It’s no secret that the recruitment process can be, at times, lengthly and cumbersome for a variety of reasons. As a developing business, hiring the right candidates is a crucial process, and one that significantly impacts upon your success. But, with the recruitment process often dragging out, how can candidate engagement be consistently maintained?

Webrecruit Ireland has highlighted 5 ways that recruitment companies can keep candidates engaged, right up until the first day of their new job

Give feedback

Providing candidates with feedback is a vital step in securing candidate engagement. You must be honest and let candidates know what areas they should work on in order to improve. When delivering feedback, it’s important to be constructive rather than negative and to ensure you talk about their strengths. Focus on why their interview was good, but advise them on how they could make it really excellent.

Understand their motivation to apply

It’s important to know why a candidate is applying for a job. If they are still in employment, for example, try to grasp why they want to leave their current employer. Are they looking for a new role because they feel there is a lack of progression in their current job? If so, this would be an ideal time to discuss your business’ personal development plan.

Make sure you can be reached

Being highly responsive to candidates is essential. It sounds simple, but you must ensure candidate’ emails and phone calls are replied to in a timely and thorough manner. This creates a positive impression of your business and shows that you are highly organised, and interested in your candidate’s needs.

Give out the right information

When making contact directly with candidates, you can also send the full job description. It’s likely that – up until this point – they’ve only seen the job advert. The description gives them a comprehensive overview of what that particular job entails and how they could best apply their skillset.

Make sure candidates feel at ease

Settling candidates’ nerves during the application and interview process is a must. A professional approach is crucial, but be mindful that candidates will be nervous and trying your best to speak to them in a relaxed manner will make them feel at ease and bring out the best in them.

It’s important to remember that keeping candidates engaged doesn’t just stop when they get the job. Hold regular performance reviews and ensure that they are settling in well. Retaining talent is just as important, if not more important, as attracting it in the first place.