How To Keep Candidates Warm During the Recruiting Process

Job Candidate RQ Focus

Communication is one of the biggest complaints candidates have throughout the recruiting and interviewing process, and is one of the key reasons you may be missing out on some of the best candidates. It is important to use a recruiter who establishes a strong communication system with employers and candidates and keeps both sides informed at each step of the process. This can prevent you from losing valuable candidates.

Important Steps to Remember

Your recruiter should be following up with candidates after an interview and providing you feedback from the candidate’s perspective.

Many recruiters tell their clients, “I will let you know when I have news,” but that is not good enough. Your candidate should hear from you within 1-2 days to do a debrief of their interview experience. It is respectful to the candidate and keeps them engaged with your position, but also gives you valuable feedback on how your company and interview team are being perceived by candidates. It is also the first chance to identify and clarify any possible “miscommunications” that may have come up during the interviews.

Many recruiters or hiring managers choose to use email to follow up with candidates, and that is certainly a good option and better than no contact with them at all, but you get a much better picture of where things stand by having an actual conversation with the candidate. That is where a good recruiter can use their relationship with the candidate to get honest feedback for you on the interview and also see if they are interviewing elsewhere and if there may be other competitors for this candidate.

If you choose to use an email to follow up with candidates after an interview, here is a template that you can use to follow-up on an interview:

Dear [X],

We would like to thank you for coming in to interview with our team. We are in the process of collecting feedback from all of the interview team members to let you know their decision, and it may take a few more days to hear from everyone, but I didn’t want you to think I had forgotten about you.

You may have questions for me, and I hope you’ll let me know if that is the case. I will be in touch as soon as the interview team’s feedback is complete, but I am always happy to answer your questions in the meantime.

Thanks and have an outstanding day!

Yours,
[X]

This simple email made a positive difference in the candidate’s interview experience.

The stronger the candidate, the stronger the expectations. Make sure you are using a recruiter that builds a strong communication system with your candidates.

Jeff King of RQ Focus follows through with each candidate to make sure you know how the he or she feels about your company and opportunity, and helps you prepare an offer for your chosen candidate that is fair and will be accepted. His professional methodologies help ensure that you hire the highest-quality candidate.



How to Prepare for a New Hire

New Hire at Company

The time between accepting an offer and the end of the first week on the new job can be an emotional time for a new hire.  During this period your new employee will feel disconnected from the job they had, and uncertain about what lies ahead.  This makes them extremely vulnerable to a counter offer.  There are a few steps that you can take to make them feel welcome and confirm to them they have made the right decision.

Once your offer letter has been signed and returned to you, you need to start preparing to bring your new employee on board. These are small actions on your part, but have a huge, positive impact on a new hire. The suggested steps are:

  1. Send a Welcome Package – This would include any company promotional material, an employee handbook, benefits package, etc.
  2. Notify Payroll of the new employee so there is no delay in them getting paid.
  3. Notify Security (if applicable) to get the process of providing them with a security/I.D. badge underway.
  4. Create an Email and Voicemail account for them along with instructions on how to change their password.
  5. Office Announcements – Let the rest of the team know about the new employee and include their new phone number and email address. A nice touch would be to have the team send them a welcome email or voice mail.
  6. Introductory Lunch – Within the first few days on the job, arrange for a lunch with the new employee and the rest of the department or key people they will interact with. This too helps them settle in quickly and start feeling like part of the team.
  7. Industry Announcement (if applicable)
  8. Start the enrollment process for health and other benefit programs.
  9. Allocate a Work Space. Make sure they have a desk (cleaned out) and computer (preferably loaded and configured) on the day they start. There is nothing worse than showing up to your new job excited about getting going only to find that you had been forgotten about, and not planned for. Having a place ready for them lets them know you are happy they have joined your team, and allows them to get settled in and become productive much faster.
  10. Order Business Cards and Office Name Plates. Again, a simple touch, but it tells the new employee you’re glad they have joined your team.

 

Once your new employee knows you have gone to the trouble to make them feel welcome, they are much more confident they have made the right choice and feel ready to start this next step in their career. It also makes your job easier because you know you are ready for your new team member to begin without having to do a last minute dash. I hope this list is helpful and makes this process as smooth as possible for you.