The recruiting world is changing. Candidates expect to engage where they live – on their mobile devices and through whatever channel they’re currently engaged with, from video to chat platforms to social media networks. But it’s not just about the channel; it’s about the approach. Candidates expect fast, personalized, one-on-one communication that mirrors authentic conversation. At a time when unemployment is at a 17-year low, candidates pick companies – not vice versa. And candidates are quick to reject companies who aren’t innovating.
The Top 4 Challenges Recruiters Face
As a talent acquisition leader, your job is getting more difficult by the day. In fact, recruiters in companies of all sizes and industries seem to face similar challenges in the war for talent. One of the key challenges is how to attract the best talent to apply to your company. With an increasingly competitive landscape, how do you stand out from the other companies? It’s now even harder to bring onboard quality new hires, given they have so many options to choose from. The second challenge is the difficulty in building talent pipelines and nurturing passive candidates. With the challenge of sourcing for brand new candidates, building a talent pipeline of interested candidates can dramatically reduce your time to fill. The question then becomes: how do you keep these passive candidates engaged with your brand so that when a position does open up they are ready to jump on it? Thirdly, speed is an issue, as hiring organizations are constantly looking for new ways to quickly move candidates through the hiring process. Maybe reqs aren’t getting posted in a timely manner, or teams are spending too much time sifting through applications instead of actually building relationships with candidates. And lastly, at the heart of it all is communication: are your hiring managers engaged? Is there visibility into the candidate journey? Is everyone on the same page with everything from candidate requirements and job descriptions to organizational hiring goals? If you’re not communicating well as a team internally, you’re already at a disadvantage to effectively communicate with candidates.
The answer? Shift to a Candidate-centric Model
Today’s market pressures call for a candidate-centric approach to recruiting: one that’s fast (even real time) and that reaches candidates on their own turf, and on their own terms. Instead of being transactional, it’s relational. And instead of managing requisitions, you’re focused on conversational recruiting tactics that serve up an unbeatable candidate experience. It’s a strategy that flips the traditional administrative-centric model to one where candidates are at the center of the process. From the first time a candidate lands on your career website, to their first day on the job, you’re continuously engaging with them. We call this Continuous Candidate Engagement. With a candidate-centric model, Dollar Shave Club decreased time-to-fill by 47%. Accent Care decreased time-to-fill by five days and increased their talent pool by an astonishing 7,000%: from 6,600 candidates to 473,000 candidates.
Four Stepping Stones towards a New Model
Moving to a candidate-centric model is an evolution, not a revolution: no need to start from scratch; start where you are with whatever technology and processes you have in place. Incremental changes can lead to big benefits in how you attract candidates, engage your teams and ultimately reduce time-to-fill. In our latest ebook, we share strategies to help you do just that, including:
#1 Assess your career website.
First impressions are everything, so put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and try applying for a job on your career site. Does it take less than two minutes to apply, or does it require multiple steps? How does it work on mobile? Minimal effort to apply translates to higher applicant rates.
#2 Build a talent pool and keep candidates warm.
Keep it simple, enabling employees to easily share job postings via social media and providing candidates with multiple ways to opt in to your email list. Create segmented talent pools for different roles you’re trying to fill and keep your candidates warm by continually engaging with them one-on-one, through all possible channels.
#3 Streamline the candidate journey.
Determine where your recruiting bottlenecks are: Is it taking the hiring manager a long time to get back to you? Are enough applicants applying? Do candidates have an easy way to check their application status? Is the whole process optimized on mobile? Identify the hurdles, then start prioritizing resources to tackle them.
#4 Support clear communication within hiring team.
Make it easy for candidates, recruiters and hiring managers to connect with each other from anywhere with 100% digital and mobile engagement. Also consider your process; make it standard practice to set up a meeting with your hiring manager to agree on candidate criteria and expectations around timing, experience, salary, etc. If your end goal is operational efficiency and a remarkable candidate engagement that lowers time-to-fill, it’s time to consider a candidate-centric model. Download the ebook to learn more about this new recruiting strategy to drive efficiency and attract top talent.