Are you looking to attract top talent and stand out from the competition? 🌟
Then it’s time to focus on creating an outstanding candidate experience. When you offer your candidates a positive and memorable experience, you reinforce your reputation as an employer of choice and maximize your chances of recruiting the most qualified talent.
76% of candidates share their positive experiences with friends and family (and 58% share their negative experiences). It’s worth looking into, isn’t it?
In this article, I offer you expert advice on how to create an exceptional candidate experience, without having to put in too much effort, if you’re supported by an ATS.
What’s the Candidate Experience?
The candidate experience is everything a candidate goes through when applying for a job with a company. It includes every stage, from the moment they discover the job offer to the employer’s final response.
Throughout the process, the candidate will go through different emotions. From the very first contact with the company, candidates may be enthusiastic about applying for a new position, uncertain about their chances of being selected, or even anxious about the interview process.
Putting the candidate experience first means taking into account the candidate’s emotions throughout the recruitment process. The aim is for candidates to leave the process saying: “I really felt considered”, whether the outcome of their application is positive or negative.
And it’s not an easy exercise, because there are many potential touchpoints with the candidate. So don’t forget to list them all:
Career site
Social media
Job offers
Application form
Screening interview (by phone)
Interview (via Teams or face to face)
Personality test/assessment
Follow-up mails
Feedbacks
Onboarding
…
13 action levers for a successful candidate experience
#1: Nurture your online presence
As you can see, the majority of touchpoints are online.
Candidates research the companies that interest them and keep up to date with their news. This is known as inbound recruiting.
Inbound recruiting is a strategic approach to recruitment that aims to actively attract qualified candidates in a targeted way, by creating a strong employer brand and using digital marketing techniques.
In inbound recruiting, the company produces and distributes quality content on online platforms, to showcase its corporate culture, values, exciting projects and employee benefits. By using these channels, the company naturally attracts candidates who feel aligned with its vision and work environment.
The key idea behind inbound recruiting is to position the company as an employer of choice, arousing the interest of potential candidates and encouraging them to apply spontaneously.
Show candidates that you’re a great place to work!
In this context, a must for candidates is your career site. This is where they expect to find all the relevant information about your internal organization.
Above all, you need to be where candidates are: on social networks. You can prioritize certain channels, depending on your target audience (the profiles you’re looking for), but also on your internal resources. If your communications department is small, focus on the most relevant social network.
#2: Write a powerful job ad
In addition to this permanent presence, it is key to develop specific recruitment campaigns. This begins with the drafting of an attractive job offer and then its dissemination on all Belgian job sites (aka multiposting), such as Stepstone, Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, … but also on your own career site.
The job offer stage is crucial. This is when you need to convince the candidate to apply for a specific position. Your Employee Value Proposition is your best weapon. The EVP is the little spark that will make candidates want to apply to you, the little extras that make your company unique as an employer. In fact, it’s all the elements you’ve made visible in your inbound recruiting strategy.
Many companies develop a strong, powerful brand, with a clear value proposition for their customers and an omnichannel communications strategy. Then we come across a job posting and… it’s a flop!
The company was described from the outset, but with no indication of future ambitions, a laundry list of tasks, unreasonable expectations in terms of profile… all without selling anything to the candidate.
And yet, every company has great things to highlight. Start by defining your EVP (we’re here to help!) and translate it into an attractive job offer, with a tone true to your brand. Talk about your culture, your values, the work environment, the afterworks, the atmosphere, and above all the salary. The latter is a real point of differentiation for employers for 2 reasons: (1) you may be offering a higher salary than the competition (2) you show candidates that your salary policy is 100% transparent.
#3: Communicate in a personalized way
When communicating with your candidates, make sure you are clear, precise and transparent at every stage of the recruitment process.
Give preference to a personalized approach. For example, you can greet candidates by name, mention the strengths of their application and clearly explain the next steps in the process. Show them that you consider them to be unique and valuable individuals for your company.
This can seem tedious, especially if you’ve received a lot of applications. Automatic emails can save you precious time. They’re actually an email template, pre-defined according to the stage of the process you’re at, and can still be customized (which we strongly advise you to do).
What’s more, as the emails are automatically proposed to you, you can be sure of getting back to all candidates, including those who unfortunately don’t pass the telephone screening stage.
