The Overlooked Candidates
Unfortunately, shortsightedness plagues our hiring processes. Often, employers seem shortsighted when anticipating their business’ future hiring needs. We spend enormous capital to plan and staff our hiring efforts, all in the hopes of accruing and attracting top-tier talent now, but once we have sufficiently hired for our current needs, we no longer utilize the data and relationships we’ve gained from the experience. I don’t just see this as a missed opportunity, but a waste of time, energy, and resources!
Consider the hours spent communicating with candidates, scheduling and conducting interviews, evaluating and discussing applicants. That we can only choose a single candidate for a position is a shame. Usually, there are multiple candidates who would fit well in our company, but we simply don’t have room for them. And as is usually the case, if we fail to keep open lines of communication with these runner-up candidates, they will soon move on to opportunities elsewhere without ever hearing from us again.
As the unemployment rate steadily falls and the active talent pool shrinks, it is more important than ever for employers to put extra effort into communication with prior applicants. Because a great and extensive candidate experience is a smart, even vital, recruitment practice.
Obviously, resources are always somewhat limited, and we may not always be in a financial or business position to pre-pivot towards the future. While I’m not absentmindedly suggesting the consistent upkeep of relationships with every quality applicant, perhaps an internal review of our possible future hiring needs is warranted, taking into consideration market volatility, anticipation of future projects, and projections of employee turnover. Once equipped with this kind of research, we can gauge how many candidates, and in what departments, we may soon need to staff, far before that staffing becomes an absolute necessity.
From there, we can intelligently maintain open dialogues with past applicants. These are individuals whom your company has already screened, vetted, interviewed and forged some kind of a relationship with. Presumably, there is mutual interest on both sides. I advocate for honesty: If your firm expects a future position to open up, reach out personally to these candidates, explain the situation, and gauge their enthusiasm. Outreach until that point doesn’t have to be frequent, but a monthly or bimonthly follow-up email might go a long way. And if you have internal development seminars or programs, extending an invitation to those who have previously sought a position at your firm could prove a unique way of solidifying that relationship.
This practice isn’t just intended to attract a single given candidate, by the way. I’ve previously spoken about how, in this globalized job market, reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn are ubiquitous, and in any space where employees communicate to one another, maintaining positive relationships with previous applicants helps to set a certain standard of who your company is in the marketplace.
You will naturally gain a reputation from these activities, one which will encourage applicants, even those who’ve moved on to other opportunities, to refer other candidates to your company. In my many conversations with candidates, it’s become clear to me that, no matter one’s age or personality or experience level, exceptional applicant experiences are extremely rare occurrences. They stick out in the minds of applicants. Emphasizing compassion, personalization, and humanization in your company’s communications is the kind of strategy which will have applicants —from the newly-unemployed to the long-tenured–- scanning job boards specifically hoping to see opportunities at your firm.
It’s how people begin to equate your company with the idea of their “dream job.”
If you’ve maintained a positive relationship with runner-up applicants, who may have impressed you with their experience and education but are currently working elsewhere, you should feel comfortable reaching out to these candidates seeking referrals, perhaps even offering a finder’s fee if a referred candidate makes it to a certain stage of the application process.
All of which is to say that the hiring process does not have to be impersonal or foreshortened. Outside the initial allocation of resources, there are no disadvantages but multitudinous benefits that maintaining open, positive, supportive channels of communication with past applicants can have for your business. As I’m always telling my candidates: Preparation is key. How can we, as employers, put ourselves in the absolute best position to succeed, long before success is an imminent necessity? In this case, we can do ourselves a great service by forging and maintaining personal relationships with past applicants, long before they may be of service to us.
As we continue examining both the candidate’s and employer’s experiences throughout our ensuing blogs, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Nancy, if your firm is either not getting “high marks” from applicants, or is having trouble attracting qualified candidates. Reach me on LinkedIn or at www.idealinterviewco.com/contact.