Why you Should Treat your Job Candidates Like Customers

Many employers wait more than a week to respond to job applicants, which poses a risk for losing top talent to the competition. Treat your job applicants more like customers!

DO IT NOW and this is how…

Most top-performing employees are already gainfully employed. And today's job seekers have countless job opportunities at the tips of their fingers -- through job boards, social media and other channels -- making the job market even more competitive for HR departments.

To build your best team, you need to have a hiring USP, to sell to top talent to make them actively want to work for your company. It′s similar to how you sell customers the benefits of your products or services. Otherwise, you'll risk losing job seekers to the competition and, as a result, see a decrease in productivity and profitability.

Here are my TOP 4 tips to you get started:

1.      Build a strong employmer brand.

The candidate experience begins when prospective applicants research your company to see if any open roles would be a fit for their background, skills and career goals. And a strong employmer brand can help you stand out from the competition and attract top candidates, just as your overall brand can help you attract and retain customers.

?Never underestimate the power of company culture and employer branding in attracting top candidates to your team“

To build a strong employmer brand, highlight the benefits your team has to offer -- including vacation time, professional development budget, learning opportunities, and more. Also build out career paths on your career site, so prospective employees can imagine their growth from entry level to management positions. And continuously share engaging content -- such as videos, photos and employee testimonials, to get potential applicants excited about the possibility of working for your business.

2.      Respond to applicants quickly.

Many businesses wait more than a week to simply review and respond to a new job applicant. You wouldn't let a customer lead go unanswered for more than a week would you? If your business took too long to respond to customer leads, chances are you wouldn't make many sales! And for that fact, you are probably losing out on some great candidates.

"Are all the hiring stages really required? Are we looking in the right places to fill our candidate pipelines? Do we communicate quickly with candidates and with each other? All these questions can be answered with the help of recruiting metrics from your Applicant Tracking System (ATS).”

Applications which are reviewed and acted upon quickly are much more likely to lead to a hire. Responding to applicants as soon as possible can help ensure strong candidates stay engaged and excited about the the possibility of joining your team. If you leave applicants waiting around for a response, you'll lose qualified candidates to other job opportunities – and more importantly, the competition.

3.      Keep candidates engaged/Communication ist the KEY

Once applications have been reviewed, it's critical for your hiring team to communicate with candidates throughout the entire hiring process, just as you'd regularly communicate with a customer to close a sale. If you're in the process of scheduling interviews and can't find time in a team member's schedule for a few days or a week, reach out to the candidate instead of leaving them waiting and wondering when the interview will be confirmed. And if it's taking longer than expected to receive background checks back from a candidate, reach out to check on the status or see if there's anything you can do to speed up the process.

Continuous candidate engagement can be streamlined through communication as simple as text messaging. Emails, such as those your hiring team sends to schedule interviews, can often be overlooked in a crowded inbox. And top candidates demand more convenient ways to communicate with employers. Take two minutes of your time and give them a call. This could and, very often is a make or break when candidates are deciding which offer to accept.

"Set expectations for communication: tell candidates when they should expect to hear from you and, if you have an ATS, set reminders and use email templates to follow through with that promise. Don’t leave them in the dark throughout the hiring process.”

By keeping candidates engaged throughout each step of the hiring process, you can ensure that these top talents feel valued and stays interested in joining your team.

4.      Collect candidate feedback (be quick, before they can post any negative feedback on social media)

Your customers likely often leave reviews on Yelp and other platforms, while job candidates and employees leave reviews on Glassdoor/Kununu (Germany). Beyond staying on top of the latest social media reviews, your team should proactively collect feedback from job seekers, so you can continue improving your hiring process and job applicant experience and TELL THEM, that you are taking their feedback seriously!

"Always reply (courteously) to online reviews – bad and good. Give your coworkers the means to tell their story about their work and what they like (for example, through blogs and videos). And above all, be a good employer and it’ll show.”

Recent data found that 78 percent of job seekers indicate they've never been asked for feedback on the candidate experience, and only 25 percent of employers regularly request feedback from candidates. But by collecting candidate feedback, and acting upon the feedback, your business attract more quality applicants and eventual hires down the road. And another benefit of collecting feedback is that you can build relationships with candidates and new employees.

The low unemployment rate and abundance of job opportunities will continue being a challenge for employers. By treating job applicants like customers, YOU can stand out as a top employer and secure top talent.

READY TO TALK? ? Send me a LinkedIn message, email me at : [email protected] or simply call me directly on: +49 (0)172 1454 226

E-Mail: [email protected]

?Web: https://www.oerlikon.com/en/careers/why-join-oerlikon/