Candidate experience is such an important part of the recruiting process, yet it is often the most fumbled. Recruiting the right candidate for a job is a daunting task. Hiring managers must sift through countless resumes, conduct interviews, and make tough decisions based on limited information. But one thing that can make the process easier is keeping your recruitment process tight and efficient. In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of keeping candidates informed along the way and offer some tips for streamlining your recruitment process.
Why Keep a Candidate Informed?
First and foremost, keeping candidates informed is the right thing to do. These are people who have taken the time to apply for a job at your company, and they deserve to know where they stand in the process. But beyond that, there are several other reasons why keeping candidates informed is crucial.
For one, it helps you build your employer brand. The way you treat candidates during the recruitment process can impact how they view your company as a potential employer. If you keep them in the loop and treat them with respect, even if they don’t get the job, they may still recommend your company to others or even apply again in the future. Conversely, if you drop the ball here and string them along for weeks or just plain ignore them, this can have a lasting negative impact on your brand. Glassdoor and Google Reviews go both ways.
Second, it helps you make better hiring decisions. When candidates are informed and engaged throughout the process, they are more likely to be honest and forthcoming with you. This can give you a better sense of their skills, experience, and fit for the job. Plus, it can help you avoid any surprises later on, such as a candidate who suddenly drops out of the process because they’ve accepted another job offer. If you are constantly in contact, you would know where they are in their interviewing/decision process.
Finally, keeping candidates informed can save you time and money. If you have a clear process in place and communicate it effectively, candidates are less likely to drop out of the process or fail to show up for interviews. This can reduce the need for rescheduling or re-advertising the job, which can save you time and money in the long run.
Tips for Keeping Your Recruitment Process Tight and Efficient
Now that we’ve established why it’s important to keep candidates informed, let’s explore some tips for making your recruitment process as efficient as possible:
Define The Hiring Process And Communicate It Clearly From The Start
Let them know roughly how long it will take and ask them if that works with their timeline. They may be expecting an offer a week into your 4-week extended interview process.
Your recruitment process should be clearly defined, from the initial application to the final job offer. Make sure all stakeholders involved in the process understand their roles and responsibilities and communicate the process to candidates in a clear and concise manner. This will help set expectations and prevent confusion.
Automate Where Possible
Recruitment can be time-consuming, but there are many tools available to help automate certain parts of the process. Consider using an applicant tracking system (ATS) to manage resumes and applications, and scheduling software to coordinate interviews. This can help streamline the process and reduce the time you spend on administrative tasks.
Use Screening Tools To Filter Out an Unqualified Candidate
Using screening tools such as pre-employment assessments or skills tests can help you quickly filter out candidates who don’t meet your minimum requirements. This can save you time and help ensure that you’re only interviewing candidates who are a good fit for the job.
Engage An Agency Like TalentVault
We will manage the entire external recruitment process saving countless hours of resume screening and interviews with unqualified candidates.
Conduct Efficient Interviews
Interviews can be time-consuming, but there are ways to make them more efficient.
- Prepare a list of questions in advance, and make sure each interviewer knows what they are responsible for asking.
- Have your interviewers book out blocks of time in advance in their calendars.
- Use a standardized scoring system to evaluate each candidate objectively and avoid over-interviewing by limiting the number of interviews per candidate.
- Start with a 20 minute “meet and greet” call to see if the communication skills are up to your standard and perhaps the basic technical skills are present. If this goes well, immediately schedule the full interview, loop in as many as needed to make the decision as efficiently as possible.
- Have back up interviewers if schedules do not match up.
- Back-to-back interviews in the same day or a panel can be effective and efficient.
- Try to go from initial interview to offer stage in 10 business days max! Remember, there is a lot of competition out there for strong candidates and if your competitor has a tight recruitment process, you will likely be disappointed.
Provide Feedback To Candidates
Whether you decide to move forward with a candidate or not, it’s important to provide feedback. Let candidates know where they stand in the process and why they were or weren’t selected. This can help them improve their future job search efforts and can also help build your employer brand. Ghosting them is not professional and will reflect poorly on your organization. At the very least, have a personalized rejection email sent from either your HR or the interviewer.
Follow Up Promptly
Don’t leave candidates hanging! Follow up with them promptly after each stage of the process to let them know what to expect next.
Some Advice Based On My Experience
Remember, good candidates are out interviewing with multiple organizations and often the best offer in their mind, is the one they have in their hand first. If you are interested in them, let them hear it! Like my Dad always says, “if you snooze, you lose”.
So often, I see the same mistakes made over and over again by potential employers. Slow to review candidates, slow to set up interviews, slow to provide post interview feedback, disorganization in setting up interviews with multiple stakeholders, wanting to see more candidates for comparison before making any decisions, and adding in steps to the process effectively dragging it well beyond an acceptable time frame.
This is a candidate driven market, we have a Talent shortage in Canada. Get your recruiting process defined, if you are working on your own or using TalentVault, your internal process is still the most important in the candidate experience.
Mark Kowall
TalentVault
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