Recruitment is a form of marketing for your company and an opportunity to talk about your employer brand. Have you used this process as a way to establish a relationship with your candidates? As an employer, consider what your applicant tracking processes and systems say about you.
Application tracking systems (ATS) can be impersonal and time consuming. Employers are asking for a large amount of information to be filled in, consent to be given, policies accepted – all within the prescribed formatting required by their system – and in the end – the candidate may receive an automated confirmation of the success of their submission.
Consider your applicants as your business partners; these are the candidates who are proactively coming to you. They are yours to lose through the process.
Why this needs to change:
In this age of social media and online communities, there is very little about an experience that can’t be tracked and recorded somewhere, by someone. Websites like Glassdoor.com allow applicants and employees to provide anonymous commentary on an organization, rating the experience on factors from Compensation to Culture, increasing the transparency to your benefit, or detriment.
In a tight market, when a company considers what truly separates them from their competitors, the key differentiator is the talent. Your people are your competitive advantage. And finding the right people with the skills you need, can be challenging. A company can increase their agility by leveraging a more grass-roots connection with the potential talent pool and learn valuable things about their industry and the way their brand is viewed in the market.
What Employers Can Do
Consider your Applicant Tracking process to be less about tagging each applicant as they come in, and begin to build relationships with your potential employees from the very start. Set the groundwork that will allow you to hire the best talent for your organization at the right time
Consider the organization you wish to be and what kind of people you will need to get there. Create an Applicant Tracking System that will build relationships with those key people. Start re-recruiting your candidates from their very first interaction by taking advantage of the opportunity to engage in a two-way dialogue.
1. Consider having a way for candidates to ask questions, with a chat function or an easy email button before they begin a long process of filling in their information.
2. Ensure the system has the capability to send people job alerts, based on the information they’ve provided and their preferences around what they want to contribute to an organization. Allow a candidate a way to easily refer a friend for a role by providing minimal information. Organizations where employees work with their friends tend to have higher engagement scores and higher productivity.
3. Set expectations around processes and feedback. Avoid a possible negative experience by explaining what to expect up front. Provide candidates with guidance on the application and the interview process — what feedback can they expect and when and who will follow-up.
4. Create talent communities. If you want information from them, provide information back and create value for your candidates. Send those individuals that have the core skill sets you are looking for, information on your company – or on their market. Make it worth their time to follow your company on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, or sign up for a newsletter. Perhaps that individual isn’t ready yet to officially apply to your organization but they are interested – you can send them employee success stories and reinforce your Employer Value Proposition. Take advantage of the data available, using algorithms and business intelligence to personalize your contact with each applicant and make the interaction more valuable for the individual. Provide opportunities for candidates to speak directly to potential peers and ask for their feedback – remember that you are trying to build a relationship.
Creating that positive interaction between an applicant and your company can support your brand in a way that increases your talent pool and your market reputation simultaneously.