Home/News Detail
Guest blog by Credentially.
There are more job vacancies than unemployed people in the UK for the first time since records began. Moreover, the recruitment industry has seen significant growth over the last few years, with greater demand for flexible working opportunities and greater online access to information and people. So naturally, there's a lot of competition to find and hire the best candidates, and the industry is very competitive. So, to stay ahead of the competition, recruiters must adapt and find creative ways to attract the best talent.
Below are five fantastic ways to improve candidate experience throughout the recruitment process.
With most of the recruitment taking place over email, LinkedIn and phone calls, great communication is vital in the recruitment process. Despite so many resources and the internet at hand, it can still be difficult to maintain communication, especially when you have so many other candidates or things have gone quiet on the client's side.
Worry not - there are clever little ideas you can implement easily to maintain engagement and make the candidate feel well looked after.
One simple thing to do is to write blogs on practical tips for a job search. Then, after publishing the blog online, send it via email to your candidates as offering advice, e.g. a blog on how to best prepare for face-to-face interviews. The candidates will appreciate the gesture and feel you're looking out for them. Furthermore, this email campaign can be sent to numerous candidates and be personalised to mention their names. We'd recommend softwares such as HubSpot to achieve this, but feel free to type personalised emails individually. Utilising different channels such as social media, email, and blogs will help improve your online recruiting.
A key part of the recruitment process is onboarding. Credentially specialises in onboarding in the healthcare industry. Their experience and research found that candidates anticipate a long onboarding process despite their onboarding being much faster than the industry average. This is because their candidates had no way of tracking their progress, so no way of knowing how long onboarding would take. Credentially’s solution was simple but effective. On their client dashboard, they added a section where candidates can see which steps are involved in the onboarding process and track their progress from having to upload certificates to a DBS check, which candidates love.
Companies often have to battle it out to get the best candidates, from offering lucrative pay to swanky new offices with cool bean bags and a pool table. Offering great packages, which can include equity, holidays and flexible working, is an excellent way for you to attract candidates. Despite putting forward these offerings, you may find candidates unfazed or accept a role elsewhere with similar packages.
The key is knowing all the perks on offer, understanding which relates to your candidate and having a conversation with them about it.
Whether that's explaining the maternity leave package and hybrid working options to someone who would be looking to start a family soon. Or if the company is offering a share package, knowing which candidate requires you to explain in depth what that means for them, from the values of a share to tax implications. If your client offers an electric bike discount scheme, find out how your candidate plans to travel to work.
Transparency is key here, and candidates will appreciate your time on them. Once they've understood the package better, your client will be a more attractive company to work at.
It's very common to get things wrong, and there's always room for improvement. In fact, I'd like to congratulate you for taking the first step in recognising you can improve. The next step is figuring out what and how. This article holds great ideas and insights on how to improve your marketing efforts, but we also highly recommend you ask your candidates too!
Whether it be the final call when they've accepted an offer or holding an exit interview. Learn from your candidate's experience, and ask them to be honest about their experience during the recruitment process.
Most importantly, take it on board! Candidate feedback will only improve your recruiting strategy.
Automating your hiring processes will only save your HR team time and energy, which can be better spent elsewhere. We're in the age of tech, software and AI, which means there are plenty of options out there you could be looking into.
Modern recruitment software can be a great tool to track progress and help nurture candidates. However, no one HR software can cover everything or at least do everything well. An example is onboarding - which your current HR software won't cover or only has basic tools and features. Whether you use Trac, Eploy, or other ATS, these will be missing many aspects of the onboarding process.
