The average candidate drop-off is 37%, according to our research.
Finding the right candidate for a job is a tough task, but it's only half the battle. Building a relationship with your potential employee and making them feel valued throughout the entire hiring process is critical. An occasional email or phone call won't cut it.
But that’s easier said than done. Recruiters are busy, and following up with hundreds of candidates is not an easy feat. Thankfully, recruiting automation tools can help recruiters build successful talent nurture campaigns and avoid candidate ghosting and drop-offs.
In this blog post, I’m particularly exploring actionable strategies for candidate management and nurturing them throughout the recruiting process using automation.
Candidate management is the process of building deep candidate relationships with your talent pool and nudging candidates through the hiring funnel. You can nurture candidates while delivering a positive candidate experience with consistent communication and engaging personalized content.
What does all this add up to? Effective candidate nurturing positively impacts your bottom line and results in better ROI on your Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Look out for these core hiring metrics:
Time-to-hire: Candidate management and nurturing helps to reduce the time-to-hire by keeping candidates engaged throughout the recruitment process.
Cost-per-hire: Effective candidate management and nurturing reduces drop-offs, and helps engage passive candidates already in your database, reducing cost-per-hire and improving your ROI.
Offer acceptance rate: Building relationships with potential employees improves the offer acceptance rate.
Retention rate: Personalized experiences make candidates feel valued and improve retention rate.
Today’s most successful talent acquisition teams quickly progress candidates through each stage — and keep them engaged along the way. Let’s explore key stages in the talent lifecycle and how you can effectively nurture candidates throughout.
Candidates are applying to 12 jobs at once under the assumption that most won’t respond to their applications and the ones that do will take weeks to get back to them. Respond quickly and keep applicants interested throughout the interview process, by sharing insight into the day-to-day responsibilities and tasks, team culture, and more.
Here are some tips to nurture candidates at this stage:
Explore our ready-to-use interview appointment confirmation email templates
Pre-hires have accepted a job offer but have not yet started working. Some may use your offer to negotiate a higher salary with their current employer or other companies. Others may second-guess their decision and decide to stay where they are comfortable. This stage is a significant drop-off point in the talent lifecycle.
Here are some tips to continuously engage with potential candidates in this stage to ensure they do not drop off:
You should continue nurturing your new employees to ensure they’re happy and have the resources needed to succeed in their new roles. This boosts retention rates and enhances the chances of generating referrals from your employees.
Here’s an example of a typical automated workflow you can implement to keep your employees engaged:
Explore our detailed guide to implementing automated talent journeys.
Feedback surveys are an essential part of candidate nurturing, as they show that you care about the candidate's experience and are committed to continuous improvement. Candidates are evaluating your company just as much as you are evaluating them, so it's crucial to show them that you value their feedback.
Annual NPS surveys may not be enough to demonstrate your brand's commitment to candidates, but it can provide valuable insights into what's working and what's not in your recruitment process. Using an automated message that acknowledges the candidate's time and emphasizes the value of their feedback can encourage more candid responses.
Read more about collecting candidate feedback and NPS surveys
Effective candidate relationship management and nurturing require a holistic approach that spans the entire talent lifecycle. Want to upgrade your candidate management system and create positive candidate experiences? Explore our Definitive Guide to Talent Engagement for actionable tips and strategies.