#4: Collaborate and centralize information
ATS enables all candidate data and the progress of the recruitment process to be shared within the team. So there’s no need to send CVs or feedback by email, where you forget to copy this or that person.
Everyone has access to the same data, time is saved and candidates are judged in the same way.
#5: Tailor the process to the candidate
With an ATS, we can easily consult a candidate’s history with our company and any comments from colleagues. We can then personalize the process and show the candidate that their past is taken into account.
#6: Simplify the application process
Nothing discourages a candidate more than a long and complex application process. So forget cover letters and all the friction that can make it less likely that a candidate will apply.
The easier you make it for candidates, the more qualified applications you’ll receive. So, yes, we’d like to find motivated candidates, ready to write a cover letter for our benefit… But let’s be honest. Candidates in place before applying are already hesitant about a possible change, and too much effort may dissuade them from taking the plunge.
Conversely, if criteria are absolutely necessary, avoid wasting the candidate’s and your time. Set up pre-selection questions (on languages, qualifications, level of experience…) to spare out-of-scope candidates unnecessary disappointment.
#7: Treat the interview as an exchange (not an interrogation)
The interview is a key stage. It’s the perfect time to communicate the company culture and create a personal connection with the candidate.
Right from the start of the interview, make sure you create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Greet the candidate warmly, offer them a drink if they wish, and put them at ease before starting the discussion.
Use the interview as an opportunity to talk about the company’s culture and core values. Instead of simply listing points, share real-life stories that illustrate how these values are put into practice on a daily basis within the company. On the other hand, actively encourage the candidate to ask questions about the company, the team, the position or anything else that interests them. This shows that you value their opinion and want to address their concerns.
#8: Reduce waiting time
Waiting time can be a key factor in the candidate experience. Try to reduce delays between the various stages of the recruitment process. When a candidate applies, be sure to provide them with an estimate of how long it will take to process their application. Regular and transparent communication throughout the process will keep candidates interested and engaged.
#9: Provide constructive feedbacks
After each stage of the recruitment process, take the time to provide detailed feedback to candidates, whether they are selected or not. This constructive feedback allows candidates to learn and grow. Explain clearly the reasons for your decision and give them advice on how to improve their applications in the future. Your attention and investment in candidates’ professional development will leave a positive and lasting impression.
#10: But also… Ask for candidate feedback
To continually improve your recruitment process, don’t hesitate to ask candidates about their experience. This extends the conversation and puts you on an equal footing: “I’m giving you my feedback, but I want yours too!”
Set up anonymous questionnaires or follow-up interviews to gather feedback on the strengths and areas for improvement in your recruitment process.
#11: Make good use of your reporting tools
The advantage of ATSs like Talent finder is that they record all the data relating to your processes: time-to-shortlist, time-to-hire, number of resumes received, sources of resumes received, gender and age of candidates, etc.
By observing your results, you can also improve the candidate experience. You may find that 80% of your hires are men, or that just 5% are over 50. This can help you identify systemic problems. By taking these observations into account, you can improve your diversity and inclusion initiatives.
#12: Tap into your pool of candidates
As you can see, ATS enables you to store data on your candidates, and thus build up a talent pool. You can then search this database for candidates who have already expressed an interest in your company. For their part, they can also feel valued for not having been forgotten at the back of an Excel spreadsheet.
💡 The little extra: job alerts. They keep candidates up to date with all your new jobs.
#13: And last but not least… Make sure they get a great onboarding!
Yes, just because a candidate has signed up doesn’t mean the experience is over. Onboarding is the transition from candidate to employee. You need to be well prepared for your arrival to ensure that your integration goes as smoothly as possible.
A checklist of things to prepare :
Work equipment ready for use (computer, computer access, notebooks, pens, etc.)
A warm welcome: at Talent finder, for example, we’re having breakfast together! 😊
Clarification of the role: go over the content and objectives of the role together, to make sure that everything is clear.
An induction program: include training sessions, presentations on the company and its values, and meetings with the various departments.
Regular feedback
Don’t underestimate the importance of the candidate experience
By following these tips for optimizing the candidate experience, you’ll create a positive and memorable impression with candidates, while reinforcing your image as an attractive employer. Providing an exceptional candidate experience is a valuable investment that will result in attracting and retaining top talent.
Welcome to a world where technology and innovation push the boundaries of what we thought possible: use Artificial Intelligence in recruitment.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has paved the way for a profound transformation in all areas of our society, and recruitment is no exception. As experts in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), we understand the unique challenges faced by businesses when searching for the perfect candidates.
