We’ve recently seen the shift from candidate-driven to an employer-driven market. Tanya Williams, Chief of Everything for Digital Conversations, shares three ways to take advantage of a strong candidate market, while giving candidates the support they need and deserve.
Change is something that everyone had to get used to overnight with the COVID-19 outbreak. It wasn’t something that even the most OCD organisers could plan for (I put myself in that category!).
The market very quickly become ‘candidate strong’ when many people found themselves unexpectedly out of work. This equalled overnight changes to many recruitment strategies. So, when there are many great candidates available, how can you deliver appropriate candidate care and bolster your recruitment strategy for the long term?
Here are 3 ways to take advantage of a strong candidate market, while giving candidates the support they need and deserve.
Honestly showcase of your culture through employer branding
You might think “why would I worry about employer branding now? I have too many candidates and don’t need to market to them”. But that is the wrong attitude to take. When you have so many candidates, you want to make sure you are attracting the RIGHT ones, even just from a pure efficiency of operation perspective.
Attracting the right people means that authentically showcasing your culture is now a must-do. I’m not talking about smoke and mirrors and trying to make out you are the perfect company. I am talking warts and all stuff. The good, the bad and the downright messy. The right candidates appreciate honesty and by knowing what they can expect when working for you, they will decide if you are a right for them also. This is a two-way relationship and should be focused on selecting the right people for your roles. After all, why hire a top candidate who leaves in a few months when they find out that the culture is not a right for them and that you deceived them throughout the hiring process? That doesn’t end well for you or them. I have been on the receiving end of this before and I can tell you the end was not pretty to the point, with me never acknowledging I ever worked for this company.
You have to be honest and keep it real. It’s in your best interests to be talking to the right people and promoting what your culture is really like through your employer branding will save you money in the long term.
Nurture unsuccessful applicants for future roles
The fastest way to lose unsuccessful candidates, who might have been a good fit but weren’t successful on this occasion, is through lack of communication. Too often recruiters use the “I am too busy to reply” excuse, which is not only rude but impacts your personal and business brand. I have refused to work with people who didn’t have the courtesy to respond to me previously (and I’m not alone).
Put a system in place to not only thank them and let them know the status of their application but to also add them to a nurture list for future roles. Nurturing potential clients is as basic in marketing as it should be in recruitment.
It doesn’t need to be a complicated process. A simple process is:
- Add them to targeted or niche list or database (don’t dump them all on one giant list)
- Set up a simple email marketing template to make it easy to share content regularly
- Send them regular emails about your organisation, changes, showcasing company culture and award wins (not just about current roles)
- Stay in touch – this might be every 2 or 3 months but make it regular.
This doesn’t require a lot of time but has huge benefits and means those candidates will talk positively about you and your company. This is about building relationships with people and being human. Anyone can do that with a little effort.
Add personality to your job ads
So many job ads follow a script or template and are quite honestly, boring as hell. Apply the marketing rules to your job ads and make them more engaging to attract top-quality candidates. Don’t be afraid to add personality to your job ads.
Now more than ever, standing out and being authentically you is so important. Remember that old adage of ‘people do business with people they like’? it is very true so why do you want to blend in and follow what everyone else is doing? Blah and boring!!!!
Anyone that has met me knows that I’m not backward in coming forward and I like to sparkle and stand out. I’m certainly not the shy type. For years I’ve refused to have a boring voicemail or out of office message and this is reflected in everything I do.
There are no rules that say you have to follow the same boring script as anyone else. Put some brand personality into them and give me a glimpse of who your organisation really is.
So take advantage of a strong candidate market and deliver appropriate care to your candidates. Now is the time to really be protecting your personal and employer brand. Ensuring you give candidates a great experience with your company will be the difference of not only winning the best talent but keeping them and having them become raving fans of your brand.
Tanya Williams is the pink-loving, sparkly Chief of Everything at Digital Conversations. She wears many hats; entrepreneur, best-selling author, digital trainer, and she is a Social Amplification Specialist with over 20 years’ marketing experience. She works with recruiters to uncover the hidden gold in their existing assets, find ways to leverage every moment of your digital marketing without increasing your marketing budget and amplify your internal champions to increase your visibility. Her goal is to make the hero in your industry sector. She has a simple, no-tech-talk approach and thrives working with established recruitment companies to tap into the opportunities they might miss, using practical & relevant tactics to drive business outcomes.