Five ways to run a great hiring process, impress candidates and attract great talent
Candidates are tricky creatures. One second you could be organising an interview with your ideal applicant and the next second they could ghost you for no reason.
So what makes them do this? What makes them tick? And what ticks them off?
As a busy business owner, recruiter or hiring manager it can be easy to ignore the pitfalls of your hiring process. But your process could be attracting the wrong kind of job hunter and sabotaging your success.
Why should I try to get candidates to like me and my company?
When great job hunters like you, it’s much easier to hire.
You will not only have a pool of applicants ready and eager to apply for your roles, but they will be happy and responsive to your requests.
Job hunters that like you will reply faster, do tasks with enthusiasm and hopefully become brand ambassadors, promoting your organisation to their network.
So how can you improve your hiring process and get candidates to like you?
1 – Advertise great opportunities
The first step to getting candidates to like you is to give them what they want.
When you advertise great opportunities, your pool of candidates will inevitably grow. But what are great opportunities?
Great jobs are:
- Always well paid – never offer unpaid roles
- Accessible – they won’t always require a degree or years of experience
- Exciting – the day-to-day tasks are what job hunters dream of
- Realistic – try not to hire a junior to take on a senior employee’s responsibilities
- With clear development and progression pathways – everyone wants the chance to grow
2 – Communicate well
Nothing irks candidates more than poor communication.
Think about it: you spend time adapting your CV for your dream role, maybe even write a cover letter, and then don’t hear back from them for weeks.
If you don’t get back to your candidates within a few days of their application, they could have forgotten about your role already. They could have even found a job by now!
It’s in your best interest to communicate regularly with your applicants, giving them updates and rejecting them in a kind, timely manner.
For candidates that have put hours into interviews and tasks already, a phone call is always better than an email!
3 – Don’t leave them hanging
On a similar note, please be extra kind to candidates that have interviewed with you or done a task!
These job hunters deserve a bit of extra time if you’re going to reject them. Try to give useful feedback that can help them with their next application.
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of making a job offer and preparing an onboarding, but if you ignore your already interviewed candidates they’re going to get a sour taste in their mouth.
Try to get feedback out to candidates within a week of their interview.
4 – Focus on your diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are hot topics that lots of job hunters really care about. And as people want to join companies that care about the same issues that they do, this isn’t something to neglect in your hiring.
Many companies add a diversity and inclusion statement to their job descriptions or mention that they’re open to requests for adjustments to be made to the process.
Some companies also proudly display a diversity and inclusion page on their website, using it to talk about why they care about D&I and what they’re doing to improve it.
These are great ways to improve your public image and get candidates to like you.
5 – Try to run a fair process
We live in a world where the best job hunter doesn’t always get the job. Your ex-next door neighbour’s son’s dog walker is more likely to get the role because they have a connection to you.
And a little bit of nepotism can feel unavoidable, but sometimes it just isn’t ok. For example, if you’ve already interviewed candidates but suddenly decide to hire an internal applicant, you might annoy them.
Another way to run a fair process is to pay your candidates for their time. If you want to set a long application task or even trial a worker, this is a must.
It shows respect for your candidates and will help them to respect you in return.
Running a great recruitment process can be a headache
But we can help! Our expert recruitment team can do all of the hiring dirty work for you, screening CVs, responding to applicants and scheduling interviews so that you can get on with hiring.