This year, 55% of companies expect to hire more people to support business growth. However, the competition for top talent remains fierce. Studies show that 35% of employers have positions that stay open for 12 weeks or longer. Without a doubt, today’s candidates have the freedom to pick and choose which opportunities to pursue. This means recruiters should continue strategizing and offer standout service to attract the best candidates out there—here are some of the ways to achieve that.

Offer An Exceptional Candidate Experience

Always aim to deliver an unparalleled candidate experience. Candidates like frequent contact and expect to receive updates on their job application—so keep that connection strong to make candidates happy. Maintaining a solid relationship with them matters because nearly 60% of candidates reported they’ve experienced a poor candidate experience. Out of those same candidates, 72% of them shared that negative experience online or told someone about it in person.

Try to maintain regular contact with your candidates. While it can get tricky to maintain consistent communication with all of your candidates (especially when you’re busy), you can schedule notifications to prompt you to call or e-mail them in your applicant tracking system. A happy candidate who’s had a great experience with you will be willing to work with you again, and even recommend you to other people they know.

Use Applicant Tracking System and Recruiting CRM Data to Your Advantage

Most recruiters use recruitment software to easily store and track candidate information. In an ATS, they can see and analyze different metrics such as: the number of phone calls placed, the number of scheduled interviews, time to hire and cost to hire. They’re also able to see which sources are most effective in attracting qualified candidates. With this information, recruiters could focus more on advertising job postings on the sources that work best for them.  

Numbers are vital in helping recruiters and HR professionals make informed decisions. However, CIPD’s study showed that 7% of HR professionals didn’t know if, or how, they used HR analytics. By addressing this learning gap, more hiring managers and recruiters will be able to interpret data and use it achieve business goals, like placing more top talent.

Enhance Your Employer Brand

A company’s employer brand is essentially “the face” of the company. It offers everyone a glimpse of a company’s corporate culture, values and initiatives. Jobbio conducted research which showed that 78% of people look into a company’s reputation as employers before even applying for a job. Since a strong employer brand plays a big role in attracting candidates, focus on enhancing it.

Start by making the careers section of your website rich with media like videos and photos of the workplace, team and culture. Outline the company’s values and explain what the driving force of the business is. Explain what makes you unique as a company and what sets you apart from others. Don’t forget to describe the benefits and work environment offered to employees, either. Today’s candidates want to see this information, so work on establishing an employer brand that commands their interest.

These tips should help you develop a strategy to attract the best candidates out there. The right candidates are out there, but sometimes you just need to pivot and refine your current recruiting strategies.