Candidate Nurturing Helps Secure Top Talent

What Is Candidate Nurturing?

Candidate nurturing is the process of intentionally forging and maintaining relationships with potential employees so that your company stands out in a crowded field. The purpose of candidate nurturing is to present your brand as a great place to work so you can pack your workforce with talented employees when the time is right.?

Candidate nurturing is generally targeted at:?

• active and past applicants in your recruitment funnel who aren’t a fit for available roles but who have desirable skills and experiences
• talented individuals who aren’t actively job hunting but who could be enticed to work for your company if the right opportunity presented itself

Either way, think of candidate nurturing a bit like a peacock spreading its feathers:? Effective candidate nurturing results in top talent looking your way—and taking notice!

How Does Candidate Nurturing Work?

Stage One: Awareness

In the earliest stage, a potential employee discovers your company. This might happen when the person stumbles onto your company’s website or finds your organization through a job board, social media post, or career event.?

In this stage, your company will connect with the potential job-seekers so that it can begin nurturing a relationship. For instance, your company might have a form on its website that encourages potential employees to join your mailing list of job openings.?

Stage Two: Interest

This is the stage in which your organization maintains regular communication with candidates, even if there are no immediate openings. Your growing company can use various channels, such as email or social media, to showcase its culture and employee benefits. You might:

• highlight growth and development opportunities within the organization, such as upskilling programs, mentorship, and career advancement prospects
• post social media content advertising your company culture
• send newsletters announcing company updates?

These activities keep your company at the forefront of potential job seekers’ minds.

Stage Three: Decision Time

In the decision stage of the candidate nurturing funnel, your potential employee has decided that your organization is a great place to work. At this stage, your company’s employer brand can help sway the potential employee to respond to a job description or submit an application.?

Do you have a history of positive reviews on job boards? Have you showcased your company’s benefits and culture? Are your core values clearly stated? These are the factors that will move the candidate to the final stage.?

Stage Four: Action

This is the stage in which the potential employee applies for a role on your team. Here, your company can help convert a desired employee into an actual employee by:?

• crafting engaging job requirements that appeal to your ideal candidate
• writing thoughtful recruitment emails that keep candidates updated and interested
• conducting? well-prepared interviews like the boss you are

Benefits of Candidate Nurturing

Implementing a candidate nurturing strategy helps you stand out in a crowded job market and ensures you attract top talent. Let’s look at a few benefits of candidate nurturing.?

1. A regular, personalized communication strategy helps maintain candidates’ interest in your company, reducing the likelihood of candidate ghosting .?
2. A thoughtful candidate nurturing campaign lets you connect with passive candidates and showcase your company culture.
3. A positive and engaging recruitment process reflects well on your company, enhancing its employer brand.
4. A pool of engaged candidates means you can fill positions more quickly, reducing the strain on your existing workforce and lowering recruitment costs.
5. A diverse candidate pipeline empowers your company to infuse fresh perspectives and ideas, enriching your team through the principles of culture add .?

Examples of Candidate Nurturing Strategies

Candidate nurturing strategies involve ongoing engagement with potential hires to build relationships and keep them interested in future opportunities. Check out some of these effective strategies.?

Personalized Communication

Some companies use a robust CRM to tailor their messages to individual candidates based on their skills, interests, and career goals. Personal emails, relevant messages on LinkedIn, or meaningful direct messages can make candidates feel valued.

Content Marketing

Organizations share relevant content such as blogs, articles, and videos that showcase the company’s culture and values.??

Social Media

Your business can use social media platforms to engage with potential candidates by participating in discussions, responding to comments, and posting your own industry insights.

Newsletters

Companies can send newsletters that provide updates on the company’s job market as well as highlight industry news.?

Virtual Events

Growing businesses often host webinars, Q&A sessions, and virtual career fairs to interact with potential candidates.

Online Experiences

Some companies create interactive and engaging digital experiences on their websites, which might feature employee testimonials, FAQs, and video advice from current employees.?

Best Practices for Candidate Nurturing

To maximize the effectiveness of your candidate nurturing efforts, consider the following best practices:

Create a Candidate Profile

By creating detailed personas of your ideal candidates, you can focus your nurturing efforts on the audience with the skills, values, and experience that will most help your company grow and innovate.?

Focus Your Efforts?

Keep a database of potential candidates who’ve shown interest in your company or have skills that align with future hiring needs. Regularly update your talent pool about new openings, company news, and relevant industry information to keep them engaged and informed.

More importantly, develop strategies to communicate with your pipeline of potential employees so you can collect data about which people might be great additions to your team of stars.

Encourage Employee Advocacy

Encourage current employees to share their positive experiences and company news on their social networks. This can help you attract potential candidates through authentic and relatable testimonials.

Consider All Ages

Your organization might benefit from workers new to the labor pool, as well as company veterans.

With this in mind, consider ways to attract people early in their careers. You might, for instance, emphasize continuous learning and development opportunities so that younger candidates see the value in joining the company.?

At the same time, maintain relationships with former employees who left on good terms. These individuals already understand your company’s culture and expectations, making them valuable additions to your talent pipeline.?

Use Technology

Take advantage of applicant tracking systems , recruitment automation tools, and predictive analytics to streamline this process and ensure you’re targeting the right candidates with relevant content.?

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is candidate nurturing necessary??

Skilled talent is hard to find, so top candidates have the luxury of being picky about where they work. To attract and keep these skilled professionals, organizations want to make a strong impression. By staying in touch with potential hires and nurturing those relationships, companies can build a pool of qualified candidates for future roles. This reduces the time to hire , while enhancing the organization’s reputation as an attractive employer.

How do I know where to focus my candidate nurturing efforts?

A successful candidate nurturing strategy revolves around communication. Throughout the process, your company can conduct skills assessments to better understand each candidate’s abilities. Additionally, you can gather data through interest surveys to gauge the likelihood of a candidate applying for a job on your team. This data can be used to direct your nurturing efforts toward candidates with the highest potential.