessions should provide training to help get tech-averse employees up to speed.
Limited personal interaction
Remote onboarding lacks the face-to-face interaction indicative of more traditional working arrangements, where it’s easier to build relationships between new hires and colleagues. In a virtual environment, it can be more challenging for new employees to feel connected to the company culture and other team members.
Lack of supervision
Without direct supervision and timely feedback on their initial performance, new employees may struggle to effectively learn and adapt to their roles.
Disengagement
Remote work can be isolating, especially for new hires who may feel disconnected from their peers and the organization itself. Without the informal interactions and socialization opportunities provided by an office environment, new employees may struggle to integrate and engage with their teams.
Difficulty building trust and rapport
Establishing trust and rapport between new hires and their managers and colleagues can be more challenging in a remote environment. Building strong relationships in these virtual settings requires an intentional effort to foster open communication, collaboration and camaraderie.
Remote Onboarding Checklist: Building An Effective Plan
As an employer interested in hiring remote employees, you should be committed to facilitating success for each new hire in your remote environment.
That means providing the appropriate tools, software, and support that remote workers need to thrive in their new roles. At a high level, that effort also includes committing to and/or developing:
Clear communication: Provide clear instructions and expectations for the remote onboarding process, including timelines, objectives and resources. Regularly communicate with new hires through various digital channels to ensure they feel informed and supported.
A structured onboarding plan: Develop a comprehensive onboarding plan that outlines the training modules, orientation sessions and milestones new hires will complete during their first weeks and months on the job. Break down tasks into manageable steps and provide access to relevant resources and materials.
Feedback and evaluation: Solicit feedback from new hires about their remote onboarding experience to identify areas for improvement and ensure ongoing optimization of the process. Evaluate the effectiveness of the onboarding program based on new hires’ performance, engagement and satisfaction levels.
A Remote Onboarding Checklist For New Remote Hires
Now that you know what your organization should have in place for the best chance at successful virtual onboarding, here’s a checklist that you can provide to employees ahead of the remote onboarding process to ensure they’re fully prepared:
Test your internet connection to ensure it’s stable and reliable.
Ensure you have all the necessary hardware (computer, headset, etc.) and software (messaging apps, project management platforms, etc.) If provided by the company, be sure to reach out to get an idea of when you can expect the equipment to arrive if it hasn’t been made clear.
Confirm contact information with HR and that you have access to all necessary apps and programs.
Designate a quiet workspace in your home without distractions.
Familiarize yourself with the organization’s culture, values and professional standards so you know what to expect as you start the transition.
Prepare to introduce yourself to each new team member you meet.
Remote Onboarding Made Simpler with Applicantstack
Applicantstack streamlines onboarding tasks to get new remote hires integrated into your organization quickly and effectively.
Our software has everything you (and your remote employees) need to succeed, all in one place. Import hires, upload forms, create tasks, set reminders and so much more in a centralized platform that’s easy to use.
The term “ghosting” originated in the app-heavy world of online dating. Two people start communicating past the first inbox message. Then, one party disappears without a “sorry, but” message, never to be heard from again. In job seeking, ghosting refers to when either the candidate or the employer drops out of the interview process without explanation. Invitations go unread, interview appointments remain unconfirmed, and emails sit unopened.
Ghosting Is On the Rise
According to a survey conducted by Indeed in 2021, the shift in the employment market during the pandemic meant ghosting on either side became much more common. More than three-quarters of job seekers report being ghosted by an employer. On the other hand, 76 percent of employers in the same survey say they, too, have been ghosted. Statistics tell the story of a frustrating experience on both sides of the hiring process. Candidates ghosted by hiring managers can feel undervalued, discouraged, indignant, or angry. On the company side, it can feel equally discouraging and like a tremendous waste of resources. For small businesses in particular, growth can present huge challenges, and efficiency is crucial.
As a prospective employer, you can’t control every candidate’s behavior. But you can control how you internally manage the hiring process to reduce the risk of being ghosted. At its core, ghosting happens when one side gives up on the potential relationship. Here are some tips to reduce applicant ghosting.
3 Tips to Stop Applicants Ghosting You
Improve Engagement
This word may be mostly tied to social media in our minds. Engagement describes the ability to create content that keeps your viewer in front of their screen and ideally willing to comment, like, subscribe, click, or purchase. In the interview process, your content is the candidate’s experience at each step of the hiring process. Ask yourself:
Do our emails sound friendly and professional?
Do we encourage questions and appear open to follow-up communication?
Are meeting invitations sent in a timely fashion with clear instructions on how to use the tech?
Does the candidate know what to expect in an interview, e.g., who will be in attendance, how long it will last, whether it’s one of a series of interviews?
Sure, you’ll use some form emails to streamline the process. ApplicantStack can help keep you organized at each step of the way. But the content of the communication should sound authentic, open, friendly, and inviting. Candidates want to feel like their presence in the interview process is valued and worth the company’s time.
Maintain Transparency
Job seekers often describe being misled by postings. Job descriptions are couched in language that may not accurately describe the daily duties. You can imagine that while this tactic may have a high rate of inquiry, it has a low rate of follow-through. Honesty really is the best policy in job postings and follow-up communication. Just like you expect the candidate to tell the truth on their resume, transparency on the employer side establishes trust from the first interaction. Without trust, you are much more likely to be ghosted. You have to earn a candidate’s respect.
Along with accurate job descriptions, candidates want transparency in salary and benefits. Reporting by CNBC in November 2023 discovered that “beyond any material impact on wage levels, rising pay transparency has had the largest effect on how employees and employers behave during the job-seeking and hiring processes. Employers are using pay transparency to attract candidates who are actually willing to receive the pay that is listed—and discourage others from applying.” When you start with your cards on the table, the candidates you attract are less likely to ghost you later when the salary is revealed and it’s unattractive to them.
Offer Clarity
On each side of the hiring table, people are multi-tasking. Hiring managers have multiple candidates at varying stages of the interview process. Job seekers live in a state of inquiring with and waiting on multiple companies, often running on different time tables. It’s a process that can make your head spin without an excellent system of organization. For the hiring side, ApplicantStack gives you all the tools you need to keep track of each candidate at every stage in the process. As you adjust the tool to fit your company’s needs, consider re-evaluating the clarity of each message you send.
Does the candidate understand the steps of the submission, interview, and hiring process?
Do they know what stage they are in?
Do they know how to withdraw their name from consideration?
Do they know where to direct questions?
Do you give an estimated response time or update if that can’t be met?
Attentive hiring managers who give as much information as possible are the least likely to be ghosted. Online job boards are full of people asking “how do I tell a company I’m not interested anymore?” The answers vary widely, but that general advice may not apply to your company. Communicating your company’s preference can relieve a candidate’s anxiety on how to handle this potentially awkward situation that very commonly leads to ghosting.
Use Different Communication Methods
You may have trouble getting ahold of candidates via email, only to feel like you’ve been ghosted. But some people simply forget to manage their inboxes efficiently, leading to missed messages. ApplicantStack makes it easy to communicate with job seekers where they are—on their phones. Here’s an interesting statistic: 98 percent of texts are read within two minutes of receipt. By contrast, roughly 20 percent of emails get opened and read within that timeframe. When you consider the high risk of an email getting filtered and not seen at all, it’s clear that texting is the winner for communication.
You can never control another person’s behavior, but you can adjust your hiring practices to mitigate applicant ghosting. Using organizational tools backed by transparency and excellent communication can lead to positive hiring relationships. Learn more about the features built into ApplicantStack when you start your free (no strings attached) trial.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OK
