First message
When we start looking for the right person for our position, it’s the first message that gives us a chance to start a relationship with a potential candidate. It depends on the content of the first message whether the person will write us back and will be interested in talking to us, or will ignore it as just another spam in their inbox 😉 We, recruiters, are well aware that IT candidates may receive even several offers a day. However, they decide to respond only to those they find most interesting or most relevant to them. So what can we do to make sure that our message gets a positive response from the candidate?
We should certainly ensure that the message is personalised.
After screening a candidate’s profile, we know what caught our attention, what makes the candidate stand out from other people and what tempted us to write the message. Let’s communicate this to our recipient. Some candidates tell us directly what offers they want and expect, such as 100% remote offers, specific tech stack or location. Don’t ignore this information; on the contrary, address it.
In this way, we show our commitment and attentiveness from the very beginning of the contact, which fosters the building of long-term relationships.
It’s worth considering what in a given offer might be most interesting for a potential candidate and how the company for which we are recruiting can stand out from the competition. Wrapping it up in a short and interesting title may contribute to opening the message. At this point, creativity is most welcome!
The next part is to present the job offer in an attractive and concise way. Let’s focus on the most important things from the candidate’s perspective and write about them. At the end of our message, it’s a good idea to use a “call to action”. This is a marketing term that encourages people to do something. In our case, we want to have a conversation with the candidate so that we can get to know their situation and job preferences better.
So ask questions about your preferred date for the interview or suggest one yourself so that the recipient can refer to it.
Try to have interviews with candidates as soon as possible. It is through interviews that we are able to learn the most about technologies and the work that people in IT do on a daily basis. But don’t forget to be as prepared and professional as possible when conducting interviews.
Response time
Another important element affecting candidate relations is time in recruitment in the broadest sense. Our industry is very dynamic and time plays a crucial role here. The candidate should not wait long for our reply to the message, because such an attitude can discourage him/her from our recruitment at the very beginning. Delaying the presentation of a candidate may result in the project no longer being relevant, which may lead to justified disappointment with our action. We should also act quickly when arranging recruitment interviews and collecting feedback. Let the best interests of the candidate guide us in all our actions.
By gathering feedback from the candidate immediately after their interview with the hiring manager, we can assess the candidate’s attitude, impressions and concerns, if any arise.
Vigilance and assistance on our part in dispelling these doubts will certainly contribute to greater trust in our work. The employment offer stage itself is the moment everyone is waiting for. It is also extremely important for the candidate. He may receive several offers at one time and have little time to choose the best one and make a decision. Stay in touch and offer support.
Feedback
How can feedback help us to build relationships with candidates? Feedback will benefit the candidate’s involvement in the selection process, while its absence will have a demotivating effect.
So even if we don’t have feedback from a client or hiring manager, let’s keep in touch with our candidates so they know where we stand in the process and that we’re keeping our eye on it.
In recruitment, as in life, sometimes we have good news and sometimes not so good news. The good news is relatively easy to give because it’s a pleasure to tell a candidate that he or she did very well at the interview. But what about negative feedback? Here the situation is a little more complicated, but the important thing is to communicate honestly and prepare well for the interview. It’s good to have the goal of the feedback in front of you – you want to support the candidate and give them tips that can help them succeed in the next process and get an offer in the future. I asked an experienced recruiter from my team, Ania Szymczyk, to comment on feedback:
„Feedback is not an easy tool, even if it seems that way. However, providing feedback to candidates is an integral part of our work. Sincere feedback is appreciated by everyone and given appropriately it can strengthen our relationship with candidates. Feedback should not in any way hurt the feelings or personality of the candidate but should relate to specific facts and skills. It’s always good to look for the positives and what value the candidate can derive from the information we provide.”
So if we give negative feedback in the right way, we are able to encourage the candidate and point out areas for professional development. Most people will be grateful for this and will see the value in it. We are also likely to leave a good impression and have a good relationship with the candidate for the future, despite the lack of success in the recruitment process.
Advice and support
Our candidate may be an outstanding developer, consultant, engineer or business analyst, but they don’t have to know much about recruitment.
We are the ones who operate in this area and it is worth providing support to advise the candidate on their CV or how to set financial expectations. Once we have recommended a candidate to a client and made an appointment for the technical stage, our support is all the more important. Let’s stay in touch, let’s advise on how best to prepare for interviews, if only in terms of technologies to focus on or refresh a bit.
Using our experience, we can help the candidate avoid many of the mistakes that sometimes disqualify even the most talented individuals.
Frequent contact strengthens our relationship with the candidate, and by offering help in getting a new job, we gain his trust. He is able to open up to us more, he can tell us about his doubts related to a particular position and about other potential offers. This stage can also be crucial in building our personal brand. Contrary to appearances, the IT market is not that big and I think each of us would like to be a recruiter who will be recommended by industry professionals.
In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is easy to get into a routine, but let us not forget that on the other side is the person who gave us their precious time.
Placement is not the end
It would seem that once our candidate is successfully hired, the relationship ends. But should it be that way? “Placement” is the culmination of our work and the candidate’s struggle throughout the recruitment process. It is probably the most pleasant moment and the moment when, with our help, the candidate changes or gets a new job. It’s also a good time to ask how it was working with us, at which stage our support proved most important. Would he recommend us as a recruiter to his friend who wants to change jobs?
You can also ask them to recommend you, for example on their LinkedIn profile, and to recommend other candidates to work for our client if we have more open vacancies.
Translation:
Good morning, I have been meaning to text you for a long time and I did it! 🙂
I have dealt with many recruiters in my career. In 90% of cases it was nice, but only during the first call/email and nobody bothered to contact me after the candidate was passed on to the company.
In short, you were the nicest and most professional recruiter I have ever dealt with 🙂
I was very pleased to receive phone calls from you (although I wasn’t always able to pick up :-))
You can easily do trainings/courses for HR people, because they have a lot to learn 🙂
Thank you once again and have a nice day 🙂At Team Up, we collect kind messages from candidates that remind us in difficult moments why it is important to be in this profession! Pictured is an example of such a message, which shows the effect of caring about a candidate’s welfare in the process! ❤
I believe that our participation in the recruitment process should not end with the acceptance of the offer by our IT specialist. It’s worth keeping in touch during the notice period and calling after the first two weeks after the start to find out about your impressions of the new workplace. I think most of us would be pleased with that if we were in the candidate’s shoes.
We too can gain new information about the team, the work culture, the scope of responsibilities, which may prove helpful in case of future recruitment to this team.
With trust built it will be easier for the candidate to tell you about concerns or problems that may arise.
To sum up, in recruitment it is worth betting on lasting and sincere relations with candidates. Such actions pay off in successful recruitments and strengthen our brand on the market. I encourage you to review your candidate nurturing process and consider which elements can be changed to positively impact the relationships you build. If your nurturing process is already very good, but the main difficulty in IT recruitment for you is the complicated language of technical terms, then I invite you to read my teammate’s post!
