Last week, I was able to attend RecruitFest. It was a great event with a lot of interesting topics and conversations but one that stood out was the session “The Candidate Bill of Rights” (video should be up soon at www.recruitfest.com) This session included the some great panelists from Gerry Crispin (@GerryCrispin), Charlie Judy (@HRFishBowl), Chris Hoyt (@TheRecruiterGuy), Mike Ramer (@MikeRamer) and Jason Lauritsen (@JasonLaruitsen) and focused on what companies owe candidates during the recruiting process and how to better engage with them during it.

The panel discussion went in a lot of different directions with the panelists offering multiple ways on how they thought the process should be improved. Here are a few of note:

• Turn on your Auto-Reply feature in your ATS to send an email when an applicant submits a resume (I didn’t think this was much of a revelation until I saw how small a % of the audience actually used this feature…)
• Create a system where candidates can log in and see how their application is doing in real time.
• Include the salary for a position in the job description (This is a Gerry Crispin favorite)
• Have your recruiters personally get back to every candidate that submits an application.
• Create surveys after your application process that candidates take that ask them about their candidate experience. And make changes due to feedback.
  

These sessions are always a favorite of mine as they’re always a way for people to think about a problem from scratch and brainstorm how organization in a perfect world should look and act. These conversations, however, have a little bit to be desired in the tangible actions department. With the focus more on what would make your recruiting organization the leader in candidate engagement and less on what you can do today to improve candidate engagement. For instance, every organization would love to be able to get back to every single candidate that submits an application (the end goal) but that is unrealistic for most companies whose recruiting staffs are shrinking and already very busy.

Most would agree that candidate engagement is important in the recruiting process but few really know where to start or have the resources to build a strategy for it. So I want to talk about candidate engagement and a few things that can be done in your organization today, that can have an impact on how candidates perceive your company.

Set expectations early - One of the better highlights from the talk was that organizations should begin turning on the auto-reply feature within the ATS. There is no reason why you shouldn’t turn this on today if you have this feature! (I was surprised by how many people in the audience were not using it.)

The key however is to concentrate on the messaging of this auto-reply. What I propose is giving a candidate an abbreviated schedule of how long you think the process will take. Let them know with the auto-reply that they expect to read your resume in 1 week’s time so that you give them an idea of when to expect to hear from you. (You may want to let candidates know how long you think the entire interview process as well.) And don’t just stop with that first auto reply, continue to set time horizons across your entire interview process because the worst thing you can do is leave candidates in the dark. This is a simple solution that you can roll out today that your candidates will appreciate (as long as you stick reasonably to your time horizons.)

Should all candidates be treated equally? - First off, I think an auto-reply should be sent to all candidates that submit an application. But after that should you feel compelled to treat everyone the same? In a perfect world, sure but our world is far from perfect. If you have limited labor resources, I’d recommend putting candidates in tiers. Candidates that don’t fit the job
description should be sent a generic rejection email (which is easy to do in your ATS.) Candidates that you interview should always receive a personal call that they didn’t receive the job. And finalists (who don’t receive the job) should receive a conversation from a recruiter to gauge interest in future positions in the company (as they probably would still be good fits for the company.)

You should always try and get back to people, but the means in which you do so does not have to be equal, in my opinion.

Get Social - You may not have time to create and consistently update social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter solely for your recruiting organization but I bet there are some company specific social media profiles that other parts
of the organizations continually update. Point candidates to these profiles on your career site and during your application. It will give them an idea of what your company is all about and the types of conversations that your company is involved in.

Candidate engagement doesn’t need to be difficult. There are a number of small things that you can do in order to improve the experience of the candidates that are coming through your recruitment marketing system every day. The key is doing it as “It’s not a horsepower issue, it’s a willpower issue.”

(Great quote taken from Chris Hoyt.)

Originally posted on the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Blog.