In this article, I will explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the recruitment process. Get ready to dive into a world where technology meets human expertise to find the talents that will make a difference in your company. 💻
Before delving into the topic, let’s clarify what we mean by artificial intelligence.Artificial intelligence is a field of computer science that focuses on creating machines capable of performing tasks that would normally require human intelligence.These tasks can include speech recognition, computer vision, natural language processing, and many more. In other words, AI enables machines to “think” and act like human beings.
Artificial Intelligence and Recruitment
Now that we understand what artificial intelligence is, let’s explore how it is transforming the recruitment landscape. Traditionally, the recruitment process was tedious and time-consuming, requiring manually sorting through hundreds of resumes. However, thanks to artificial intelligence, we are able to push the boundaries of efficiency and accuracy.
Sourcing candidates
AI has revolutionized the way candidate sourcing is conducted in the recruitment process. With its advanced algorithms and data analysis capabilities, AI enables recruiters to efficiently and effectively identify potential candidates from a vast talent pool.
By leveraging AI, recruiters can automate the search and filtering process, saving valuable time and resources.AI-powered systems, like Talent finder, utilize sophisticated techniques to analyze candidate profiles, skills, experience, and qualifications, matching them with specific job requirements.This allows recruiters to quickly identify the most suitable candidates, ensuring a streamlined and targeted sourcing processthat maximizes the chances of finding the perfect fit for the job. With AI as a powerful ally in candidate sourcing, recruiters can navigate through the talent landscape with greater precision and confidence.
Based on your job description, AI will present you the top 10 candidates in your database. This is why it’s important that your job offer includes all the relevant keywords for the function.
Screening candidates
AI has revolutionized the way candidate sourcing is conducted in the recruitment process. With its advanced algorithms and data analysis capabilities, AI enables recruiters to efficiently and effectively identify potential candidates from a vast talent pool.
By leveraging AI, recruiters can automate the search and filtering process, saving valuable time and resources.AI-powered systems, like Talent finder, utilize sophisticated techniques to analyze candidate profiles, skills, experience, and qualifications, matching them with specific job requirements.This allows recruiters to quickly identify the most suitable candidates, ensuring a streamlined and targeted sourcing processthat maximizes the chances of finding the perfect fit for the job. With AI as a powerful ally in candidate sourcing, recruiters can navigate through the talent landscape with greater precision and confidence.
Based on your job description, AI will present you the top 10 candidates in your database. This is why it’s important that your job offer includes all the relevant keywords for the function.
Writing a job ad
ChatGPTis a valuable tool to assist recruiters in crafting compelling job descriptions. Recruiters can benefit from intelligent suggestions and creative ideas to create engaging job postings.
When using this tool to assist in writing job descriptions, recruiters should provide a clear and concise prompt (=the request we make) to ensure the desired outcome. Start by specifying the job title and key details such as required qualifications, skills, and responsibilities. Clearly outline the tone, style, and any specific requirements for the job posting. For example, if the company has a specific culture or values they want to convey, mention it in the prompt. Additionally, if there are specific keywords or industry-specific terminology that should be included, highlight them. By providing a well-defined prompt, recruiters can maximize the effectiveness of ChatGPT in generating tailored and compelling job descriptions that resonate with potential candidates.
🚨 It’s important that your job ad reflects the reality. If you don’t have a strong Employee Value Proposition, ChatGPT will just make up facts. So yes, you may attract candidates, but your employee retention will be very poor… And retaining talents is the whole point.
Key Benefits of AI in Recruitment
Saving time
AI saves time for recruitment due to its ability to automate and streamline various time-consuming tasks. With AI-powered systems, recruiters can leverage advanced algorithms to swiftly process and analyze large volumes of candidate data. Tasks such as resume screening, candidate sourcing, and initial qualification can be automated,significantly reducing the manual effort required. AI algorithms can efficiently match candidate profiles with job requirements, allowing recruiters to focus on the most promising candidates.
Improving the candidate experience and the relationship with recruiter
AI in recruitment takes away a significant amount of the laborious leg work involved in selecting relevant candidates. It frees up valuable time for recruiters to focus on what truly matters –engaging and building relationships with the right candidates.
