It’s no surprise that the recruiting landscape has shifted over the last several years and candidate expectations are looking a whole lot different than what you may be used to. It’s a candidate’s world and recruiting teams are struggling to compete for top talent. Yes—great candidates are out there—but how can your candidate communications stand apart from the competition when it’s likely that job seekers are applying to several organizations and receiving multiple offers? And how can you do it in an automated way that still resonates with candidates but doesn’t bog down your recruiter’s?
Think about that related to the current state of your candidate experience. Maybe your career site, employer brand and hiring process are top notch, but will your candidate communications give them a similar impression? Ensure that they do. Put into place recruiting software automations that, together, can take care of consistent, personalized, and compelling candidate communications.
There are many smart approaches to leveraging automation, but here are some GR8 ones. Each of the following strategies can help connect and communicate your employer brand to the talent that you want to hire, and (bonus!) save some time in your day at the same time.
#1: Text messaging managed directly from the recruiting software platform.
Texting plays a major role in ensuring a positive candidate experience by reaching job seekers when and how they want to be communicated with, whether they sit behind a desk or in the driver’s seat of a delivery truck. The higher open and faster response rates associated with text make it an ideal communications channel for any team that wants to streamline its recruiting process and reduce time to hire averages.
Yet, additional time savings can be realized when talent acquisition teams manage text messaging directly from their recruiting software platform. Beyond addressing the administrative needs associated with texting candidates—such as setting up permissions for the hiring team to access the functionality and making sure only candidates who have opted in receive texts—recruiters can take advantage of pre-defined text recruiting templates. This facilitates messaging consistency while making it easy to insert commonly used links to jobs, talent communities and events. Plus, substitution functionality means recruiters can leverage their templates for quick reuse of common interactions while still delivering the more personalized messages that get immediate response.
#2: AI-driven sourcing applications that include automated candidate job alerts and notifications.
The ability to use AI-driven sourcing applications to arrive at the most accurate matches of candidate profiles against specific job criteria is just one part of the equation because once strong matches are identified, you need to connect with those people as quickly as possible.
Automation helps tremendously in this instance when the sourcing solution is developed to automatically notify high-potential candidates of a match via email and encourage them to apply. Templates can be structured to accommodate personalization, while job digest-style communications allow organizations to automate the process of staying in touch with candidates until they are ready to apply.
Consider adding a call-to-action in your automated email templates that will take candidates to a dedicated landing page displaying employee testimonials or videos showcasing your company’s culture. As noted earlier, candidate expectations have changed, and they want to know what it’s like to work for your company before they apply. Giving job seekers ready access to a sneak peek into your company culture and hearing what it’s like to work for your organization directly from the mouths of your greatest assets (your employees!) is a sure-fire way to keep candidates engaged.
#3: Integrate Talent CRM functionality into your virtual and onsite recruiting events program.
Given that the success of a virtual or onsite recruiting event is largely dependent on effective pre- and post-event communications, busy talent acquisition teams will benefit from automation that supports event communications, too.
One approach is to implement technology that can transform a series of planned events into a holistic approach to building—and leveraging—the pipeline of candidates. This can be accomplished by integrating Talent CRM functionality into your Event Solution. Doing so equips recruiters with everything they need to engage top talent through automated nurture communications well after they’ve attended an event, keeping these valuable leads warm so that they can be recruited as soon as a relevant opportunity becomes available.
Stay ahead of the game.
Adapting to our rapidly evolving recruiting environment will continue to present both obstacles and opportunities. What is clear is that the organizations that respond to candidate communications challenges by leveraging recruiting software automation will gain a competitive edge by having ready access to the talent they need, when they need it.