Keeping Candidates Engaged is Crucial for Immediate and Long-term Hiring

As organizations continue to navigate the changing landscape, businesses across the globe have quickly adapted their process for recruiting new members of staff, particularly regarding face-to-face interviewing. This new, digitized way of hiring has made clear that candidate engagement throughout the process is more important than ever.

Candidate engagement goes hand-in-hand with the interview process. Whether your processes are being sped up, stalled, or are on hold until further notice, keeping your candidates in the loop with any delays or changes throughout their experience with your business is key to your immediate and longer-term hiring strategy.

So, how are businesses managing to keep hiring processes moving forward and keep candidates engaged where processes have stalled? Here is what our consultants have been seeing in recent weeks.

Connections and Communication

Building trust and creating clear lines of communication with candidates when hiring is always important, but is key when operating remotely. Firms that have done this well — such as FinTechs, challengers/disruptors, SME banks, etc. — have conducted video call interviews from start-to-finish and elongated the process by one or two more stages to ensure all questions have been asked. This removes any risks linked to lack of physical meetings.

Candidates have been very understanding that timeframes will likely be prolonged. However, if you fail to provide any information surrounding the process and delays, this will cascade throughout the marketplace very quickly and will reflect negatively on your company brand.

The Opportunities of Remote Hiring Processes

In line with the need to social distance and therefore run remote hiring processes, companies are utilizing a range of online resources to keep their interviews moving forward. From conversations we have been having with our clients, platforms including Hintro/Hinterview, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, BlueJeans, Facetime, and even Houseparty have been used. Phone calls at later stages continue to take place, too.

As most professionals are working from home currently, there are far fewer time constraints that people face on a day-to-day basis. Without a daily commute and with some distance from the office environment, candidates are more accessible for an introductory call or video conference with a hiring manager.

Scheduling meetings and progressing interview processes is more straightforward than ever, as there are also more suitable times available for key stakeholders. So, while there is often a need to extend the number of interview stages, there is much more time to get to know candidates to ensure the right person is secured for the role.

Our Advice Based on Recurring Themes Across the Market

As the social distancing measures that are currently in place could be a reality for an extended period, it is important to ensure that both employers and candidates are comfortable with making and accepting an offer off the back of a virtual process.

Where businesses are choosing to wait a few months before making an offer to someone at the final stage, their preferred candidates are being lost to competitors. In this period, hiring talent is no different and possibly more important than ever. This means acting quickly to secure top talent, and keeping your preferred candidate bought into your process where there are delays, is crucial.

By adding more stages to the process, you will be able to mitigate a level of risk associated with remote hiring. Do not just carry out phone calls; utilize video calls and explain the process to candidates upfront.

Understandably, we have noticed a rise in caution among candidates. Our customers have been able to work through this problem by focusing on the long-term benefits of joining their businesses and giving the candidate confidence that the business is going to not only going to survive, but also thrive.

An empathetic approach to candidate reservations is crucial. Additionally, take the time to explain your own reservations so that they might openly discuss how, together, you may overcome them.

If you would like to discuss how we can support you, your team, or your business during this time, please get in touch for a confidential, non-obligatory discussion.