Article: Retaining talent: Candidate experience will make all the difference

Talent Acquisition

Retaining talent: Candidate experience will make all the difference

Right from the way a prospective employee is approached till the time s/he is onboard, organisations should look at evolving their candidate experience to attract and retain the right talent – it helps in company profitability and also productive employees
Retaining talent: Candidate experience will make all the difference

Taking a sip of the coffee in a cold morning, Anjali tells her husband about the experience she went through during an interview process at an IT company. She mentions how the company paid so much of attention to her starting from the first touch point of connect to offer release.  At every stage, she was made to feel at ease.  The overall experience from call to connect, docket to schedule, interview to clarity on work profile, welcome to hosting snacks; everything made her feel comfortable.  She is convinced that this is the company where she can work diligently as it provides her the culture she is looking for – a culture of openness and respect. She decided to take the offer. She received a nice Thank You Card to her signed by CEO and HR Head at her residence post acceptance of the offer. 

So what makes the company stand out for employees like Anjali?

  • A personal meeting with Hiring Manager within 2 weeks of accepting the offer

  • Handing over a small souvenir (A company embossed coffee mug and writing pad) 

  • Hiring Manager to have two calls during the notice period to provide updates on project and plans around the role for which the new employee has been hired

  • Recruiter will have weekly call to check if the employee is looking for specific help; also provide with company updates to keep the worker informed about what is happening in the company

  • HR to work in background to ensure everything is put in place to welcome the new recruit on Day 1 of joining including workstation allocation, laptop and netlogin creation, access and ID card etc. 

What Prospective Employees really want?

Recruitment today has to start creating an experience and engagement at every touch point of the candidate’s interaction.  The impression of the organisation is primarily built through these connect experiences. Recruiters and hiring managers have a big role to play in the process.  They need to create hopes and excitement in the minds of candidates about the company.  According to a recent Glassdoor survey, 89% job seekers value the employer's perspective during the application process. In other words, they want to hear why you think your company is a great place to work.

Employees are the assets of any industry. Amid options to join many organisations, the key to attracting and retaining employees is the experience an organisation creates at every stage in the hiring process. Other than a good work and compensation, it is the experience which brings the emotional connect with the organisation.  This experience also helps in reducing attrition which is plaguing the industry today.

Other Important Hiring Trends 

Increased pressure on backfilling positions in short time accounting for recent trends in increased offer decline, and strict notice period release from exiting company, hiring right talent in the shortest time frame has made the overall hiring process a big challenge.  The conventional way of hiring will not be scalable in case organisations have to reach out to right talent and expedite the overall hiring process keeping in view time and quality of the resources in mind.  Other than providing a best-of-experiences at every stages of hiring, some other important hiring trends will continue to act as differentiators in the overall hiring process–

  1. Leveraging Social Hiring Process: Social hiring process consumes time initially but it has a lot of positive results in the long run.  It can be a successful tool of hiring if there is a right mindset of hiring and also when a right process is adopted.  Ability to understand and use the correct Boolean operators and Google strings is very essential. This increases the reach-out to profiles much faster than any other process.  LinkedIn, Facebook and even Twitter are good platforms to reach out to candidates.  The advantage of Social Media is that it provides an opportunity to reach out to passive job seekers who can be lured towards job opportunities. This is the most cost effective process of hiring.

  2. Technical Collaborative Platforms: Another important forum which must be leveraged for potential hiring perspective is technical collaborative platforms.  Companies can host technical events, gamification, hackathons etc in such forums where technical experts from across the Industry can participate.  It provides a great opportunity for organisations to build and connect with participants and explore their possibility as potential employees. It’s a slower process, requiring considerable investments in money and time but companies which are looking for quality talent will find this a worthy investment.

  3. Profiling Based Hiring: Hiring is an art.  As a hiring manager or recruiter, it is important to understand the overall environment and people of the person being interviewed. This helps in identifying potential candidates who may not be active in job portals but can be contacted either through social media connects or through references.  This is a powerful approach and also helps in expediting the overall hiring process.

  4. Making Recruiters accountable to hiring: Bringing a sales-based approach to recruitment will become popular in the Industry.  Incentive based compensation where higher share of compensation will be incentive driven with opportunity to double the salary will surely bring a lot of competitiveness and result orientation in the overall recruitment function.

Recruitment is an engine to business.  This engine needs to not only run fast and help an organisation reach its destination in the shortest time frame but it also needs to bring a lot of efficiency to the journey. Also, it has to be an experience for its stakeholders to remain effective.  Recruitment today is a truly business function. 

 

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, Recruitment, #TAWeek

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