Paradoxically, the purpose of AI is to enable recruiters to spend more quality time interacting with candidates, fostering meaningful conversations and connections. It is through these personal interactions with “real” individuals that candidates feel valued and engaged in the recruitment process.The human touch, even in the era of AI, remains essential for creating a positive candidate experience and ultimately retaining candidates throughout the hiring journey.
Improving the quality of candidates
AI improves the quality of candidates by enabling a more accurate and targeted selection process. With AI-powered algorithms, recruiters can analyse a vast amount of candidate data, including skills, experience and qualifications. This thorough evaluation helps identify candidates who closely match the specific requirements of the job, resulting in a higher probability of finding the right fit.
Reducing biases in the recruitment process
AI reduces biases in the recruitment process through its objective and data-driven approach. Human decision-making can be influenced by unconscious biases, leading to unfair and discriminatory practices. However, AI algorithms evaluate candidates based on predetermined criteria, focusing solely on relevant qualifications, skills, and experience.
By removing subjective factors, AI promotes a more equitable evaluation process. Additionally, AI systems are trained on diverse datasets, allowing them to learn and adapt without inherent biases. This helps mitigate biases related to gender, race, age, or other protected characteristics that may unconsciously impact human decision-making.
Embracing diversity
As we’ve just explained, AI will enable you to go beyond bias. In this way, we can already imagine AI bringing a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Protecting Privacy in the AI Era
With great power comes great responsibility, right? When it comes to AI in recruitment,privacy is of utmost importance. Companies must take the necessary measures to protect candidate data and ensure compliance with privacy regulations.
With Talent finder, it’s automatic. Candidates apply, they give their consent to the GDPR agreement, and the data are stored for a certain amount of time. When the data is about to expire, candidates are automatically alerted to update their consent.
Is Artificial Intelligence taking over from recruiters?
Not at all!Artificial intelligence is here to support recruiters, not replace them. It’s like having a reliable assistant that can handle time-consuming tasks and provide valuable insights, making recruiters even more effective.
As a recruiter, you also need to take a step back from what AI is offering you. It’s all based on data. If a candidate hasn’t put this or that word in their CV, they may be overlooked. So, you need to keep a human eye on every stage of the recruitment process, and not take for granted everything the AI tells you.
AI suggestions should always remain indicative and only help you make an informed decision. You still need to carry out a large part of the process: the interviews. It’s really at this stage that you’ll be able to assess the candidate’s soft skills and emotional intelligence. It’s also where you can determine whether the candidate has lied or exaggerated their hard skills.
Wrapping It Up: Let’s Recap
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized the recruitment process. It’s like having a trusty sidekick who can streamline hiring, find the perfect fit, reduce bias, and promote diversity. However, it’s essential to address ethical considerations, protect privacy, and ensure transparency. Together, we can embrace AI in recruitment and make better, data-driven decisions.
The future of AI recruitment is filled with exciting possibilities. We’re talking about augmented intelligence, where AI technologies complement human decision-making instead of replacing it. Chatbots and virtual assistants will be there to provide real-time support to candidates. Predictive analytics will help us make smarter hiring decisions, and continuous candidate evaluation will be the norm.
The future of recruitment looks bright! Let’s talkabout yours together ✉️
As we often tell you atTalent finder, the recruitment landscape has changed. The days of candidates falling into the arms of companies are over… You need a clear Recruitment Marketing strategy.
If companies want to attract top talents 🚀, they can no longer confine themselves to publishing a one-off job ad – which, by the way, often looks like an exhaustive list of their expectations without offering anything exceptional to the candidate.
However, that’s no excuse for not publishing job ads. On the contrary!This is where the strategy really comes into its own.
Belgian job boards receive an average of 5 million hits a month.Recruitment marketing means taking advantage of this visibility, but then continuing your efforts to convince candidates that you’re the right employer for them.
Employers must increasingly behave with candidates as they do with prospects,which entails building a strong Employer Brand and communicating it the good way. How do you, as an employer, differentiate yourself from the competition and how can you communicate this to potential candidates in a most engaging way?
Today, I’ll tell you more about recruitment marketing, a sensible mix of recruitment and marketing principles. 👇
Recruitment Marketingis a discipline that combines elements of employer branding, digital marketing, and candidate relationship management.
It aims to apply marketing tactics and strategies to the recruitment process, treating candidates as potential customers and focusing on building relationships and engaging them throughout the candidate journey.
