Recruiting: How to Keep Candidates Interested

 

In the current job market, candidates do not have to run after every job opportunity anymore. Strong candidates usually have several options to choose from, and they can go for the easiest approach and accept the most appealing job on offer. It is more important than ever at times like these to engage with candidates and to keep them interested throughout the whole recruitment process, in order not to lose them to competitors.
But the first step is to attract their attention.Already a job description or the first line of approach on, for example, LinkedIn may be crucial to your success with a candidate. In any case, the most successful way to reach out to passive candidates is via telephone. There are many factors that influence the outcome of such an approach–timing, wording, length of message, intonation, persistence... it would beenough to address in a separate article.
Lets assume all this has gone well and the candidate wants to move forward with the position, and continue with the next step of the recruitment process. What if now suddenly the position is put on hold, or the hiring manager is on holiday, or there are other issues that keep the process for this candidate from moving forward? Every recruiter experiences this! In these situations it is important to know what to do with the candidate.
Stay in touch–the number one rule. At least once per week the candidate should get an update on what is going on, even if there are no movements at all. If you know anything about how long it will take to move on to the next step, then set expectations.
To give the candidate a feeling of security and control, make sure to answer all his questions and give him your contact details with the feeling thathe can always reach out to you, if there is anything to discuss. If you invest some time in building a relationship with the candidate, it will create a stronger bond throughout the recruitment process. Just something small like a common interest can have a big impact.
A recruiter that cares about their candidates will automatically do a lot of this right, but in order not to forget about anyone, it might help to set weekly reminders to check the status of every candidate and give them an update and a little interest boost.

Dorothea Schweinefuss