As a Connecticut employer, providing a positive candidate experience is essential. Without an exceptional candidate experience, connecting with top talent is far more challenging. As a result, recruitment struggles can develop, resulting in ongoing issues with skill gaps or worker shortages.
By embracing the right approaches, you can boost your candidate experience with ease. If you aren’t sure where to begin, here are some critical steps to take.
Develop a Compelling Employer Brand
Having a compelling employer brand doesn’t just boost your recruitment efforts; it can also improve the candidate experience. Your brand showcases what you have to offer employees, demonstrating your commitment to giving as much as you get.
Since you can’t strengthen your employer value proposition effectively without follow-through, it shows job seekers that you genuinely care about their needs. Then, by discussing it openly in job ads, you’re highlighting your understanding that it isn’t all about you; it’s about your employees, too.
Conduct Skills Assessments Early On
Skills assessments are potent tools that can help you determine whether a candidate can reasonably handle the responsibilities associated with a role. While most job seekers are open to participating, when you ask them to do so matters.
Requesting interviews first and then moving on to skill assessments isn’t ideal. You are effectively asking candidates who won’t pass the skills assessment to commit more time to the process incidentally. Plus, if the initial interview went well and they are later eliminated from contention due to a test, they may view the experience more negatively overall.
Instead, use skills assessments as an early screening step. This ensures candidates that aren’t able to pass spend less overall time in your process, which makes the experience better for those who are eliminated. Plus, it allows you to focus interview time on job seekers who have the right capabilities, making it a win-win.
Make Communication a Priority
One of the most frustrating aspects of a job search for candidates is a lack of communication after applying. It isn’t uncommon for companies to rely on automated confirmations that an application was received and offer little more than that beyond that point, particularly among job seekers that aren’t selected for interviews or further assessment.
Leaving candidates hanging not only harms the experience but it damages engagement. In some cases, a lack of a response may even cause job seekers to not consider future openings with your company, mainly because they view no communication as a sign of disrespect of the assumption that the employer doesn’t value them enough to reply.
While you don’t need to call every applicant, make sure to incorporate personalized communications throughout the process. Let job seekers know when the hiring process advances, if they’re removed from contention, or if there are unexpected delays. These simple contacts make them feel in the loop and valued, leading to a better candidate experience regardless of the selection outcomes.
Use an Experienced, Local Recruiter
When you need to boost your candidate experience, using a local Connecticut recruiting company is often the best option. You’ll be working with recruitment professionals who know what it takes to ensure candidate engagement. Plus, they prioritize communication, ensuring every job seeker feels seen and valued.
Additionally, local recruiters can help you find strong matches in less time. Along with maintaining a carefully cultivated talent pool of active and passive job seekers, recruitment professionals know how to find in-demand candidates for hard-to-fill positions.
If you are looking to attract and retain top talent in Connecticut, partner with the staffing and recruiting experts at A.R. Mazzotta. Contact us to get started today.