Candidate engagement is becoming increasingly important. We know the battle for talent is real — and urgent. Just a few months ago, workers were struggling to find jobs; now they have a plethora of options to choose from. This is good news for employees, but a challenge for employers to find, hire and retain the right candidate

Read also: ‘The 6 steps of the candidate journey‘

Keeping candidates engaged is what the first battle is all about. As technology gives us more and more access to all the talent on the market, the game is changing. We can see who has a job and who interests us

Table of contents of this article

What is candidate engagement?

Candidate engagement, or candidate engagement, is about the entire process of contact between potential candidates and employers in the application process

What are the first steps in candidate engagement?

The first steps in candidate engagement are best taken based on feedback. Candidates expect feedback at every stage of the hiring process, so why not also ask them for feedback on how you are doing? Obviously, as a foundation, speed and communication are vital at every stage and in every area

Improvements following research

Research shows the following key factors that cause candidates to feel disappointed and choose to disengage from organizations and recruiters:

• • Unnecessarily long application processes.

• • Lack of communication.

• • No confirmation emails.

• • No ability to contact the recruiter.

What job seekers want is:

• • Better and more communication.

• • Notifications of successful and unsuccessful applications and the progress of the process.

• • A timeline of the recruitment process.

• • Human contact after the application.

• • A timeline regarding expected responses.

This may already provide some guidance for examining your process and evaluating where you are falling short and in what areas you are doing well

A story: candidate engagement in practice

Let’s face it, the reality of applicants today is still that not much is done once the right candidate is found. Does the scenario below sound familiar to you as well

You approach 30 candidates for a new job opening. Of those 30, you get hold of 15 (you sent an email “blast”) and of those 15 you forward five, 3 of which get an interview. The 15 you didn’t get hold of, you further forget about given all your other busy work. Hopefully the 12 who don’t get invited will still get a thank you email ..

Don’t worry, it’s not common for a company to have a solid candidate engagement plan. That’s because it’s more of a marketing function than most companies realize. The above scenario results in thousands of forgotten candidates accumulating over years, leading to wasted costs and missed opportunities. If you put time and energy into this, you will quickly become much more effective than many of your competitors

Four steps to get started right away

Five steps as an introduction to a successful candidate engagement process. Simple and easy ways you can engage candidates both before they apply and during the hiring process

1) Create an engaging and interesting career site

Share videos, images and information about the organization in a place where candidates can easily find it. We often underestimate the impact this can also have on a candidate’s initial interest and engagement with the organizations. Ideally, the career site should be the main source of new candidates for any organization. It is where potential candidates go to see what you do, what you stand for, and where they decide if they think your organization is right for them. So the first question is, have you invested in displaying the organization in the right way? Or is it just a click-through link with a list of job openings

2) Case studies and storytelling

Since we are children, we have loved a good story. Storytelling can also be one of your company’s greatest strengths. By using stories, you can make your brand relatable and human. A strong authentic story makes more impact than a press release. Use a story that shows what you stand for as a company, how diverse your workforce is, and let employees themselves tell what support they receive in their careers and development. ENBOQ can take this even a step further and help you develop a story that challenges the candidate to look for relevant information

3) Newsletters for the “talent pool”

You have taken the time to identify candidates that you think are right for the organization. They have the skills, competencies and experience you are looking for. You segment them into a talent pool and you leave them there until you have the right job opening available or until someone hopefully recalls them

The candidates don’t know they are in a talent pool, they don’t know that you think they are great for your company and they have no idea what your organization will be doing 6 months from now

The goal of building a potential talent pool is to develop an employer brand and employee journey, share your stories and develop engagement with the candidates you think are right for your company. Also get newsletter inspiration from our article on a company’s reputation as an employer in our article on Employer Branding.

Suppose you’ve been approached or applied for a position. Someone else gets the position, but the recruiter says to you:

“We think your skills, experience and motivations match what we are looking for in our company. We don’t have a role for you right now, but I would like to add you to our talent pool. That means we will communicate quarterly with a few selected candidates with whom we want to continue to develop a relationship. The information we email to you will be about what the company is doing, developments in our strategy, our values and our culture. Hopefully this will cause you to keep following us. Then when an opportunity arises, you will have a much clearer picture of who we are and it may help in your decision as to whether we are the right organization where you will develop your career in the future.”

Short and sweet. Who’s going to say no to that? I’m not spamming you. I won’t send you an update every day/week/month. I will communicate with you and you can contact me if you see something that appeals and we do the same thing. If a recruiter said this to me, I would be impressed. That gesture alone would set him apart

4) Networking online and face to face

Nothing replaces talking to people. Go to networking events where your candidates are and engage with them in a real and authentic way on social channels. If you have social channels, it’s important to let each candidate know about your channels and the information they will get if they follow them. I find it amazing when people say a social channel doesn’t work, but have never told anyone about it

Why is candidate involvement important?

There are so many points in the recruitment process where applicants or candidates may feel ignored, mistreated, undervalued and neglected. This will increase their distrust of your organization and your brand. To avoid bad word-of-mouth, negative reviews and limiting the recruiting funnel, HR departments should make sure they don’t make any of their candidates feel ignored

By engaging with candidates, you build trust and relationships. Imagine if 50 people applied for a job that was awarded to one successful applicant

A strong applicant engagement results in 49 applicants for the other positions in your company

Discover even more information for a successful candidate engagement journey:

• • Onboarding and Preboarding

• • Onboarding Program

• • Team high performance

• • E-learning

• • Gamification