Struggling to Get Applicants? Why You Need to Examine Your Hiring Process and How Long It Takes to Hear Back

Like many employers, you may be having difficulty filling your job openings. One of the reasons may be that you take too long to respond to candidates.

Regular follow-up throughout your hiring process is important. This may include letting candidates know you received their application, would like to schedule an interview or are considering offering them a job. It also involves what the next steps in the process are and when the candidate should expect to hear from you.

Discover why regular communication throughout your hiring process is an effective way to hire the best applicants.

Respect

Responding to each candidate shows you respect their time. Applying for a job takes a significant amount of research and decision-making. Expressing interest in working for your company says a great deal about your organization. Showing appreciation is important.

Realistically, you may be unable to personally respond to each candidate. As a result, you might want to automate your responses with your applicant tracking system (ATS). This helps provide a positive candidate experience.

Candidate Engagement

Top candidates have many employment options. Following up with them throughout your hiring process helps keep them engaged. This increases the odds that your best candidates will accept potential job offers from you.

Be sure to let each candidate know when they should expect to hear from you. Also, fulfill these expectations as much as possible. If you need to extend a timeframe, let each candidate know as soon as possible.

Candidate Experience

Effectively following up throughout your hiring process improves the candidate experience. This helps set your company apart from the competition. It also helps you hire more high-quality candidates.

Even if you’re not ready to provide a job offer, share with your most desirable candidates feedback on their interviews. This encourages them to want to work for your organization.

Talent Pipelines

The more you keep in contact with candidates, the more your talent pipelines remain filled. A candidate who has a positive experience with your company but isn’t offered a job may apply for a role in the future. They also might refer other candidates to your organization.

Employer Brand

Regular follow-up with each candidate enhances your employer brand. The more you communicate with candidates, the more positive your company’s reputation remains.

Many candidates post reviews on Glassdoor and other employer review sites. They’re likely to share positive reviews when you follow up on an ongoing basis. This encourages other candidates to apply to your organization.

Want Help Hiring?

If you’re not regularly following up with candidates, you may be having trouble filling your jobs. Ongoing communication with candidates promotes respect for their time, engagement in the hiring process, and a positive candidate experience. It also helps keep your talent pipeline full and your employer brand positive.

If you need help hiring, Casey Accounting & Finance Resources can match you with qualified candidates to fill your business needs. Learn more today.

Hire for Passion or Experience? Why You Need to Look at the Candidate Experience from the Other Side of the Table

It’s a candidate-driven market, which means more emphasis is being placed on the experience of the job candidate during the hiring process. A CareerBuilder survey revealed that “82 percent of employers believe there is little or no negative impact to a company when a candidate has a bad experience during the hiring process.” But this is not the case. Employees who have had a negative experience will quickly move onto a competitor and they may not ever consider your company again. Since job candidates have most of the leverage in today’s job search process, a bad experience in the hiring process will eliminate your company from consideration of the top talent you want to add to your organization.

One way to evaluate the experience of candidates is by going into their shoes and looking at it from a different angle. How can your company accomplish this?

From time to time, put yourself through the candidate application process. Does it seem complicated or too time consuming to fill out the application? Did you get an acknowledgment that you applied? How long until you actually get asked for an interview? These are all aspects that need to be evaluated on a regular basis if you want to focus on a positive candidate experience.

It’s easy to think your process works when you don’t have to go through it every day. If you don’t want to audit the process on your own and want to get a fresh perspective, ask someone in your organization who doesn’t directly work with the job candidate experience. You also could ask trusted colleagues, friends or other connections for their honest feedback.

Evaluate whether your company has had better success with hiring for passion vs. experience. In the past, there have been hires that have done outstanding based on either factor. Now is the time to see how they are doing. Are the people who were hired for passion still as enthusiastic about their jobs? Did the people who brought a lot of industry knowledge to the workplace stick around? Consider the time you or your company had to invest in getting the passionate new hires up to speed to complete the job responsibilities. With the experienced job candidates, did they meet the cultural fit of your organization or did a resume-based hire fall flat?

Interviews can be a valuable source of information too. They are often the first contact that candidates have with your company. In today’s climate, candidates are very eager to share their experience on company review websites like Glassdoor, or even on Google or Facebook. How are candidates rating their experience with interviews? Are they being challenged by the interview process or is it too predictable? Do they get an accurate image of the organization to help them make the best decision possible if they receive a job offer from your company? Or are they still confused about the job duties, culture and other factors?

From the side of the table that candidates sit behind, they are evaluating your company every step of the way. Be sure that your hiring practices meet their expectations and approval by putting yourself in their shoes once in a while.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, leaders in financial staffing in Chicago, will recruit and provide the accounting and finance staff your company needs. Contact our award-winning team of recruiters today to get started on finding the top talent your organization wants to add.

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