6 Tips to Engage Your Candidates More Effectively
Originally published in the TimeSaved Blog
With unemployment at a record low and an incredibly tight labour market, candidate engagement is everything. You want to capture the attention of talent and retain that talent for future jobs. So what can staffing agencies do to a) stand out from competition and b) keep workers in engaged once they have their attention?
1. Make sure you have a brand that stands out
Developing and nurturing a brand are important in an industry as competitive as staffing. You want to make sure you are providing candidates with a value proposition that they can get behind and which you can deliver on. Maybe it’s superior communication, or perhaps your agency promises to provide the most tech-forward solutions to their workers. Whatever it is, make sure you know the value you are bringing and that you brand yourself accordingly and follow through. This will help candidates come to you — and stay there.
2. Make sure that brand prizes the candidate
Good branding should do more than simply let candidates know you exist. It should let them know why you exist, and ideally, the answer to that question is for them. So think about what tools will help you build that kind of brand. Candidates have said it time and again — they value communication and want to feel like their recruiters care about them and put time into building relationships. So, how can you free up recruiters’ time so they can follow through on those desires?
3. Communicate the way they want
Find out how your candidates like to communicate and reach out to them that way. Maybe they prefer text, or email, or maybe both. They are more likely to read and respond to your outreach if it’s a method of communication they are comfortable with.
4. Make onboarding easy
You’re always going to need a process to vet your workers but think about ways that you can make it easier for them (and for you). Perhaps instead of chasing them down for certain information (such as their availability or skills), you provide a solution that lets them update those things for themselves. Think about the least invasive, most effective ways to gather the information you need from them.
5. Bring the jobs to them — and make them relevant
Just as you want to make onboarding as friction-free as possible, make sure your candidates have visibility into the job openings most relevant to them. And think not only about how you can get jobs into their hands faster, but how you can make sure those are jobs they will want to work. If candidates keep seeing jobs that are a) not in line with their skill set or b) not within a distance they are willing to travel, they may start to think that you are not the agency for them.
6. Get their feedback
At the end of the day, in order for you to understand why your candidates are staying (or leaving), you need to get their feedback. There are several ways you can do this. Think about surveys (for those who are willing to spend the time), or incorporating a review system that lets them give you feedback on their assignments.
