How to build trust and successful relationships with your candidates

Part 1 of 2

In the last decade, we’ve seen bad press and negative feedback coming from candidates towards either agency or in-house recruiters. 

Within the market, we started seeing poor management of candidates when it comes to the recruitment process. For the longest period, this created a big distrust between recruiters and candidates, which caused the latter to restrain themselves from truly opening up to the former.

Recruiters tried to change this bad press, some achieving and some not. Do you wish to stand out from the crowd as an IT recruiter? Then it’s time for an introspection into your methods and practices. 

Whether you work in-house or in an agency or even as a freelancer, make sure you start ticking the below:

1. Understand your candidates: find the candidate persona and know where your talent is hiding on social media. 

There’s useful support from VONQ. I admire the work they have done so far in making recruiters think as marketers. 

Reading a bit more on the topic will make you understand your candidates’ profile, their interests, their social media presence on Github, Stack Overflow or Meetup, on forums or groups. This research will improve your communication in your reach out. Information is power, therefore, when you do search online, you will find the motivation factors one has to change jobs, or even what interests or hobbies they have. These can be an amazing ice breaker, so use this information into your reach out message.

2. Create “Out of the Box” messages: make it about them, because it is about them. 

Know your audience motivators, individual goals, and achievements before reaching out via LinkedIn with a generic email template. 

Get creative with your reach out message and dare to stand out of the crowd. Don’t be afraid to have out of the box subject lines and strive for success and less volume. 

This will attract a higher response rate, more personal and authentic interaction. 

You might ask yourself, “then why are recruiters still sending out bulk emails to candidates?” Well, because they fall into the trap of the numbers game. This causes panic and pressures recruiters to use the faster and easier ways rather than using the most effective ones.

For inspiration, among others, have a look at Jan Tegze’s and Katrina Collier’s LinkedIn work and activity. They are some of the best recruiters in our field. But don’t try to copycat ??. Authenticity will always be the key of success.

3. Make yourself available for your candidates 

Let’s assume you got creative and received positive responses from your candidates. You delivered your sales pitch and candidates loved it. Great, now what? 

Maybe you have a busy period. What do you do? Make sure you are available for your candidates at all times. No matter the busy period you are facing, you have to come back with a solution that will always put the candidate on the number 1 priority. 

Time management is extremely important in our line of work, therefore using tools and extensions can make you more efficient in following up with your candidates and coming across as a professional adviser. 

Put yourself in their shoes and be empathic by providing updates and feedback.

4. Set the right expectations: always mention feedback timeframes. 

This is a matter of respect. There are numerous ways you can automate your ATS to make sure you keep your candidates engaged and if this is not an option, you can always use LinkedIn or WhatsApp and be a person of your word. 

We all value respect, otherwise it’s so easy for someone to jump to conclusions like “this is the way employees are treated in your current environment”. If sometimes you face delays in getting feedback from managers, definitely communicate it. 

Also, make sure to fix your process with your hiring manager, as it can cost both your reputation and your company’s image, if this happens on a regular basis. 

5. Guidelines and coaching: the recruitment process might look different from company to company, but no matter what, you need to offer your support to your candidates. 

Explain in detail the structure of the interview, the duration, explain the technical tests in depth, provide the name of the interviewers et cetera.

Ambiguity won’t lead to anything good. It will poorly affect your candidates’ experience. I would strongly recommend to set the expectations straight right on the company’s website, even before applying for the role. As a candidate, it’s important to understand how much time you’ll invest in the recruitment process. 

To be continued…