Why build a recruitment marketing strategy?
The main goal of recruitment marketing is to drive individuals to apply for the open positions your company has available.
And beyond receiving more applications, the aim is also (and above all)to find high-quality, thoroughly motivated candidates.Active jobseekers are already in the right mindset. They have decided to change jobs voluntarily and have already taken action to do so. This makes it more likely that they will remain committed to the process and sign the contract at the end. It also says a lot about their personality: they take charge of their career and give it the direction they want.
Therefore, it willpotentially accelerate your recruitment processes and make them even more qualitative.
But do you know that recruitment marketing should also be considered by companies that have no particular recruitment needs?
People love to see people. Social media posts featuring people create a lot of engagement. Reinforce your employer brand, introduce your employees, talk about the atmosphere, show informal moments together. This type of content has the greatest potential to go viral and thusincrease your brand awareness.
Employer branding is a particularly useful marketing strategy for small businesses who have difficulty in making themselves known. Social media is crowded with new brands, and getting a foothold isn’t easy. In addition, marketing campaigns can be quite expensive. So instead of hiring models and actors for your advertising campaigns, call on the real stars ⭐:your employees. By building a brand that is deeply authentic, with concrete values and where people feel good, you’ll earn the trust of consumers who’ll be more inclined to use your services/products. “The fastest way to get customers to love your brand is to get employees to love their jobs” – Tiffani Bova
How to build a recruitment marketing strategy
As any marketing strategy, you should follow some steps.
1. Set your objectives
Increase brand awareness and the visibility of your company
Improve the apply rate for a specific job offer
Increase the number of candidates joining yourtalent pool
Attracting specific candidates (in terms of seniority, function, education,…) to your company
…
2. Define your target audience
The way you will communicate will be different if you are a digital communication agency or a large engineering company. You should always ask yourself who you want to talk to.
Depending on their position, seniority, age and training, candidates will have different career expectations and social media habits. So you need to adapt your strategy and find the one they’ll be receptive to.
3. Refine your Employee Value Proposition
Recruitment marketing is deeply related to your Employee Value Proposition. Your EVP is the foundation of the content you will develop for your recruitment marketing strategy.
There are 6 pillars you should define and work on to build an Employee Value Propositionthat resonates with your target audience andgets you chosen.
By building a strong EVP, you’ll be able to position as a unique employer, who stands out from the competition.
EVP should not be confused with Employer branding. You have the entire control of your EVP, it is the identity you shape for your company whereas you only have a partial control on your employer brand. The way you display your EVP will impact your employer brand but there’s a whole other side of the coin you can’t totally control: the way candidates see your company.
4. Implement actions
Let’s get down to business! You now have to define concrete actions that will help you communicate about your company and its culture, values, atmosphere, mission and vision to positively impact your employer brand.
✅ Create your company pages on relevant social networks
Based on your target audience, you should know which channels they’re on and where you should be too.Hootsuitehas planned for you and developed the2022 Digital Trends Reporton social network usage in 2022. This document will give you all the keys you need to select your communication channels.
Of course, the way you will communicate will be different according to the social media.
While LinkedIn remains more professional, editorial and focused on the life of the company, Instagram is very visual and more promotional with the possibility of making purchases directly on the platform. Another example is Tik Tok, a more informal network with spontaneous, less “worked” content, focused on videos, enabling you to talk about your employees in a fun, light-hearted way.
✅ Optimize your career page
Your career page is a critical touchpoint with potential candidates.This should present in a nutshell why you are a good employer and why they should apply for a job with you.
Talk about your values, your social responsibility, your mission as well as your specific promise to your employees. But keep it short and sweet. Be concrete, with photos, videos and testimonials. Don’t talk too much, just tell the facts.
To avoid losing visitors on the career page without them having visited your job offers, place a link to your job ads at the top of your page.
✅ Share content about your employees
There are many ways you can communicate about your employees and introduce them to your audience. You can share photos and videos of team events, testimonials, interviews, … However you choose to do so, make sure it’s a reflection of your company’s tone of voice.
✅ Engage in email marketing
Email marketing will help you nurture your talent pool. It means that once you have received the contact information from your candidates,you’ll be able to maintain the relationship overtime.
Proactive jobseekers want to be regularly informed about your new vacancies. With job alerts, your potential candidates are always up to date with your latest job offers matching their profile and interests. Technically, job alerts are super easy to set up on Talent finder.
