Given the current situation, with many businesses choosing to slow down or completely freeze their recruitment efforts in favour of focusing on supporting current employees and trying to find new ways of increasing performance of sales and marketing, It’s possible that you have some fantastic candidates who you aren’t keeping engaged.
Right now, the job is to do the best you can to remain present and in the minds of any candidates or talent currently in your process by staying in touch and supporting them.
We know that’s not always possible, so here are a few simple tips for keeping candidates engaged and also a few ways that we can help.
Reach Out Frequently
It may seem a bit unnecessary but simple things such as reaching out to candidates with a call or email to ask how they are doing can go a long way to winning them over. Try discussing their current situation, ask how they are coping. Show that you already care for their well-being and you may also be able to get a sense for how they feel about you so far. If candidates are reaching out to you with questions or next steps, respond promptly. If the candidate is being proactive, at the very least, be responsive.
Add Value With Content
A really simple technique can be to simply send candidates some of your latest articles about the company, insights into what you’re doing and how you’re currently working. The way a business responded to the COVID-19 crisis will tell candidates a lot about how a company operates.
Discuss On-boarding
Whilst you may not be in a position to on-board new hires right away, letting candidates know what to expect, how the process works and letting them ask about anything specific they were expecting or wanting in their first few days (if they are successful).
Make sure the job listing has everything they need
If you’ve ever applied for a job (which we’re pretty sure you have), you will most likely have checked the job posting/description a number of times during recruitment to see if you can understand the role in a new way, get an insight into what the interviewer wants to hear or just generally learn something new whilst you wait for the company to get back to you.
Make sure you have provided the candidate with as much relevant information as you can. This will reduce the number of questions they have and also reassure them that you have provided them with all the relevant information.
Be upfront and honest
This is your time to show potential future employees what they can expect from working with you. If you present a distant front now, they will likely assume that to be the way it will be if they choose to work for you.
- If you have frozen recruitment. Tell them.
- If you don’t have a clear timeline for the role being filled. Tell Them.
- If you don’t even know for certain if the role will still be available after the current crisis. Tell them.
Nobody wants uncertainty at the moment so do anything you can to alleviate that.
Right now, the phrase Always Be Recruiting should still ring true. Even if you aren’t in a position to offer a role right now, you want to be in the best position moving forward after the crisis and that will be much easier to do if you have top tier talent, engaged, ready and excited to work for you when the time comes.
If recruitment isn’t something you are currently focusing on or you’re not sure how to proceed with your hiring process, we can offer support in a number of ways:
- Finding talent for after the crisis
- Work on your behalf to keep existing talent engaged
- Offer advice and guidance on how to recruit in the current climate
We’ve said it previously in other articles, our main focus for both candidates and businesses right now is to offer support and guidance for when everything is ready to kick back into gear again. We are also able to offer flexibility on terms to suit your business.
Reach out to us if we can be of any help to you or your business!
