How to keep senior candidates engaged and maintain their interest in a position for more than 3 months

Hello Friends!!!

I am sure all of you might have faced this common but monstrous problem, that it is extremely difficult to keep your candidates engaged and maintain his / her interest level for the contested position more than 3 months.

Difficulty level increases when your candidate is senior Executive and your client is delaying his final meeting or his offer letter for a long period.

And in the End candidates either don’t answers your calls or ignores you or grabs another opportunity

Wanted to know in such cases what should be the action plan so that we do not lose on our billing...

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on August 29, 2012 at 4:00pm

Hello Pritesh,

If hiring management is taking more than three months to make a hiring decision on a known and interviewed candidate they deserve to lose that candidate to the competition - particularly if it is a strong candidate. However, their indecision may be related to the fact that your candidate is lacking and are hoping for better prospects.

And it doesn't matter if it's an executive level or a recent college graduate -- you don't stretch strong candidates out for that amount of time with any expectation that their interest will stay on the high side.

If you as the recruiter are playing the hiring manager that loosely, by letting them drag a hiring decision to the 3 month timeframe without good reason, you're contributing to the problem and should not be surprised if your candidate ignores you and goes elsewhere.

What you can do in any case where management is giving signs of a "slow-go" -- is to remind them that the consequences will result in the candidate falling off the radar screen. If they aren't moved by that result you better be looking for next-up candidates to recommend.

And on that note you will gain respect from your candidates when you update them on the pressure you're putting on management on the matter of making a hiring decision sooner rather than later. Good candidates always have other options and those in the mix of other interviews will certainly be picked-off in the near term.

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Permalink Reply by Pritesh Vaidya on August 29, 2012 at 11:18pm

Hi Valentino

Greetings and Thank you for your comments...

This is exactly what we are facing, out clients want the best of the candidates with in the budget & TAT and on top of it they delay their decision.

If we push for the feedback or schedule they kind of drop the candidature or put the position on hold very easily.

Hence we end up losing candidates and since this is the case with every second client we have to live with it so i want to figure out how to keep candidates engaged...

(Also to add-on the clients I am talking about are huge MNC's and very reputed companies in their Industries)

Valentino Martinez said:

Hello Pritesh,

If hiring management is taking more than three months to make a hiring decision on a known and interviewed candidate they deserve to lose that candidate to the competition - particularly if it is a strong candidate. However, their indecision may be related to the fact that your candidate is lacking and are hoping for better prospects.

And it doesn't matter if it's an executive level or a recent college graduate -- you don't stretch strong candidates out for that amount of time with any expectation that their interest will stay on the high side.

If you as the recruiter are playing the hiring manager that loosely, by letting them drag a hiring decision to the 3 month timeframe without good reason, you're contributing to the problem and should not be surprised if your candidate ignores you and goes elsewhere.

What you can do in any case where management is giving signs of a "slow-go" -- is to remind them that the consequences will result in the candidate falling off the radar screen. If they aren't moved by that result you better be looking for next-up candidates to recommend.

And on that note you will gain respect from your candidates when you update them on the pressure you're putting on management on the matter of making a hiring decision sooner rather than later. Good candidates always have other options and those in the mix of other interviews will certainly be picked-off in the near term.

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Permalink Reply by Kim Hudson on August 30, 2012 at 10:09am

If your client is not being cooperative, than that is a client you should consider not keeping. And/or letting them know that you will assist them where you can but not work them to the full potential until they do become cooperative.

I consider all my clients "A accounts". The ones that are very cooperative and move quickly stay there and I am more apt to finding them candidates. The ones that move slow I consider "B accounts." I still work on them but not as actively. The ones who quit responding or refuse to give feedback I consider "C accounts." I will only send them a candidate if one happens to come across my desk, but they will usually not be my superstar candidates.

My feeling is that my clients who want to move the process, give feedback and actually hire are the ones who deserve my superstar candidates.

I also have a conversation with each client in the begging of what I expect out of them.