You can also send a monthly newsletter to your talent pool gathering your latest job offers, news, articles or social media posts.
✅ Keep an eye on your reputation on employes’ review websites
Just as customers leave reviews for restaurants, employees and candidates in turn leave reviews for companies. Glassdoor, Indeed and Goole are just a few examples of sites where you can receive reviews. Whether these returns are justified or not, it’s important to take them into account and keep an eye on them.
In the case of false allegations, respond constructively and calmly. However, it’s important to be objective. If a complaint is voiced repeatedly, it may be time to question yourself and put corrective actions in place.
And if you have more than 4 stars, display it on your career page!
✅ Ensure a good candidate experience
Throughout the recruitment process, you’ll potentially be interacting with a large number of candidates. Of these, only one will be selected, and the others will unfortunately be rejected. So it’s essential to provide them with the best possible candidate experience.
What does this mean in practice?
The shorter, the better:often, you’re talking to employed candidates. However passionate they may be about your company, they don’t have an infinite amount of time to give you. Gone are the processes where you meet the HR department, the future colleague, the hiring manager, the hiring manager’s cousin and the mailman, with references from the previous 5 employers and their high school math teacher to be sure.
Transparency above all:the starting point of transparency in a recruitment process is displaying the salary in the job ad. Yet many companies are still reluctant about it. However, they won’t have a choice much longer, as the EU will be setting the rules. A directive on salary transparency was adopted by the EU Council on April 24, 2023. Among other things, it will ensure that job seekers are informed about the salary offered for the jobs they are considering, before any interview.
Feedback, no matter what: whether positive or negative, give candidates constructive feedback. A recruitment process that ends in rejection can be seen as a failure or a waste of time. As a recruiter, you can reverse the trend by clearly explaining the reasons why it didn’t work out, by giving concrete suggestions for improvement, and by pointing out the positive points in the candidate’s profile.
✅ Optimize and promote your job ads
As you may have understood, job offers are a critical part of your recruitment marketing. With the abundance of open positions available today, it’s become difficult to capture the attention of candidates.
The first step is to be visible. To do this, you need to optimize your ad in terms of SEO and find a title that will speak to candidates. What would the ideal candidate search for? What are the keywords that are relevant to this job ad? Once you’ve made your choice, you need to ensure that the title is repeated at least 3 times but also that your main keywords are all incorporated : diploma, technologies, region, city, sector, …
The second key to visibility is promoting your job ad.You can publish it on job boards such as Stepstone, Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, and so on. They are the go-to websites for jobseekers. And if you’ve chosen your keywords carefully, you’ll appear at the top of these sites’ results pages.
OK, if you’ve followed our advice, candidates are now reading your job ad. How do you make sure they keep reading, and even better, that they apply?Many companies still limit themselves to neutral, thirteen-in-a-dozen job ads, promising nothing to employees.
Would you ever think of making an ad for your customers, mentioning only the price without mentioning your product and the benefits it offers? Definitely not, and it’s the same with your candidates.
Think about your EVP, all the nice things you propose, all the reasons why you are a great employer and why your company is such a nice place to work. Your job advertisements should display those elements, through the presentation of your company, the job description, the profile you’re looking for and of course… the offer in itself.
As part of our serviceTalent boost, we optimize your job ad and we publish it on all relevant Belgian job boards at the best price (+ you have a free access to our ATS Talent finder).
✅ And the most important: Be a nice employer (and seller)
Because all those actions you’re going to implement are pointless if they don’t tell the real story. Ok, you will attract candidates that will eventually get hired. But the internal reality will come out soon enough, causing new recruits to leave after a short time, once the varnish has cracked.
There’s nothing more authentic and powerful than word of mouth. Your employees spend 40 hours a week on your premises. Work is a subject they inevitably discuss with their friends and family.
Your ambassadors are ones of your biggest strengths, as an employer. We all know at some point of our lives someone that’s looking for a new challenge and you may want to receive referrals from your employees.
In the same way, you should provide the best customer experience, because your customers might one day be potential candidates for your vacancies.If you have a lousy experience in a store, chances are you’ll keep an extremely negative image for a long time. You’ll probably say to yourself, “I’ll never set foot in that place again”, let alone work there, right?
And above all, this opinion will spread, because we all tend to talk more about our negative experiences than our positive ones.
