How to communicate better during recruitment:
A 3-part guide to help employers improve their candidate communication
Good communication is the primary driver of a positive candidate experience. A positive candidate experience being something most candidates find hard to come by.
(If you’re not sure how *much* of an issue poor candidate care is, just search #candidateexperience on LinkedIn, grab a bucket o popcorn and settle in.)
According to Talent Board’s latest CandE candidate experience benchmark research, candidate resentment has increased 40% in North America since 2016, 25% in EMEA and 10% in APAC.
Candidate resentment is when candidates have had such a dreadful experience with an employer that they aren’t willing to have *any* kind of relationship with that employer in future. That means if your candidates are your customers (likely, yo), they’ll ditch you for your competitor, but it also means they’ll actively work against your brand; committing to never apply for your roles again, and likely deterring others from applying, too.
Ouch!
While timely, transparent, friendly communication isn’t the cure-all for poor candidate experiences, it sure does most of the heavy lifting. I reckon it’d score you a minimum B+, when without it, you were a big, fat, F.
In this three-part slow-release guide to better candidate communication, you’ll learn:
Part 1: How to exorcise the ghost and make more talented friends with personalised recruitment updates
Part 2: Nailing candidate updates when you’re very busy and important
Part 3: Writing rejection emails that empower (and don’t crush tender hearts)
Photo by jacqueline-munguia on Unsplash
Part 1: Exorcise the ghost with ‘personalised’ recruitment updates
Good communication isn’t soulless, robotic ATS template talk. But it doesn’t need to be painstakingly personalised to every.single.applicant showing interest.
I suspect this is what catches a lot of recruiters and hiring managers out; their unrealistic expectation that every update must be an arduous manual process that takes five hours from their day (each vacancy).
So… they just don’t bother sending anything at all #ghosting.
Ghosting describes the poor recruiter habit of ignoring candidates after they’ve submitted an application. Much like when you strike up a conversation with a potential love interest, and they crush your fragile ego by disappearing *and* pretending you don’t exist.
Lack of communication (ZERO) is the biggest bugbear of wannabe new employees.
How to get personalised candidate updates right?
The trick is balancing tech with the human touch. Personalisation at scale. (Why I created my business.)
According to Talent Board, candidates expect employers to do these three things:
1. Clearly acknowledge their presence when they apply.
Instead of your dodgy, “Thanks, but chances are you’ll never hear from us again,” email, try a bit of this instead:
> Create a new auto responder template that demonstrates genuine empathy and appreciation. Let candidates know a bit about your standard recruitment process and tentative timelines. If it’s going to be at least two weeks before you’ll complete shortlisting, let them know it’ll be at least two weeks before they’ll hear from you.
Make it clear you’ll let them know the outcome of their application regardless. This is respectfully managing expectations.
(Consider joining The Circle Back Initiative to solidify your commitment to circling back to all applicants.)
2. Maintain contact throughout the (long or short) shortlisting process
For all candidates who make it past the initial application stage, you’ll want to communicate with them consistently throughout your shortlisting decathlon.
Simply start by mapping your shortlisting process. Then you can create an email update template for your ATS that you can send to each candidate as they progress through the stages.
Consider including:
What happens next?
How to prepare.
When you’ll hear from us.
<We’ll cover How to nail candidate updates in Part 2>
3. Provide candidates with definitive closure once you’ve finished with their application.
What’s the one thing we all crave when a relationship ends?
Closure.
Tell candidates their journey is over.
When you respectfully give your candidates closure, they can invest their time and energy (and manifesting) in more suitable opportunities.
The two primary reasons I hear recruiters use to defend why they don’t send rejection emails, is because of perceived time and effort (use your ATS, silly!), as well as a fear of being sued/having action against them for saying the wrong thing (?).
You’ll earn more respect from your honesty than attract complaints.
Unless you’ve interviewed the candidate, you don’t need to be super specific with your feedback. Thank them for their time, and/or offer some general application tips that *may* help them get further along next time. Why would anyone attack you for that?
Stop putting your temporary discomfort ahead of positive candidate care.
<I’ll provide a deeper dive into rejection emails in Part 3 of this series, Writing rejection emails that empower.>
And, so, how to write personalised candidate emails?
This doesn’t need to be as complex as you may be making out. Start with simple tweaks to make your copy sound human and not robotic.
Personalise the email templates by using the candidate’s first name, and sign off with your name.
Use friendly, conversational text with short, punchy sentences.
Share valuable bite sized pieces of information that highlight your employer brand:
o communicate a realistic job and workplace preview,
o employer values,
o employee profiles or desired traits, strengths, experiences that thrive in the working environment you offer.
Most of all, let the candidate know how happy or appreciative you are that they’ve taken time to show an interest in your organisation. Sometimes, just acknowledging they showed up is enough.
If you’re really ready to audit and overhaul your candidate experience, check out my free Ultimate Guide to Creating Candidate Connection.