5. Measure results
It is essential to collect data on all your actions so you know where you need to put more focus on. This again depends on the objectives you have set, but ultimately the quality of candidates you attract is the most important goal.
In recruitment,quality comes before quantity. To put it plainly, receiving a huge number of CVs is all well and good, but what’s more important is how many candidates are shortlisted from those CVs.
And then, you’ll want to know which source these shortlisted candidates come from. This is possible withTalent finder.Our ATS offers you customizable reports with various variables and, above all, statistics on your communication channels.
Recruitment marketing helps you get chosen
As you can see, recruitment marketing is not only a buzzword from the HR world but above all, a strategy that can help you differentiate yourself as an employer and therefore positively impact your employer brand in the long run.
You should not consider recruitment marketing as separate actions but as a whole, that in the end,will get you chosen by the best candidates. Recruitment marketing should help you be visible, but also convince the candidate to join you.
🚨 Start your recruitment marketing efforts right now with our special offer:order 5 Talent boosts (=optimization and publication of 5 job offers) and receive a 1-year Talent finder license .
When talking to corporate recruiters about bottlenecks and pain points, “finding talent” almost always comes up first.
Often, a lot is done right:
✅ The recruiter wrote and published a great job ad
✅ They launched a recruitment marketing campaign
✅ They sourced on LinkedIn and so on…
But what surprises me every time is thatmany companies start over – from scratch – for each recruitment.There is noTalent Poolstrategy.
All those interesting candidates who already effectively showed interest in your company or vacancies: the “silver-medals” 🥈, the “maybe-laters” 🤔, the “high-potentials” 🚀 you searched, qualified and interviewed… And then, they are forgotten or remain untouched in an excel or in an unused database.
A huge potential lost.
But talent pooling doesn’t have to be difficult. With a good ATS,you’ll build a usable Talent Poolin no time that ensures a:
Shorter time-to-hire
Lower cost-to-hire
Higher quality of hire
Not sure where to begin? We’ll get you started in this article!
What is a Talent Pool?
A Talent Pool is a curated database of potential job candidates who are highly qualified and have shown interest in joining an organization. Each candidate has a complete profile so that you have valuable and instant information about them: their past experiences, their education degree, their current position, as well as their career expectations.
The key advantage of a Talent Pool is that you already have a starting point for your future recruitment processes.
Why building a talent pool?
Reducing time-to-hire
Every HR professional and recruiter knows that sourcing candidates is the step that takes the longest in the recruitment process. With a well-built database, you can save a lot of time. Interested candidates are already there, open to dialogue with you. Because their personal information is comprehensive, you already have an idea that they’re a good fit.
Reducing cost-to-hire
By running a search on your database first, you can save money on advertising the job offer. Job boards, for the most part, are not free and are even quite expensive.
Plus, as the recruiter spends less time sourcing, the cost goes down indirectly.
Improving quality of hire
The candidates have already been qualified as top talents. Plus, those candidates already showed interest in your organization. They applied to one of your jobs or spontaneously asked to join your database. They will already know about your company, will be more receptive to what you may propose them and will be more engaged in the recruitment process. Because yes, a candidate who enters the process is great, but if they withdraw or worse,ghostyou along the way, your efforts will have been in vain.
How to build a Talent Pool?
Even if your talent pool is there to make your life easier, it is necessary to take certain actions to build it in a qualitative way.
You must first take stock of your organization. What functions are present internally? What are the associated skills? Which profiles are the most recruited? Which skills are not present but will be increasingly necessary?Define your target and what candidates are worth being part of your talent pool.
The second step of building your talent pool is of course to fill it with top candidates. And this requires regular attention.
Let’s take a look at some of the strategies that can assist you in receiving and collecting resumes.
Choose an Applicant Tracking Software
An ATS is a software tool designed to streamline and automate the recruitment and hiring process for organizations. It serves as a centralized database and management system for your job or spontaneous applications. No matter where your candidates come from, they are all gathered in a sole database. You can therefore understand why an ATS is essential to your talent pool strategy.
Source candidates
While your goal is to have to invest less effort in sourcing, your talent pool won’t magically fill up. You need to get the ball rolling. And regardless, for some hires, you will still need to source outside your talent pool. Don’t lose candidates who don’t fit the role and invite them to join your database. Whether they are hunted or come from applications,the best candidates should all join your talent pool.
Initiate referral programs
You can invite your current employees to recommend candidates. They can bring friends of theirs into your talent pool, in exchange for a financial incentive, if the referred person actually join the company one day.
Design a nice career site
This is the best place to speak with candidates and show them why you are a nice employer. Your career site should not be a section of your website where you only mention the open vacancies. No, you should first talk with your audience.
Tell them about your history as an employer, your values, your culture, the unique advantages you offer to your employees. You can also add testimonials from your employees themselves.Another important element is to remind the visitor that they can also apply spontaneously if no open vacancy is a fit for them.
Here are some examples of great career sites:
Innocent:Their career site is very attractive. The visitor receives information about the open positions, the advantages of working at Innocent as well as tips for their interview.
Apple:Videos, taglines, employees’ quotes, values, culture. Everything you need to know about Apple as an employer.
Write powerful job ads
Make sure each ad matches the tone of voice of your company. While your career site provides information about your company in general, ads are an opportunity to highlight specific functions and their place in the organization.
Provide valuable content
You can create a blog where you provide interesting content about your projects or your industry. This is based on the principle of inbound recruiting where candidates proactively visit your website and keep up to date with your news. Eventually, you can awaken in them the desire to join your company.
Participate in recruiting events
Job or industry fairs are a good opportunity to get to know talented people who want to discover new companies. You can chat with candidates live, creating more authentic relationships and leaving a lasting impression.
💡Small tip: display a QR code to join your talent pool on your booth.
Engage with students
Your company can open to internships or hiring students to attract young talent.
Build your employer brand on social media
You must be where the candidates are. Social networks remain the best place to talk about your company, its projects, highlight your employees and their successes, share your informal team moments.
Provide the best candidate experience
Candidates that were part of your recruitment process and fit the role are key. They should automatically be transferred to your talent pool when not hired. Their interest has already been proven as well as their corporate fit. But turning down a candidate for a position can leave a bitter aftertaste, unless you’ve taken care of the candidate experience. Leaving a positive memory is critical to their willingness to go through the recruitment process with you again.You want a qualitative candidate as much as candidates want a qualitative employer.
How to take the most of your talent pool?
OK, you now have a good strategy for filling your talent pool. Now it’s time to put it to good use!
We have already told you about the importance of having an ATS to centralize the resumes of your candidates. But the interest of this tool goes far beyond the database.
Our ATS Talent finder is designed to optimize the search process and make your database as complete and usable as possible.
Have comprehensive candidates’ profiles
When candidates apply, their profile is automatically created. They also have the opportunity to fill in their profile super easily, not only based on their CV (and past experiences) but also on their expectations for their career. That’s a point that might be forgotten. We have the tendency to search candidates based on their current function, with keywords based on the title of the function sought. That’s where Talent finder makes the difference.
Plus, the recruiter that interacted with the candidate has the possibility to assign them to a category, after having refined the candidates’ expectations during a screening interview for example.
Find the candidates that suit your job ad best thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Your ATS should make it easy to search in your talent pool with multiple filters.
To make your life even easier, Talent finder offers you an AI assistant. It accompanies you in a proactive way, without even having carried out a search yourself. You open a new recruitment mission, you set the parameters for it and Talent finder will show you the 20 best candidates found in the database.
Check the candidates’ past interactions with your organization
All the history of the candidate is available so that you can easily scan all the interactions they might have had with your company. You can therefore approach the candidate with a personalized approach and maximize the chances to have an answer.
Regularly update your talent pool
A talent pool needs to be nurtured and updated regularly to ensure that the candidates in it are still a good fit for your company. A good way to keep in touch with candidates is to send them job alerts and specific mailing campaigns. The objective of nurturing is to make sure that candidates are warm when you contact them or even ready to apply on their own.
You should also make sure the candidates’ profiles are relevant to your organization and clean your database accordingly. Having a talent pool of 100,000 candidates makes no sense if their skills are out of your company’s scope.
Be careful 🚨: your talent pool is subject to GDPR. With Talent finder, it’s automatic. Candidates apply, they give their consent to the GDPR agreement, and the data are stored for a certain amount of time. When the data is about to expire, candidates are automatically alerted to update their consent.
You’re now ready to start your talent pool strategy!
Do you need some help with it? The Talent finder team is there to assist you.
Contact usand let’s talk about your talent pool strategy!
